Organizational Survival in the New World: The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (KMCI Press)

Book Description

In this book David and Alex Bennet propose a new model for organizations that enables them to react more quickly and fluidly to today's fast-changing, dynamic business environment: the Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (ICAS). ICAS is a new organic model of the firm based on recent research in complexity and neuroscience, and incorporating networking theory and knowledge management, and turns the living system metaphor into a reality for organizations. This book synthesizes new thinking about organizational structure from the fields listed above into ICAS, a new systems model for the successful organization of the future designed to help leaders and managers of knowledge organizations succeed in a non-linear, complex, fast-changing and turbulent environment. Technology enables connectivity, and the ICAS model takes advantage of that connectivity by fostering the development of dynamic, effective and trusting relationships in a new organizational structure.

This book outlines the model in chapter four, and then breaks down the model into its components in the next two chapters. This is a benefit to readers since different components of the model can be implemented at different times, so the book can guide implementation of one or all of the components as a manager sees fit. There are eight characteristics of the ICAS: organizational intelligence, unity and shared purpose, optimum complexity, selectivity, knowledge centricity, flow, permeable boundaries, and multi-dimensionality.

* Clear portrait of the successful organization of the future using latest research in knowledge management and complexity theory
* Shows concretely how to design an organization that can successfully respond to constant change and uncertainty.
* Practical examples woven throughout the discussion.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Treatment od a Complex Topic.......2006-11-17

The Bennet's provide a dialogue of complex systems that is exceptionally thought provoking. They have a logical progression in developing their concepts and are mindful of reinforcing the basic concepts by continually referring the reader back to the basics of the introductory chapters. Experienced managers will be able to relate the concepts presented in this book to the ones they have experienced. It will allow those mediocre managers to set their goals in proper line and also help those who have been successful in either reinventing their organization from the ground up or honing a functioning organization into a finer running machine. This is not a book you can read and absorb in a short time. In fact, my first reading took several months. My second reading continues in an even more deliberate way, selecting certain chapters that relate to my real world.

A book you keep on a nearby shelf to pull down periodically for a short read about a specific organization concept of interest.

The Application of ICAS to KM Education.......2004-10-04

At Kent State University our graduate interdisciplinary program, Information & Knowledge Management (IAKM), was founded two years ago by a number of departments and schools: Communication Studies, Computer Science, Graduate School of Management, Journalism & Mass Communication, Library and Information Science, and Visual Communication Design. This rich mosaic of experience and knowledge is a seedbed for teaching the Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (ICAS) as described in Organizational Survival in the New World: The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System, by Alex and David Bennet.

Many of our learners in the IAKM Program are mid-career professionals, managers, and executives who seek a blueprint and framework for constructing and sustaining the new, Second Generation Knowledge Management (SGKM) organization. Alex and David have provided a rich foundation in the theory behind ICAS and draw in a resulting learner dialogue that demonstrate how theory can be practically engaged in the dynamic environments of our evolving institutions, businesses, and governments. This handbook will be used to design a new course in IAKM that prototypes a successful and innovative ICAS organization-covering aspects of its architecture, structure and infrastructure, culture, leadership, problem-solving and decision-making apparatus, collaboration, and potential institutional outcomes.

Alex and David Bennet are exemplary Master Builders who draw upon Complexity Theory. This book fulfils the needs displayed by many highly motivated learners who wish to comprehend and apply the elements and theories that are required to construct and launch a competitive and agile ICAS organization.

Of particular value to me was Part IV: The Knowledge Solution, which focused on the new skills and competencies needed by the new knowledge worker to help attain organizational survival and, more importantly, organizational success. This seminal monograph has augmented the goal of my research into the development of a Knowledge Management Educational Framework (KMEF) because it contains rich material with which I can effectively teach KM as well as fertile substance for my academic research agenda. I highly recommend this book because it will prove useful to academics as well as practitioners.

Breakthough for Organizational Thinking.......2004-04-27

This is one of only a few books to attempt a fresh expansive view of new organizational infrastructure, principles, and tools in nearly a half-century of post-industrial society experience. One might say that until the last decade of knowledge management thinking, there has not been the perspective to do this. But, I don't buy it. Fritz Machlup's work in the 50's extensively described the impact of knowledge work on the economy. Drucker clearly saw it in the 50's. What have we been thinking about?

You can't read this book without disagreeing with the Bennets. They touch too many subjects too dear to too many of us. Still, give them credit for so many new ideas. They have laid the basis for a broad dialogue grounded in the credible view of complexity theory. The Bennets have sent out the invitations, they have set the table, who will join the feast? It is challenging for me to read this book. I constantly want to be able to discuss it with others. There is so much depth and breadth at the same time. Also, you may not be able to read it without being remorseful about your own organization, especially if you work in a complex enterprise. Recommend you scan the table of contents and then start reading. As the Bennets say, go to Chapter 19 if you need grounding in complexity theory. I found it useful to jump ahead and read chapters as my interest was peaked. Then go back and pick up from where you left off.

The Bennets' research alone has immense value. This book should become a college text for graduate work. They are well grounded in complexity theory, nevertheless, they pull from many fields, disciplines, and theorists to build this new body of knowledge. The book would rock an MBA program.

Drucker says that figuring this sort of thing out will determine how well we'll compete in this new century. The Bennets give us new frameworks for describing what we're working with and how we can organize for breakthroughs on multiple levels. In the meantime, hopefully a leader at Homeland Security is reading this book.

Outstanding Book for Executives in a Competitive Environment.......2004-02-27

The authors provide a valuable resource for executives striving to assure their companies excel in a competitive and complex environment. Dave and Alex Bennet use their practical management experience and excellent insight in knowledge theory to address the challenges facing organizations in a rapidly changing world. Their explanation of the Intelligent Complex Adaptive System ICAS provides a model for successfully handling the increasing demands of a swiftly changing business atmosphere. As background, the book provides a description of the differences between Bureaucratic and World Class organizations. It explores the emergent properties of the ICAS and how it works in practice. The Bennets present a variety of new and innovative techniques for improving organizational performance. The ICAS and the processes described in this book are a roadmap for organizations to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. I highly recommend this book for executives who strive to excel in a complex and ever changing competitive environment.

Outstanding Book for Executives in a Competitive Environment.......2004-02-27

Customer Reviews:

How to train a sleeping monster........2000-10-27

I have read numerous books over the years on corporate culture and more specifically normative culture. Each time I have been left with many unanswered questions. For me, the whole concept of controlling something so esoteric has always been hard to conceptualize. Organizational Unconscious is the first book to give me a clear and easily understood roadmap for controlling the culture in any organization. 95% of all managers, in my opinion, are completely unaware of the power and influence culture has on any organization's programs and performance. After reading this book, they may wish to significantly redefine their priorities.

THE ORGANIZATIONAL UNCONSCIOUS How to Create the Corporate Culture You Want and Need

Average customer rating:

THE ORGANIZATIONAL UNCONSCIOUS How to Create the Corporate Culture You Want and Need
ROBERT F./KRAFT, CHARLOTTE ALLEN
Manufacturer: Prentice-Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OIYTUU

Organizational Unconscious, The: How to Create the Corporate Culture You Want and Need

Average customer rating:

Organizational Unconscious, The: How to Create the Corporate Culture You Want and Need
Robert F. And Charlotte Kraft Allen
Manufacturer: Prentice-Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OIUPT4

Book Description

Knowledge generation and transfer mechanisms are being transformed in important and controversial ways. Investment in research and development has increased in response to recognition that scientific productivity is tightly connected to economic dynamism. Patent protection has been expanded in order to stimulate higher levels of private investment. Intellectual property rights held by public organizations and researchers are now increasingly transferred to private organizations to accelerate the diffusion and enhance the value of knowledge produced by public agencies and universities. Additionally, new institutions such as university offices of technology transfer, venture capital markets, and a variety of consortia in knowledge-intensive industries are being established throughout the United States and in other parts of the world. These changes have led to a repositioning of the state in systems of innovation and an increase in the proprietary character of technical information.
The purpose of this book is to review and analyze i) contemporary transitions in agricultural knowledge generation and extension arrangements from an empirical perspective, and ii) emerging and contradictory perspectives as to how knowledge systems can be assessed effectively. The authors aim to provide the reader with a better understanding of

the implications of new biotechnologies and new intellectual property rights regimes on public-private relations in science,
the extent to which benefits from scientific knowledge are being appropriated by private sector actors,
the diversity and possible outcomes of privatization initiatives in extension, and
prospects for public goods production and ecological sustainability given contemporary trends.

The book presents contrasting views on the degree of complementarity and substitution between private and public sector investments in research and extension. Recognizing that the labels `public' and `private' are incomplete and at times misleading descriptions of the structure and function of coordinating bodies in social systems, the analyses highlight ways in which public and private spaces and modes of functioning combine. In addition to illustrating a broad range of analytic methodologies useful for studying organizational questions in knowledge systems, the authors identify the implications of a range of past and potential institutional innovations.

Book Description

Contrasts are statistical procedures for asking focused questions of data. Researchers, teachers of research methods and graduate students will be familiar with the principles and procedures of contrast analysis included here. But they, for the first time, will also be presented with a series of newly developed concepts, measures, and indices that permit a wider and more useful application of contrast analysis. This volume takes on this new approach by introducing a family of correlational effect size estimates. By returning to these correlations throughout the book, the authors demonstrate special adaptations in a variety of contexts from two group comparison to one way analysis of variance contexts, to factorial designs, to repeated measures designs and to the case of multiple contrasts.

Customer Reviews:

Good topic, needed debate........2004-08-12

Omnibus tests of statistical significance, and in particular null hypothesis tests, have fallen under continuous criticism since Fisher first promulgated the analysis of variance in 1935. Despite the often contentious debate, few practical alternatives have been proposed in the literature. Rosenthal, Rosnow, and Rubin have changed that, with their discussion of contrast analysis and effect sizes.

Plus side: The text gives in depth coverage on the design and conduct of contrast analysis, testing particular theoretical predictions using more general data sets. A good example from the book is the influence of age on performance in a video game: do older children perform better than younger children? With five age groups sampled, a standard ANOVA might inform you that the data are very likely close to what is expected from random sampling. However, the ANOVA treats all 120 possible orders of the age groups as irrelevant to your theory. In fact, there is only one ordering that is important to your theory, but ANOVA can't test it! Contrast analysis can. The authors also offer several novel descriptive statistics, using regression and correlation, that can inform you about relationships in a data set that ordinary omnibus tests can't detect. This approach is a serious improvement over the advice to merely use confidence intervals, or the positively primitive reliance on omnibus null hypothesis tests.

That said, the book has a few defects. First, it assume the reader has a solid grasp on ANOVA, regression, and inferential testing generally. It is thus an advanced text. For an introductory text I recommend Howitt & Cramer's An Introduction to Statistics in Psychology: A Complete Guide for Students.

The text is also quite mathematically oriented, and does not have adequate expositions of all the computations used across the book. If you're not comfortable with inferential statistics and mathematical notations, the book will be a ponderous read. Finally, the book gives very short shrift to the history of omnibus tests and ways they are misinterpreted. On this score, I recommend Gigerenzer's Empire of Chance, and Oakes' Statistical Inference. The latter is now unfortunately out of print.

It is clear that complex theories generate complex predictions, and can be tested using only complex tools applied to large data sets. Omnibus tests like ANOVA are clearly inadequate to the task. Contrast analysis is a novel and potentially rich approach to this problem.

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Flora, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Paspalum modestum and P. wrightii are perennial grasses growing in permanent and seasonally flooded areas, respectively. The former produces short rhizomes and floating culms, the latter forms long rhizomes and erect culms. Variations in percentage aerenchymatous space (PAS) in different organs as a response to flooding was analysed using a clone of each species. Eighteen plantlets of each clone were cultivated during 7 months under flooded vs. unflooded conditions. After this period, roots, rhizomes, culms, and leaf sheaths were collected and prepared. PAS was measured using an image analysis device, and data were analysed using ANOVA. Production of aerenchyma took place in both species within the cortical parenchyma of roots, rhizomes and culms, and the mesophyll of leaf sheaths, both in flooded and unflooded plants. Under flooding conditions PAS increased in both species, although the individual response of organs differed: whereas in P. modestum PAS increased primarily in substratum-fixed roots, in P. wrightii all organs produced additional aerenchyma uniformly. Contrasting responses are understood as adaptations to permanent and seasonal flooding, respectively.

Effects of soil flooding on root aeration, photosynthesis and growth in wetland plants: (Dissertation)

Average customer rating:

Effects of soil flooding on root aeration, photosynthesis and growth in wetland plants: (Dissertation)
Shuwen Li
Manufacturer: ProQuest Information and Learning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Soil Science | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Science & Technology | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

Citation Details

Distributed by ProQuest Information and Learning

Average customer rating:

Inside View

Fascinating Read

Inside the Olympics: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Politics, the Scandals, and the Glory of the Games
Richard W. Pound
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History of Sports | Miscellaneous | Sports | Subjects | Books
Olympic Games | Miscellaneous | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Sports Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
Sports | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Dishonored Games: Corruption, Money, and Greed at the Olympics

Power, Politics, and the Olympic Games

Olympic Turnaround: How the Olympic Games Stepped Back from the Brink of Extinction to Become the World's Best Known Brand

Selling The Five Rings: The IOC and the Rise of the Olympic Commercialism

The Olympic Games: ATHENS 1896 - ATHENS 2004

ASIN: 0470834544

Book Description

A candid look at how the Olympic rings got so tarnished-from a top IOC insider

Bribery, illicit drugs, tainted judges, dirty politics . . . the Olympics have come a long way from ancient Greece. Far from the vaunted symbol of athletic excellence, the Olympic games have become awash in scandal (from doping and judging scandals, questionable selection practices for future sites) that have given it a tawdry luster only cynics and news junkies would relish. Now, Dick Pound, a former Olympic medalist and twenty-five year member of the IOC gives an insider's account of the politics within the IOC as well as an unsensationalistic look at what went on behind the headlines. As controversial as the games themselves have become, Inside the Olympics is a fascinating, no-holds-barred look at just how the Olympics and their legacy have foundered.

Customer Reviews:

Inside View.......2005-08-19

Dick Pound does not mince words. He informs the readers as he sees the problems within the Olympic Movement in his own words, and tries his utmost to improve these. A book worth reading for anyone interested in the Olympic Movement.

Fascinating Read.......2004-08-17

This was a really interesting read. I've always been an Olympics fan, but you never get these kind of stories in other books. Pound really reveals the inner workings of the games, from the big news now, doping, to the judging scandals (Comaneci didn't deserve a 10???), to the contentious process of selecting the host city. He obviously has had a view that no one else could have, as an athlete, as the VP of the IOC, and as the head of the World anti-doping agency, and he really brings you into his world. But it's really not all scandals. One of the things that really comes through is his love of the games. As much as he talks about the scandals, he seems to do so out of a desire to bring honor back to the games. Really fascinating stuff.

Book Description

U.S. Virgin Islands & British Virgin Islands Insight FlexiMap features detailed region, city, street and road maps clearly marked with all the sites and services of particular interest to travelers. Text and photographs offer a wealth of valuable tourist information including "10 sights you shouldn't miss", plus information on transportation, visas, currency, important telephone numbers, emergency services, and more.

Customer Reviews:

BVI Map.......2007-07-20

We sailed with friends on a cat around BVI this spring. This map was out on
the deck with us each day. Great resource. And because it is coated, it is
still in great shape for the next visit...and there will be one!

Pretty Disapointing.......2006-11-20

In retrospect I wouldn't buy this map. I never used it once we got to the islands because there were better maps available for free. The level of detail is poor, you could print out a map online that would be better. Not recommended.

Moderate Detail.......2006-03-15

This map provides a moderate level of detail for several islands. If you want a higher level of detail, including "back roads", you'll need to buy a map that includes just one island. I couldn't find a one-island map of St. Croix on Amazon, but I expect that one will be available locally.

Book Description

Like any giant enterprise, the NASCAR we see today is very different from the regional race series launched by a visionary Bill France in the late 1940s. Few writers are as intimately aware of that history as Car and Driver's Brock Yates. In the 1950s he recalls the intimate nature of the sport's early years, when he would see the entire Petty family working together, Richard wrenching on the car while his father cooked for the family on a bar-b-que grill. In 1979, Yates was reporting from the pits for ABC at the Daytona 500 when the infamous fight erupted between Cale Yarborough and the Allison boys. His perspective spans nearly 50 years, and his wry observations are always sure to incite both cheers and jeers. NASCAR Off the Record is a pithy, opiniated, hilarious, and compelling collection of some of the greatest NASCAR stories of all time, as told by a man who was present at the scene.About the AuthorWhile best known for his columns in Car and Driver and his television reporting, Brock Yates has written numerous books, including Cannonball: The World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race (ISBN 0-7603-1090-4), and The Hot Rod (ISBN 0-7603-1598-1). He also wrote the film scripts for Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit II. His NASCAR stories date almost to the very beginning of the series. Brock lives with his wife Pamela in the towns of Wyoming, New York, and Alexandria Bay, New York. He is the proud father of four children and two grandchildren. Vintage automobile racing consumes his spare time.- From the best-selling author of Cannonball!, Brock Yates takes an irreverent look at the grand spectacle of NASCAR- NASCAR is the largest and fastest growing American automotive racing series

Customer Reviews:

Proof-reader Required.......2004-12-30

I have read Brock Yates' articles and books since he started writing for Car and Driver magazine back in the mid-1960's, but this book is an embarrassment. The proof-reader for this book never reported for work.
p11: says Herb Thomas was a whiskey runner. In the very next sentence says "Others, like Herb Thomas, came from working class backgrounds." (Two different drivers with the name Herb Thomas?)
p16: explains that NASCAR stands for National Association for Stock Auto Racing. What happened to the C for Car?
p19: says that 1.366 miles is longer than 1.375 miles
p19: refers to "NACSAR"
All of these gaffes are found in chapter one, so you get the idea. It's too bad, because this could have been a good book with more attention to accuracy.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books