The Human Cost of a Management Failure: Organizational Downsizing at General Hospital - Hardcover

Seth Allcorn; Howard F. Stein; Michael A. Diamond; Howell S. Baum

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1567200028 ISBN 13: 9781567200027

Publisher: Praeger (UK), 1996

Synopsis

This book presents a unique, in-depth examination of the effects that the popular approaches to management organizational change—downsizing, restructuring, and reengineering—had on a major American hospital. The Human Cost of a Management Failure shows what can happen when management insists on accomplishing its ends strictly by the numbers. The authors ask why top management so often, and with seemingly such a cavalier attitude, selects downsizing and similar methods when research indicates that they are all too often such poor choices. Based on a year-long longitudinal study, Allcorn, Baum, Diamond, and Stein report on their interviews with 23 senior and mid-level hospital administrators, then interpret their findings from a psychoanalytic perspective, to make clear that the human side of the workplace can only be ignored at great risk when change is contemplated and then implemented. This is essential reading not only for corporate management, but also for other professionals and academics throughout the social and behavioral sciences.

Readers of The Human Cost of a Management Failure are oriented to the literature on downsizing, restructuring and reengineering, and to the context of the study. Case material follows, enabling readers to draw their own conclusions with regard to the nature of the organizational change and its effects upon the hospital's employees, and consultants offer their own viewpoints. An update of events at the hospital after the study was conducted is provided along with summaries by each author of his own interpretation and how he interprets the others' views. In this way, readers will get an unusual opportunity to evaluate their own viewpoints against those of the psychoanalytically trained researchers, and to decide for themselves whether there are, in fact, better ways to make an organization economically competitive in the marketplace.

About this title

About the Authors

SETH ALLCORN is a principal of DyAD, a consulting firm specializing in organizational development and management, in Asheville, North Carolina. Author of eight books on management and organizational life and numerous articles, he holds an MBA and a doctorate in Higher and Adult Education. His most recent books include Managing People During Stressful Times (1997), The Human Cost of a Management Failure (1996), and Anger in the Workplace (1994).


MICHAEL A. DIAMOND is Professor and Chair of Public Administration at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His extensive writings, bridging psychoanalytic thinking and organizational behavior, have appeared in various scholarly journals, including: Administration and Society, Human Relations, The Journal of Management Studies, Political Psychology, and others. He is a practicing organization development consultant to government, not-for-profit, and business organizations.


HOWARD F. STEIN is Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City. Dr. Stein is the 1999 recipient of the Omer C. Stewart Award for exemplary contributions to the field of applied anthropology. A specialist in medical, psychoanalytic, and applied anthropology and related fields ranging from rural health to ethnic studies, Stein has observed first-hand the changes that have taken place in health-care and in various other organizations. He is a member of numerous professional associations and author or coauthor of more than 20 books, among them The Human Cost of a Management Failure: Organizational Downsizing at General Hospital (with Seth Allcorn, Howell S. Baum, and Michael Diamond forum, 1996) and Prairie Voices: Process Anthropology in Family Medicine (Bergin and Garvey, 1996).

From the Back Cover

This book presents a unique, in-depth examination of the effects that the popular approaches to management organizational change - downsizing, restructuring, and reengineering - had on a major American hospital. The Human Cost of a Management Failure shows what can happen when management insists on accomplishing its ends strictly by the numbers. The authors ask why top management so often, and with seemingly such a cavalier attitude, selects downsizing and similar methods when research indicates that they are all too often such poor choices. Based on a year-long longitudinal study, Allcorn, Baum, Diamond, and Stein report on their interviews with 23 senior and mid-level hospital administrators, then interpret their findings from a psychoanalytic perspective, to make clear that the human side of the workplace can only be ignored at great risk. This is essential reading not only for corporate management, but also for other professionals and academics throughout the social and behavioral sciences. Readers of The Human Cost of a Management Failure are oriented to the literature on downsizing, restructuring, and reengineering, and to the context of the study. Case material follows, enabling readers to draw their own conclusions with regard to the nature of the organizational change and its effects upon the hospital's employees, and consultants offer their own viewpoints. An update of events at the hospital after the study was conducted is provided along with summaries by each author of his own interpretation and how he interprets the others' views. In this way, readers will get an unusual opportunity to evaluate their own viewpoints against those of the psychoanalytically trainedresearchers, and to decide for themselves whether there are, in fact; better ways to make an organization economically competitive in the marketplace.

Edition details

• Publisher: Praeger (UK)
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1567200028
• ISBN 13: 9781567200027
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304