BOOKS
-
The Matrix Organization Reloaded: Adventures in Team and Project Management - Managing Group Process
- Getting Things Done in Today's Organizations: The Influencing Executive
- Interview
- Making Deals: The Business of Negotiating
- Managing the Workplace Survivors: Organizational Downsizing and the Commitment Gap
The Matrix Organization Reloaded: Adventures in
Team and Project Management
Marvin R. Gottlieb.(Westport, CT: Greenwood
Publishers, 2007)
192 pages. Hard Cover. ISBN 0-275-99133-4.
Order from:
Greenwood Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6926, Portsmouth, NH, 3802-6926
www.greenwood.com
Tel (800) 225-5800
The term "matrix management" was introduced in the 1970s in the
context of competition from Japanese manufacturers, computerization of
many technical and administrative tasks, and a recognition among
business leaders that cross-functional teams (comprised of people from
different departments and specialties) were necessary to create and
produce complex products rapidly.
Ideally, this approach, in which people are assigned to projects, rather than department managers, encourages collaboration, flexibility, and knowledge sharing; but in reality, it can often cause confusion, friction, and excessive bureaucracy. This strategy fell out of fashion in the 1990s, but has resurfaced in a much wider array of companies today, as the pressure to innovate on ever-faster schedules encourages experimentation in organizational design.
Marvin Gottlieb, who has studied and applied the principles of matrix management for over 25 years, takes us on a tour of this phenomenon--its evolution, current practices, and future applications. He argues that most organizations are taking on characteristics of matrix structure, with fluid teams and "dotted-line" reporting relationships across departments and divisions.
Featuring case studies of successes and failures, he shows readers how to harness the power of the matrix structure while minimizing the conflict, disorientation, and resistance that often accompany the approach. In an environment where every company--large or small, entrepreneurial or established--is wrestling with the question of how to organize for maximum performance in a harshly competitive world, this book will give leaders and managers valuable insights and tools for promoting cultures that reward creativity and teamwork while maintaining strong leadership and accountability.
Managing Group
Process
Marvin R. Gottlieb. (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers,
2003.)
233 pages, Hard cover. ISBN 1-5620-511-9.
Order from:
Greenwood Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6926, Portsmouth, NH, 3802-6926
www.greenwood.com
Tel (800) 225-5800
Aimed at front-line and senior managers faced with ongoing
reorganization and an increasingly reluctant workforce, this book
examines what it takes to facilitate problem solving, decision-making,
and workforce retention and commitment.
Gottlieb explains that managers can most effectively facilitate by adopting a hands-on strategy for processes rather than tasks. This book describes the skills and tools needed for leading and managing groups with consistency, commitment, and courage. Six core skills essential to facilitating group processes are presented:
- Initiating
- Questioning
- Active Listening
- Responding
- Resolving
- Closing/ Committing
Gottlieb discusses the most helpful tools a manger can use for facilitation, including planning, organizing, an directing group processes. He provides ethical guidelines in conjunction with a discussion of the manager's role in the facilitation process.
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Getting Things
Done in Today's Organizations: The Influencing Executive
Marvin R. Gottlieb. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1999.
240 pages. Hard cover. ISBN 1-56720-214-4.
$59.95.
Order from: Quorum Books,
88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881.
www.greenwood.com
Tel (800)225-5800/(203)226-3571; Fax:(203)222-1502
Getting Things Done in Today's Organizations: The Influencing
Executive is aimed at front-line, middle, and senior level managers,
training, and other human resource professionals who need the
cooperation of others in order to get their jobs done. It presents
strategies and action plans for increasing their likelihood of getting
their way.
Most executives at all levels have experienced significant changes in their organizations during the last several years. Mergers, acquisitions, reengineering, downsizing, and the like have reshaped lines of authority and relationships among individuals in the organizational structure. Along with these changes and reorganizations there has developed a variety of approaches to getting work done that are both non-traditional and non-hierarchical in structure. Matrix or systems approaches have become more commonplace, and along with them the need to be able to influence others has become more urgent in order to complete the necessary tasks and responsibilities.
Influence vs. Power
The term influence as it is presented in this book is so often confused with or used as a synonym for power that most articles that appear in business periodicals and academic journals are primarily about power and provide little or no insight into influencing as a separate behavior. This book focuses on differentiating influence from power and develops a three-part model of behaviors associated with influence. Using the best research available done by the author and others, the book shows how these behaviors can be acquired and adapted to improve a manager's effectiveness at gaining compliance in a variety of business situations.
Getting Things Done in Today's Organizations:
- Defines the critical role of influence as a means of accomplishing goals in today's reengineered organization.
- Helps the reader understand how to differentiate influence from power as a motivational construct in contemporary organizations.
- Outlines the theoretical underpinnings of influence as a behavioral model.
- Develops a model of influencing behaviors and presents strategies and action plans for increasing the manager's likelihood of getting his or her way.
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Interview,
2nd ed., Marvin Gottlieb. (Greenwich, CT: The Communication Project,
Inc., 1998.)
200 pages. Soft cover. ISBN 0-9664133-1-8.
Single copy $30.00. Ten or
more copies $25.00 each.
Order direct from The Communication Project
Tel (505) 332-9244
Interview provides a clear and
comprehensive look at the full range of interview situations including:
- The basic research interview
- The employment interview
- The appraisal interview
- The journalistic interview
- Investigation and cross examination
- The persuasive (sales) interview
- The counseling interview
Beginning with a section on the general characteristics of interview from an interpersonal perspective, Dr. Gottlieb then discusses the seven interview situations in detail. Each chapter provides instructions to the interviewer and the interviewee on developing self-awareness, situation awareness, and strategic awareness during the interview process.
The book draws from actual interviews and published texts to demonstrate the principles and skills of becoming an active participant. Sales and employment interviews are handled in depth. The book develops subject matter inductively, starting with examples and drawing conclusions from them.
Interview has been used as a textbook in colleges and universities all over the U.S. and Canada. It is also a top choice for corporations as a centerpiece for their interviewing training programs.
Making Deals: The Business of Negotiating,
2nd ed.
Marvin Gottlieb and William J. Healy. Greenwich, CT: The Communication
Project, Inc., 1998.
194 pages. ISBN 0-9664133-0-X. Soft cover.
Single copy $30.00. Ten or more copies $25.00 each.
Order direct from The Communication Project
Tel (505) 332-9244
Read the book that makes the case for "win-win" negotiations and that
Executive Book Summaries selected as an Outstanding Book for Business
People.
Making Deals shows how to apply its problem-solving method to every type of deal-making situation, from negotiating contracts, leases, and professional services to buying or selling a business. It discusses eight key focus points, that, when mastered, can significantly improve your ability to put together deals:
- Identifying and initiating a deal
- Planning the deal
- Identifying the negotiating ranges of a deal
- The factors influencing the outcome
- Resolving conflicting issues
- Adopting an effective style to build a relationship with the other party
- Negotiating interculturally and internationally
- Selling as part of negotiating
BONUS 1:
Click here to open the table of
contents in a new window
BONUS 2:
Click here to open "12 Principles of Negotiation" in a new window
Managing the
Workplace Survivors: Organizational Downsizing and the Commitment Gap
Marvin R. Gottlieb and Lori Conkling. (Westport, CT: Quorum
Books, 1995)
248 pages. Hard cover. ISBN 0-89930-922-4. $59.95.
Order from: Quorum Books,
88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881.
www.greenwood.com
Tel (800)225-5800/(203)226-3571; Fax:(203)222-1502
Managing the Workplace Survivors:
Organizational Downsizing and the Commitment Gap is written for
managers and other staff professionals who are charged with the
responsibility of realigning the corporate culture and revitalizing
survivor employees.
The book helps managers and other organizational leaders understand the critical role they play in today's organization, and identifies specific strategies for increasing quality, productivity, and bottom-line profitability among survivor employees. Organizational leaders are challenged to construct dynamic strategies to empower, retain, and create incentive for the survivor employees, and to facilitate effective strategies to assure the entire organization's survival.
The book is divided into two major parts: "Gaining a Perspective" and "Developing a Survivor Strategy." "Gaining a Perspective" places more emphasis on who the survivors are, where they came from, and what is happening to them. It introduces the Survivor Management Model, which outlines an approach used successfully by the authors to help companies recommit and realign their survivors.
"Developing a Survivor Strategy" shifts more to recommendations about what to do with them. The Appendixes are a "Manager's Toolkit" that contain several instruments and exercises that have proved effective in implementing the Survivor Management Model.
BONUS: Click here to open a book review in a new window