Promotional Information

"A compelling chronicle and analysis about why industrial-era organizations are likely doomed to failure because of their inability to adapt to the rapidly advancing age of information. Reinventing organizations is not enough-they have to be virtually obliterated, then rebuilt through new relationships." -- J.D. Power III, Founder and Chairman, J.D. Power and Associates "Make no mistake about it. Jonathan Klein's Corporate Failure by Design is an important book. Ideally, every manager and executive should read this book. If it helps to turn around only one organization, it will have proved its worth. Those who do not read Jonathan's book do so at their own peril." -- Ian I. Mitroff, Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy, University of Southern California This book is a MUST-READ... [W]ith the release of Corporate Failure by Design: Why Organizations are Built to Fail, Dr. Jonathan Klein takes his rightful place among the best and brightest of business writers and analysts in the 21st century! No other author has used insight and research skills to so eloquently state the true dysfunctional nature of the organization, and the very fact that each organization is literally designed for failure right from the start. I guarantee that you will find Dr. Klein's book enlightening ... a real eye opener! -- Richard S. Hockett, Founder/President Creative Business Solutions

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction Failure in Purpose The Corporate Suicide Mission: The Emergence of Organizational Purpose The Structure and Content of Failure The Enemy Within: Organizational Members and Their Jobs Dressed for Success, Qualified to Fail: Staffing the Organization Failure in Methods and Function The Psychopathology of Leadership The Training and Evaluation of Incompetence Failure as Its Own Reward The Process of Failure Together We Fall Partners in Crime The Company of Strangers: Organizational Communication and the Lack of It The Outcome of Failure The Smoking Gun: Life Inside the Monopoly The Ritual of Change The Blind Leading the Blind: Learning How to Fail The Agony of Defeat: The Hidden Costs of Organizational Failure Beyond Failure Learning from Failure: Saving Organizations from Themselves The End of Organization as We Know It: Survival in the Postorganizational World Epilogue Appendices Further Reading Index

About the Author

JONATHAN I. KLEIN has served on the faculty at the Graduate School of Management at Rutgers University, where he won the Horace de Podwin Award for research excellence, at Pepperdine University, and at California State University, Los Angeles. Klein currently teaches at the University of Southern California, the California School of Professional Psychology, and at California Lutheran University. In addition, he serves as Director of the Doctorate in Business Administration program at American International University in Los Angeles, and as a consultant to corporate management.

Reviews

Jonathan Klein has produced an intriguing, thought-provoking book that considers carefully the present state and future of business organizations. The timeliness of the volume cannot be disputed. It is well documented and very logically presented….It is a scholarly volume yet very readable…. It should be available in academic and public libraries and read by anyone studying organizational behavior.
*Personnel Psychology*