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Competitive Advantage Through Diversity: Organizational Learning from Difference

Competitive Advantage Through Diversity: Organizational Learning from Difference

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  • Used

    Paperback 1994

    $3.21
Synopsis

How can organizations foster the innovation and learning so central to their survival and success? This stimulating and accessible book argues that effective organization is the process of collaborative learning - drawing on and developing the capacity of every member of an organization to 'know beyond' existing parameters and experience. In this context organizational diversity is not a disadvantage to be overcome but a key resource facilitating creativity and learning. Part One focuses on people. It explores the range of contributions and knowledge that different individuals and groups bring to organizations and the importance of appreciating and working with diversity. The second part is concerned with joint practice. Innovation will only occur when diverse individuals work successfully in teams and can learn from the results of their actions. The principles of effective team working are examined including the interaction of context, tasks, team roles and processes. Finally, the authors consider knowing and learning as organizational process. They present their model of this process including the role of information technology.They also address the crucial need to encourage individual development, and to create conditions within which learning and innovation can flourish throughout an organization.

$3.21

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 240
 Edition: illustrated edition
 Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
Published: 29 Nov 1994
ISBN 10: 0803988850
ISBN 13: 9780803988859

Media Reviews
`The reviewer assumed that what would follow this polished intial presentation [appearance and layout of the book] would reveal, upon reading, another pop culture book about organizations. However, it soon became clear that the book was much more than that. It continues to make excellent use of layout to emphasize points.... The intent of the authors is to communicatie their message, and they do it very well. Language is used to clarify, communicate and teach, and not to obfuscate. They make their message clear, and encompassable. They indicate that organizations must innovate, or perish.... The authors lay out ten proposititons, the core of their argument, on how people learn in the work environment to come. The first, and one that is pervasive throughout the book, is based on what they desrcribe as knowing beyond or going beyond the evidence to imagine what might be done. This, they indicate, already is more important than knowing how , which is the capacity to solve problems in the light of past experience. Their propositions are not new, and the authors point out that many already are articles of faith among human human resource professionals. However, many of the management methods and movements popular in recent years are incompatible with one or more of these propositions. So while their propositions are nothing new, their implications for practice very well may be. They really present organizationsl verities with which social workers easily could identify, and then discuss how to put them into operation' - Social Work Groups

`This book provides interesting reading as well as useful insights into managing by using all the human resources in an organisation and helping people to learn how to continuously improve and develop. Based on a solid foundation of research... the authors describe why diversity needs to be recognised as a positive and significant factor in an organisation.... A thought-provoking book which will be of interest to anyone concerned with innovation and organisational learning' - Journal of Managerial Psychology

`This book will be essential learning for students and professional in human resource and personnel management, organizational psychology, and organizational change and development, and for those concerned with issues of organizational learning and innovation' - European Foundation for Management Development

`One of the strengths of the book is its stress on knowledge and organisations as processes' - Work, Employment and Society

`The book is readable and well organized.... I recommend this book to human resource professionals who are interested in bringing change to their organizations. This book's broader perspective on diversity provides insights that can lead the thoughtful reader toward innovative approaches to recruiting and training organizational members' - Personnel Psychology

`This is a useful book for someone new to the topics of women in management or gender studies in management . It includes a useful literature review in the first section which includes early studies and the development of theoretical ideas on gender and organization. Also, the repetition of facts and the reiteration of ideas from the body to the summary of a chapter and even to subsequent chapters, although irritating, might be valuable for a new reader to the field, or one who only has the time to dip into a single chapter' - Organization Studies