The Reengineering Alternative

by William E. Schneider

Organizations can hire consultants and purchase expensive training programmes - but improvement must still be generated from within. "The Reengineering Alternative" explains how organizations can develop effective improvement plans based upon their unique strengths and corporate objectives. This book should prove valuable to managers who recognize the need for organizational change, but either haven't found an appropriate improvement programme, or can't fit an outside programme into the budget. The book provides a questionnaire readers can use to determine causes of conflict and sources of competitive strength. It demonstrates effective management and helps readers make the most cost-effective decisions concerning change and improvement within their organization.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1994

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled on this book while reading the "An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide" minibook by Michael Sahota (see http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/agile-...).

After a brief introduction to meaning and importance of organizational culture, William E. Schneider presents a questionnaire helping to identify your core corporate culture. In the following four chapters the four core cultures

- Control Culture
- Collaboration Culture
- Competence Culture
- Cultivation Culture

are described in detail. The book ends with two chapters elaborating on the genesis of organizational culture and on a framework for developing your organization.

I read this book during this years summer vacation and it helped me a lot in thinking about my current employment, my current customer and past experiences. I plan to use everything I've learned from this book and the minibook cited above in consulting teams wether or not they are ready to go the agile way.

[Pavleras · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting if you want to have a clear model of organizational cultures and a framework. from my point of view, the assessment is the weakest part nevertheless the book is worth reading. I'm currently investigating other frameworks so I can't compare at the moment

[Paul Boos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book following a recommendation from Michael Sahota (thanks!). I found this extremely helpful. I'm not convinced that all cultures are good (regardless of industry - I haven't bought into control and competence cultures necessarily being a good thing for society), but this book is great at helping you understanding how to leverage current cultural strengths as leverage points for changing it.

[Josh Whitmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book to help you understand how and why your company behaves the way it does. This book helped me make sense of some of the interesting decisions my company has made and it's helped me grasp how to better approach change initiatives within the organization.

[Carole Skees · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personality-test-like tool to describe business cultures that will leave readers inspired to apply to their own workplace.