****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Organizations have strong tendencies not to change, but when they do, what are their limitations? Herbert Kaufman lays out the obstacles to and tendencies of change in organizations and addresses organizational survival and death. Kaufmans' argument is clear, change in organizations is a volatile and risky endeavor, because attempts such as reorganization, for example, can upset the informal system (53), and often `stimulates its own limiting forces (76).' Further, change can restrict other organizational features. For example, outside resources make organizations dependent on external forces. The way Kaufman describes change in organizations is almost like a rubics' cube. While trying to make one side one particular color, the other sides of the cube gets' disrupted. Unlike in his earlier book "The Forest Ranger" organizational forces no longer seem centrifugal, but more like a forest clean-up with trip wires. When the equilibrium of the organization is altered, it should be expected that something else is going to be affected. Luckily, all of the latter does not seem so vague in the book. Kaufman is able to guide the reader to what would predictively change when altering the organization, as well as strategies to help the organization cope with that change. In this book, Kaufman separates the organizational system with the internal humanistic problems. Parralleling the logic of organizational theorist Robert Merton (1957)organizational systems and individuals are not mutually exclusive. However, in this book Kaufman does separate the two to a certain extent. Maybe this was a strategic approach to make the book easier to read. Kaufmans' book is highly theoretical and stands on its own logic if the underlying theories by other organizational theorist presented are not known to the reader. Again, the way Kaufman describes change in organizations is almost like a rubics' cube. While trying to make one side one particular color, the three other sides of the cube gets' disrupted. But describing what a puzzle looks like is different than putting it together. Kaufman offers the strategies to do so through this book. Kaufman elaborates why organizational forces are not centrifugal. Overall, a good read.
