Agents of Change: Crossing the Post-Industrial Divide

This work focuses on the transition faced by business organizations and their stakeholders as they move from protected markets to open competition, and it explores how these changes can be facilitated by outside interveners/agents. The four authors - two from Europe and two from the United States - have worked separately as consultants with leaders of many companies and unions facing these challenges, including AT&T, Lucent, Electricite de France, and the Italian State Railways (Ferrovie dello Stato). The reader is thus afforded an unusual insight into the process of change in a large organization - not only close-up accounts of what happened, but understanding of the relationship between the researcher/consultant and different groups within the organization - senior managers, HR people, unions, and ordinary employees.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Introduction 1: Introduction 2: Overview of the Cases Part II: Cases 3: AT&T: Cooperation Is Not Enough 4: Ferrovie dello Stato [the Italian State Railways]: A Vision Without Agreement 5: Lucent: Towards Strategic Engagement 6: Electricité de France: Moving Towards the National Policy Level Part III: The Intervention Approach 7: A 'Full Engagement' Approach to Intervention 8: Techniques and Methods 9: The Consultant Role: Transference and Counter-Transference Part IV: The Emerging Stakeholder Regime 10: Assessing the Interventions: Achievements and Limitations 11: The Current Impasse 12: Towards Post-Industrial Relations

About the Author :
Charles Heckscher is a Professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University. His research focuses on organization change and its consequences for employees and unions, and on the possibilities for more collaborative and democratic forms of work. His books include The New Unionism, The Post-bureaucratic Organization, and White-Collar Blues. Michael Maccoby is an anthropologist, psychoanalyst, and consultant on leadership strategy and organization. He is President of The Maccoby Group in Washington, DC and Director of the Project on Technology, Work and Character -- a not-for-profit research organization. He was formerly Director of the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at the Kennedy Shool, Harvard University. His books include The Gamesman: The New Corporate Leaders (Simon and Schuster 1976) Rafael Ramirez is Professor in the Department of Management and Human Resources, HEC-Paris. He is also Visiting Professor of Scenarios and Corporate Strategy at Shell International in London; Senior Professional, SMG, Stockholm; and Visiting Associate Fellow at Templeton College, University of Oxford. His books include Designing Interactive Strategy (Wiley) Pierre-Eric Tixier is Professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, France.

Review :
The authors, unlike so many in the field of future forecasting, do an admirable job of setting out their meta-narrative and offering a persuasive case for their views. The Innovation Journal In Agents of Change is to be found an authentically successful attempt to give life to the study of human organization. The Innovation Journal This is a stimulating and thought-provoking book. Human Resource Management Journal