The Management of Ideas in the Creating Organization

I bought this book to supplement the standard text and coursepack of the core Organizational Behavior course in the MBA program here at the UM b-school. Frankly, I found this book more useful than the textbook we were assigned. Its insights were expressed more more clearly. This book is also better organized and more concise.It is definitely worth the price and worth reading more than once. I keep it in a handy place on my bookshelf.

This book moves beyond the learning organization to propose the creating organization-one that sees that the initiation, development and implementation of ideas are the key resources for success. The book is about idea development and management; ergo...the idea management function is central to organizational success. The author introduces the concept of IdeaLeadership, a role dispersed throughout an organization, involving everyone as an IdeaLeader-those who propose new ways of doing things and new things to be done. IdeaManagement, a part of IdeaLeadership, harnesses and directs ideas and is the core of the manager's job as we enter the 21st Century. These concepts are the basis for an idea-driven organization geared to the competitive environment in today's "only the paranoid will survive" marketplace. The author examines virtually every element of organization through the idea lens, resulting in a highly absorbing and informative book. Tropman is pushing the envelop, advancing our thinking about organization in harmony with today's Knowledge Revolution. Many of the organizational issues we deal with in our consulting work focus on the challenge of creating innovative enterprises with creative spirit. We find this book offers many ideas and insights from which organization leaders can benefit greatly. Highly recommended. Reviewed by Gerry Stern and Yvette Borcia, editors of Stern's Management Review, founders, Stern & Associates and the Human Resources Knowledge Network, authors of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.