Systems Leadership: Creating Positive Organisations

The new edition of this influential and bestselling book is concerned with how people come together to achieve a productive purpose. Survival and success in business and social terms have always depended upon our ability to form and sustain social organisations. People have a deep need to be creative and to belong. By creating positive organisations we can fulfil these needs and build a worthwhile society. One of the failures of organisations is precisely the lack of efficient and effective social organisation, which is what this whole book is about. Poor social organisation, including poor leadership, are major drivers of poor productivity and lead people to give up or retreat into a minimalist approach of just doing what is needed to get by and survive. The authors provide a language for developing, discussing, thinking and working with propositions about organisations and management. They do not tell you what decision to make but rather present tools to help you consider, analyse and predict the consequences of your decisions. This new edition is much broader in its application areas – public, private and not-for-profit sectors. It contains new models and propositions with regard to types of social organisation, domains of work and the nature and use of authority. It contains a range of new case studies, and throughout looks at how these ideas can be used to achieve an organisation’s purpose while encouraging creative working. It is not a book about fads or fashion but an integrated approach that offers the user the benefit of foresight.

Table of Contents:
Preface to 2nd Edition Acknowledgements Part 1: Systems Leadership: Why the Title? Introduction to Part 1 Chapter 1 What Use is Theory? Chapter 2: What is Work? Chapter 3: Social, Technical, Commercial Domains of Work Chapter 4: Social Process and Authority Chapter 5: Types of Social Organisation Part 2: THE SIX PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIOUR: CORE CONCEPTS OF SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP Introduction to Part 2 Chapter 6: The Six Principles of Behaviour Part 3: UNDERSTANDING ORGANISATIONS Introduction to Part 3 Chapter 7: Meritocracy Chapter 8: Human Capability Chapter 9: Levels of Work Complexity Chapter 10 Organisational Structure and Authority Chapter 11 Associations, Boards and Employment Hierarchies Part 4 The Work of Leadership Introduction to Part 4 Chapter 12 The Work of Leadership: Creating a Culture Chapter 13 Leadership, Policy and Systems Chapter 14 Task Formulation and Assignment Chapter 15 Teams and Teamwork Part 5 MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN Introduction to Part 5 Chapter 16 The Process of Successful Change: How is it Achieved? Chapter 17 How to Design Systems Chapter 18 Systems and Symbols Audit – Organisational Health Check Chapter 19 Creating High Performance Teams Chapter 20 So What? What difference has this Made? County Court of Victoria Torex Gold EQ Mental Health Leadership in Combat Chapter 21: Discipline or Dogma Chapter 22 Who is There to Guard the Guards? Essentials of a Positive Organisation Chapter 23 SLT and Other Approaches CONCLUSION Glossary Bibliography Index