I'd like to mention a sleeper of a book that I've learned a great deal
from lately (and which I expect to cite in my WSJ column this week). The
book is "Values, Nature, and Culture in the American Corporation," by
William C. Frederick (Oxford, 1995).
Frederick, emeritus business prof at Pitt, presents the most thorough and
compelling system analysis I've read of business in society. The book is
also elegantly written. This book is not about LOs, but it does present a
crystal-clear view of how society, business, and technology are entwined,
and how a new ethic is emerging in which the war between "economizing" and
"ecologizing" is giving way to new fusion. It also discusses biology and
nature not as metaphors for business but as the models that underly the
very structure of business. Highly recommended!
Cheers,
Tom Petzinger
Thomas Petzinger Jr.
new e-mail address: tompetz@msn.com
"The Front Lines"--Every Friday in The Wall Street Journal
"The arms of consciousness reach out and grope, and the longer they are, the
better. Tentacles, not wings, are Apollo's natural members." --Vladimir
Nabokov
--"thomas petzinger" <tompetz@msn.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>