Harvard Business School Press publication of Charles Handy book excerpts from The Age of Unreason. The publication begins by describing how changes in organizations, although discontinuous, are inevitable. It proceeds to discuss how organizations will continue to be judged more harshly than before on their effectiveness, and that there will be fewer protective hedges to shelter them. Alongside such changes in organizations, the document notes how organizations, which were once perceived as large pieces of engineering with interchangeable parts, are now discussed in terms of politics, with a corresponding language centered on cultures and networks, teams, coalitions, etc. In the end, Handy recommends a new word, portfolio, to account for the reinvention of work, stating that it is a way of describing how the different bits of work in life fit together to form a balanced whole. He proceeds to argue that all people will live a portfolio life for part of their lives, and will match it with a portfolio marriage. The document concludes with Handy’s observation that the new and increasing abundance of choice will lead to the erosion of any one dominant set of values.
Handy, Charles B Harvard Business School Press Change Organizational change Organizational behavior
Source
Harvard Business School Press publication of Charles Handy book excerpts from The Age of Unreason, 1990; Charles Handy Papers; Box 19, Folder 1; 2 pages
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