This book brings together all of Rosabeth Moss Kanter's Harvard Business Review articles and many of the editorial columns that she wrote when she was editor of HBR. The pieces span a variety of topics: strategy, innovation, customer focus, global trends, planning for change, strategic alliances, compensation systems, and community responsibility--all brought together to enforce a "single, timeless message: the importance of treating people as assets, not costs, and providing the tools and conditions that liberate people to use their brainpower to make a difference."

Looking at the role of leadership in the era of globalization, scholars, consultants, and corporate executives address questions of scale, disorder, business management, locality, imperialism, public problems, the measure of success, and the authority of ideas. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Invest in the future, but meet your short-term goals. Support entrepreneurial risk-taking, but don't lose the company money. Streamline your operation, but make it a great place to work.
When Giants Learn to Dance is the first comprehensive business strategy book to address these and many other pressing challenges facing companies and careers today - an award-winning work that is sure to become the definitive guide to business success in the 1990s. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the renowned Harvard Business School professor who helped i

nject entrepreneurial dynamism into mainstream corporate America with her landmark 1983 best-seller The Change Masters, reveals how to swing past the dangers of both hierarchical stagnation and go-for-broke innovation - and waltz toward renewed success. And she tells you how to keep your career in step with corporate America's new and increasingly complex rhythms.
Based on a wide-ranging five-year study of scores of America's top companies, including Kodak, IBM, AT&T, Ford, and CBS, Professor Kanter shows how achieving fewer management levels, greater responsiveness to change, and an openness to strategic alliances can lead to a more dynamic corporate environment.
The new key to a fast-track career is a flexible package of skills and services that Professor Kanter details with authority and vison. Comprehensive and challenging, her blueprint for success is must reading for anyone in business who wants to stay competitive in the 1990s.

For a job seeker, the acceptance and good treatment of a minority worker is a question often pondered but not asked. Graham, who teaches at Fordham University and writes on issues of race, decided to ask that question of top corporations. He surveyed 625 public and private firms for this study; out of the 625, only 85 made the grade as having excellent records in minority recruitment and support. Graham describes these companies, listing the overall number of employees and specifying what percentage are minority and what percentage of minority employees are in management. He also discusses the companies' efforts in minority recruitment, career development, and issues of support. The book makes interesting reading not only for the minority job seeker but also for anyone interested in improving his or her organization's minority policies. Graham also includes 11 principles for responsible corporate diversity. A good choice for career or business collections.-- Joshua Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. System, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

In an era of increased global competition, of takeovers, downsizing, restructuring, and even outright failure, managing intelligent organizational change is the most difficult challenge facing business. Kanter, Stein, and Jick present here a comprehensive overview and an authoritative model for how to and, in some cases how not to, institute change in organizations.
Building upon their "Big Three" model of change, the authors focus on internal and external forces that set events in motion; the major kinds of change that correspond to external and internal change pressures; and the principal tasks involved in managing the change process. Several "portraits" of companies undergoing different types of change, coupled with the authors' own expert analyses, prove that no one person or group can make change "happen" alone. Instead, the authors assert that it is the delicate balance among key players that makes organizational change a success.
The authors analyze the forces for change by examining Banc One, Apple Computer, and Lehman Brothers, among others, to illustrate environmental and cyclical change as businesses grow. Then they turn to forms of change, drawing on the Western-Delta merger, strategy change at Bell Atlantic, and takeover turmoil at Lucky Stores, to show how companies change their structures and cultures. The section on execution of change shows "change masters," to use Kanter's own famous term, at work at Motorola, General Electric, and other leading firms, as well as the difficulties of implementing change at General Motors and Microswitch.
Fundamental organizational change, they argue, is exemplified by identity change, involving much morethan the transfer of tangible assets. Managing the feelings, fears, and hopes of people must be the central strategy during such transitions. In this essential volume for managers and analysts of change, Kanter, Stein, and Jick offer powerful insights, practical new directions for action, prospects for the future of deliberate organizational change, and advice on where to begin the change process, and when: NOW!

From the boardroom to the locker room to the living room—how winners become winners . . . and stay that way.Is success simply a matter of money and talent? Or is there another reason why some people and organizations always land on their feet, while others, equally talented, stumble again and again? There’s a fundamental principle at work—the vital but previously unexamined factor called confidence—that permits unexpected people to achieve high levels of performance through routines that activate talent.

In this landmark work on corporate power, especially as it relates to women, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the distinguished Harvard management thinker and consultant, shows how the careers and self-images of the managers, professionals, and executives, and also those of the secretaries, wives of managers, and women looking for a way up, are determined by the distribution of power and powerlessness within the corporation. This new edition of her award-winning book has a major new afterward in which the author reviews and analyzes how attitudes and practices within the corporate power structure have changed in the 1990s.

People and organizations at every stage of Internet sophistication face the same burning question: How should they change in order to succeed in a digital world?
Renowned thinker and business trailblazer Rosabeth Moss Kanter says answers will be found not in cyberspace but on the ground, where real people connect, collaborate, and form thriving human communities. In this eye-opening book, Kanter explores what she calls "e-culture"-a new way of living and working that will transform every aspect of today's organizations.
Kanter argues that networks of relationships, not just new technologies, permit speed and seamlessness, encourage creativity and collaboration, and release energy and brainpower-the "soul" of e-business. And every organization-from dotcoms to dotcom-enablers (technology and service providers) to wannadots (traditional companies struggling to embrace the Web)- must learn to build and foster them.
Based on a landmark project with rare on-site access, over 300 interviews, and a 785-company global survey, Evolve! provides a hands-on blueprint for adopting the core principles of e-culture: treat strategy as improvisational theater; nurture networks of partners; reconstruct organizations as online and offline "communities"; and attract and retain top talent.
With colorful and memorable stories, Kanter illuminates vast differences between older, more conservative companies and aggressive, born-digital dotcoms. She takes us deep inside evolving organizations-including IBM, eBay, Reuters, Sun Microsystems, Razorfish, Abuzz, Barnesandnoble.com, Williams-Sonoma, and pioneering public schools-to provide best practices frome-culture pacesetters and cautionary lessons from Internet laggards. Defining the skills leaders need to master change, she reveals how dotcoms and dotcom-enablers can grow fast while crafting a great culture, and how wannadots can benefit by becoming Web-enabled.

Sometimes it seems that Americans are divided in countless ways—red or blue; black, brown, or white; rich or poor; male or female. What happened to America as the land of freedom and openness? In America the Principled, renowned Harvard Business School professor and bestselling author Rosabeth Moss Kanter tackles the hardest questions our nation faces, and challenges us to recommit ourselves to pursuing our nation’s noblest goals: equality and opportunity.As our open minds, open markets, and open borders—our nation’s highest ideals—are besieged by ideologues and zealots, Dr. Kanter shows us how to recapture the American Dream. Artfully mixing practical ideas with compassionate guidance, she reminds us that the stakes have never been higher: Our economic vitality and democratic ideals are both at risk. In order to compete in the global market, we must invest in people and ideas, reward hard work, value dialogue and debate, and listen to dissenting voices. We must curtail our desire for worldwide empire, build bridges through citizen diplomacy, and pursue happiness instead of hegemony.

Best Practice puts the expertise and insight of the world's business thought leaders in your hands. Drawing from the rich database of resources, information, and cutting-edge ideas assembled for the landmark reference and international bestseller, Business: The Ultimate Resource, this lively and provocative book features one hundred original essays and interviews that capture the essence of business culture. Including Warren Bennis on "the four critical aspects of leadership." Jim Collins on "growing from good to great," Daniel Goleman on "managing with emotional intelligence," and a wide array of authors from around the world. Best Practice illuminates the key issues and emerging ideas that define the dynamic business environment. Featuring an introduction by renowned management authority Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Best Practice reveals what's on the minds of today's most illustrious thinkers and practitioners, and offers practical guidance for meeting tomorrow's challenges -- from harnessing technology to managing ethically to building strong brands.

In executive suites throughout America, 'The Change Masters' has become one of the most talked-about books in years. The author, Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, is a professor at Harvard University's Business School and a leading advisor to many Fortune 500 companies.