Diagnosis for Organizational Change or Mandarins of the Future

Diagnosis for Organizational Change: Methods and Models

Author: Ann Howard

Organizational diagnosis produces the road maps that guide and direct organizational change interventions. To generate better understanding and appreciation of the diagnostic process, this unique volume illustrates methods and models used by prominent behavioral science practitioners; demonstrates the breadth and complexity of the process, initiated from individual, group, and organizational levels; and explores a more integrated approach to diagnosis suited to an era of sweeping organizational change. The book approaches organizational diagnosis from three different perspectives: (1) macro views of organizations, (2) contributions of individuals, and (3) management and motivation in the high-involvement workplace. The practitioner as diagnostic instrument looks down from the pinnacles of leadership, while the personnel-centered diagnostician views groups of individuals as mirrors of the organization's nature and style. Diagnostic models for organization development and emerging organizational firms set the stage for diagnosing cultures for realignment and designing effective reward systems. The broadening focus of training needs assessment and strategic methods for addressing future staff requirements place the spotlight on human talent, while diagnostic issues for work teams emphasize the growing importance of groups. The assembled authors - all experienced, sophisticated human resources practitioners - describe actual experiences of both the process and content of organizational diagnosis and illustrate their accounts with practical case examples. In the conclusion of the volume, the authors collaborate to consider how behavioral science practitioners can advance toward the integration of organizational diagnosis. This volume is an essential resource and guide for all human resources professionals, as well as for students in organizational and industrial psychology, organizational behavior, human resources management, and related fields, and for managers see

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Organizational diagnosis produces the road maps that guide and direct organizational change interventions. To generate better understanding and appreciation of the diagnostic process, this volume illustrates methods and models used by prominent behavioral science practitioners; demonstrates the breadth and complexity of the process, initiated from individual, group, and organizational levels; and explores a more integrated approach to diagnosis suited to an era of sweeping organizational change. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

See also: Culinary Secrets or Authentic Recipes of Thailand

Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America

Author: Nils Gilman

Because it provided the dominant framework for "development" of poor, postcolonial countries, modernization theory ranks among the most important constructs of twentieth-century social science. In Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America Nils Gilman offers the first intellectual history of a movement that has had far-reaching and often unintended consequences.

After a survey of the theory's origins and its role in forming America's postwar sense of global mission, Gilman offers a close analysis of the people who did the most to promote it in the United States and the academic institutions they came to dominate. He first explains how Talcott Parsons at Harvard constructed a social theory that challenged the prevailing economics-centered understanding of the modernization process, then describes the work of Edward Shils and Gabriel Almond in helping Parsonsian ideas triumph over other alternative conceptions of the development process, and finally discusses the role of Walt Rostow and his colleagues at M.I.T. in promoting modernization theory during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. By connecting modernization theory to the welfare state liberalism programs of the New Deal order, Gilman not only provides a new intellectual context for America's Third World during the Cold War, but also connects the optimism of the Great Society to the notion that American power and good intentions could stop the postcolonial world from embracing communism.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
1	Modernization Theory and American Modernism	1
2	From the European Past to the American Present	24
3	The Harvard Department of Social Relations and the Intellectual Origins of Modernization Theory	72
4	The Rise of Modernization Theory in Political Science: The SSRC's Committee on Comparative Politics	113
5	Modernization Theory as a Foreign Policy Doctrine: The MIT Center for International Studies	155
6	The Collapse of Modernization Theory	203
7	The Postmodern Turn and the Aftermath of Modernization Theory	241
	Notes	277
	Essay on Sources	313
	Index	321