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Beyond Certainty: The Changing Worlds of Organizations
by Charles Handy
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (1996-01)
ISBN: 0875846718
EAN: 9780875846712
Dewy Decimal #: 658.406
Hardcover: 221 pages
SKU: BX034-A18
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Clean and shiny. Uncirculated Library copy, label on spine but no other markings. Very minor wear, not pricecut, no remainder mark. Pgs crisp, clean, tight, unmarked.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In this challenging and exhilirating collection of 35 recent essays, the bestselling author and social philosopher shares his reflections on a changing world. Including Handy's change-making articles and essays, Beyond Certainty contains the seeds of the author's thinking in his widely acclaimed books The Age of Unreason and The Agfe of Paradox.
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Customer Reviews
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Good lord, what a muddled thinker
Rating  (1)
Date: 2001-08-31
9 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
I'm sorry, I tried to read the whole book, but I just couldn't get through more than half of it. I read a lot of books, maybe 2-3 per week and in my whole life there are less than 10 books I was unable to finish.Why did I find this book so hard to read? It wasn't because it was dense. It wasn't because it was radical. It wasn't even because it was boring. It was because it said nothing. It is full of platitudes, like "there are always unintended consequences to rational policies." Well, my gosh, how earthshattering. And the author has an annoying habit of using news factoids (in its original definition--i.e., untrue statements that people think are true because they appeared in a newspaper once) as evidence for his meandering pseudophilosophical discourse. Net: there is nothing in this book you didn't already know. I don't know if I'm being overly harsh, because a lot of people read him and like him. I have tried really hard to figure it out, and I can't. This book reminds me somewhat of "Lives of a Cell" which is another book I couldn't figure out. All I could think while reading either of these books is "is it just me or isn't everything the author is saying blindingly obvious, except he's just saying things in a very muddled way?"
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A One of A Kind Treasure Chest of the Future!
Rating  (5)
Date: 1997-10-15
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I keep going back to re-read sections of this book after having purchased it 2 years ago ...
even the sections I once disagreed with are
coming true in my own life with prophetic
clarity.
I wish Mr. Handy would rewrite this book once
a year so I could keep up with his new insights.
For me this book was better than the Age of Unreason. Throw away every other management fab gibberish book ... this one's the real thing.
I've leant it to freinds who also agree this is
an exceptionally unusual book.
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Envisioning Leadership Quality for A Changing World
Rating (5)
Date: 1997-07-14
8 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
The certainty of the 1980's was gone and confusion reigned, in business, in government, and in all parts of the world. Even science started to examine Chaos, Creativity, and Complexity. Organizations must outgrow the ideas with which they grew up with. Everything would not be a given and the world became a void to be filled.
Drawing the parallel between today's world with the Renaissance, Handy warned of the paradoxical nature of organizations. Freedom of choice for all demands civic responsibilities. Global competition consolidated management structures. Efficient organizations implied the diminishing of jobs. Higher demands imposed on the remaining staff left no time for families or friends. Women were edged out of the business because of their diverse obligations.
He compared the use of the media and information technologies with the printing press in the Renaissance. The media created opportunities for many and yet became a great threat for all. He reminded organization leaders to restore the "cultivation" mandate of Adam Smith as a balance to wealth-making. He called for community building rather than property generation as corporate goals.
The future workers, whom he coined "portfolio people," would not work for jobs. In contrast, they would develop sets of skill and service and find customers for them. Self-learning and self-management abilities would be the asset to survive the new business world.
Handy's book is timely and insightful on the ever changing world that affects business organizations. Beyond Certainty contains many seed ideas of his earlier books The Age of Unreason, The Age of Paradox and Understanding Organizations. Charles Handy's thoughts represent the finest of business writings by the Western world.
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