Organisations, Networks & Partnerships, Leadership and Change Management

This section covers some big topics and is therefore sub-divided as follows, but some of the most interesting books cover a broad sweep of issues and are difficult to categorise, so please browse around the various sub-sections. Also see Arts Management (general), New Thinking and People Management for related material.

Organisations

Creative Connections: Business and the arts working together to create a more inclusive society
By Phyllida Shaw
Pub Art & Business 2001 ISBN 09540568809 £15
This report is for anyone interested in partnerships.  Itself, a result of effective partnership between Marks and Spencer, DCMS and A and B it explains why businesses become involved in social enterprises and the arts. Phyllida Shaw uses her own extensive knowledge of successful collaborations to demonstrate the potential benefit for all parties in pooling skills and resources.  Using a range of case studies which provide examples from all perspectives this will provide ideas and first hand examples of joined-up projects.
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Understanding Organisations
Charles Handy
Pub: Penguin 4th edition 1993 £10.99 ISBN 0140156038
This is a classic management text, written for managers who are busy 'doing' but who also want to think. Charles Handy acts as a guide to the key concepts needed to understand how organisations operate, and he does not assume that that this only applies to large, commercial firms. His approach is accessible, inclusive and ethical. There are chapters on motivation, roles and interactions, leadership, power and influence, the working of groups, the cultures of organisations, change management and politics. If you are only going to read one management book ever, then this is in my top 3 choices. Recommended.
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Understanding Voluntary Organisations
by Charles Handy
Pub: Penguin 1988 £12.99 ISBN 0 14 014338 6
A great little book full of stimulating ideas. Charles Handy is without equal - an extremely influential management writer who understands the way voluntary (and arts) organisations work. Handy takes the best and most transferable bits of management theory and with a commentary shows their relevance to voluntary organisations. His introductory chapter is 'It is Good to be Different', and he then tackles people in organisations including motivation, roles, groups, power and influence; and organising the organisation covering cultures, structures, systems and chances of change.
Out of Stock

Developing Your Organisation
by Alan Lawrie
Pub: Directory of Social Change 2000 £12.50 ISBN 1900360667
This new book aims to help managers, board managers and staff of not for profit agencies build and develop their organisation. It manages to present a wide range of interesting and useful ideas on understanding organisations and managing change without the jargon. There are sections on diagnosis, strategy, organisational leadership, structures, project teams, and alliances and mergers. There is a 20 point organisational health check, interesting mini case studies, excellent advice, and practical pointers for action. Recommended. Review
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The Age of Unreason: New thinking for a new world
by Charles Handy
Pub: Arrow Business Books 1989 ISBN 00 99548313

A book of dangerous ideas written for people in organisations "because it is their hands that rest on the levers of change, although they may not always realise it." Classic Handy - a compelling read that introduces ideas that have caused major ripples in management thinking. This is where you find upside -down thinking, the triple I organisation, the Shamrock Organisation, the Inverted Doughnut and lots on learning, reframing and portfolios. Handy encourages us into "thinking the unlikely and doing the unreasonable". Thirteen years on and it's still all relevant. Highly recommended. Review

The Elephant And The Flea: Looking backwards to the future
By Charles Handy
Pub: Hutchinson ISBN 0099415658

A great book from the most arts-management-friendly guru on the planet.  Handy adopts a simple, friendly, autobiographical and anecdotal style in this, his latest, management book in which he explores the future of everything – education, work, capitalism, management and society. If you haven’t read any Handy yet (and if not, why not?) then this is a great one to start on – as he provides a summary of his earlier important big ideas as well as his latest thinking.  This rates next to Age of Unreason as one of the most important management books around. Review

Gods of Management: The Changing Work of Organisations
By Charles Handy
Pub Arrow Books Limited 2000 ISBN 009954888410 £7.99 [£11.87 inc p&p]
A modern management classic, written in 1978 and still very relevant today. Handy uses four Greek gods to symbolize the different ways of managing, or cultures, that can be identified in organisations. “What matters is getting the right culture in the right place for the right purpose.” Managers, Handy says, need to be more aware of which God they personally follow, and more aware of the cultural choices that re open to them and to their organisation.” The choice of God is influenced by setting – both society and national culture, and the occupational setting of the organisation.
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Managing Without Profit: The Art of Managing Third Sector Organisations
by Mike Hudson
Pub: DSC 2nd edition 1999 £12.99 ISBN 0 14 023886 7
A serious management book for the voluntary sector in which the arts is visible. It is described by the author as a "how to" guide, but I found it just as interesting for its section on examining the shifting boundaries of the traditional three sectors (private, public and voluntary) and ideas on the role of the Board, and the relationship between Board and Chief Executive. It is particularly relevant to larger organisations. The second edition includes new chapters on change, and creating a learning organisation, building a strong senior management team and the role of the Chair. Review
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Managing and Measuring Social Enterprises
By Rob Paton
Pub Sage Publications 2003 ISBN 0761973656

This book looks at the challenges of running a social enterprise, ways to improve performance  and to measure success.  Rob Paton identifies the common threads of improving performance from within the private sector and how these can be applied equally to not-for-profit organisations.
Rob Paton examines what has actually happened when performance improvement techniques originating in the private sector have been applied in public and non-profit organizations.  He provides well grounded and theoretically informed guidance on the problem of performance management outside the private sector.  The Excellence Model, Quality and TQM, Best Practice, kite-marking, Balanced Scorecard, Dashboards and PQASSO are all covered.  Lots of food for thought. Particularly interesting to those studying non-profit or public management.

Imaginization: New Mindsets For Seeing, Organizing, And Managing
By Gareth Morgan
Pub Sage Publications 1997 £25.00 ISBN 076191269X
Imaginization (a word covered by the author by combining imagine and organisation) is “an invitation to develop new ways of thinking about organisations and management … and invitation to reinvent ourselves and what we do!”  The author emphasises five key points – Imaginization is about (1) improving our abilities to see and understand situations in new ways (2) finding new images for new ways of organising (3) the creation of shared understandings (4) personal development (5) developing capacities for continuous self-organization.  There’s a very useful summary in the introduction, and the book itself provided powerful messages reinforced by pictures and stories.  It shows you how to develop new insights as a manager, how to create more flexible and innovative forms of organisation and how to develop your own creative toolkit for meeting the challenges of change.
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Organizational Culture and Leadership
by Edgar H Schein
Pub: Jossey-Bass 2nd edition 1997 ISBN 0787903620

A serious but rewarding read. Two big topics - culture and leadership and their relationships to each other are tackled by one of the best writers in this field. There's plenty here on change and learning, and the role of the Founder in an organisation, as well as diagnosing young, midlife, mature and declining organisations. Academically sound yet very accessible. Recommended.

Concise Guide to the Learning Organisation
By Mike Pedler & Aspinwall
Pub: Lemos & Crane 1998 £12.99 ISBN 1898001423
Having defined the learning organisation as one 'that facilitates the learning of all its members and consciously transforms itself and its context' , the book sets out to show how to release unrealised potential in people and organisations. It offers practical help, tools and encouragement. Grounded in organisational and learning theory, it tackles the question 'How can organisations learn?' very successfully and offers re-assuring case studies and plenty of practical activities. This is management theory at its best - well-written, accessible and easily translated into action.
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Dealing With Disputes in Voluntary Organisations : An Introduction
by: Linda Laurence and Anne Radford
Pub: NCVO 1997 £5.00 ISBN 0719915155
Not only excellent advice on handling disputes, but also lots on communication systems to avoid them in the first place. Recommended.
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The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organisation
By Peter M Senge
Pub Nicholas Brealey 1994 £19.99 ISBN 1857880609
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What A Way To Run A Railroad
By Landy et al
Pub Comedia  1985 ISBN 090689080

Written in 1985, looking back at radical organisations that emerged in the 70s only to fail after a short period of success, this book explores key concepts of the 70s – collectively, internal democracy, participation. It presents an argument that these radical projects needed to take on board questions of efficiency, finance control and marketing if they were to survive.  It is wonderfully out-spoken about “a history of blind spots”, “the revolt against structure” and “how to share the skills you can’t admit to having”.  One particularly poignant issue is its description of the radical organisations’ view on management.  “The Left avoids the idea of management by calling people co-ordinators – as if the skill of management was merely that of stopping people bumping into each other” and there is a diatribe against Adair’s Action Centred Leadership in the chapter “Looking at Management with a Jaundiced Eye”. The book was one of a series that aimed to define effective ways of working that were congruent with democratic aspirations and principles.  Is this so dated, or still relevant today?

The Committed Enterprise
By Leonard A Lauder
Butterworth Heinemann 2002 ISBN 0 7506 5540 2 £19.99 [£25.48 inc p&p]
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Equality in Action: Introducing Equal Opportunities in Voluntary Organisations
by Mee Yan Cheung Judge and Alix Henley
Pub: Directory of Social Change 1994 ISBN 0 7199 1415 9
A serious book on equal opportunities that uses an Organisational Design (OD) approach. It can therefore be used as a DIY consultancy on equal opportunities, or organisational analysis for any other reason. There are many useful exercises, checklists and ideas for change management here. Recommended.
out of print

Learning at the Core
By Rick Rogers Pub ACE 1999 out of print ISBN 0 728707896
This fascinating new study which addresses the challenge of change within arts organisations, grew out of two Arts Council education initiatives and is offered as a commentary on how integrating education in arts organisations can lead to the development of the learning arts organisation. It is both descriptive and analytical, and presents useful definitions, quotations and examples of best practice. The education-programming-marketing equation is explored and the question of how far and in what ways education should be integrated. A useful, thought-provoking, forward-looking piece. Review

See also Management Challenges in New Thinking and Managing at the Leading Edge in General management / Voluntary sector management

Networks and Partnerships

Making Partnerships Work
By Andrew Wilson and Kate Charlton
Pub: Joseph Rowntree 1997 ISBN 1899987398 £9.95 [£12.91 incl p&p]
Based on research on a range of current partnership projects, and illustrated by examples from this, the book provides a practical 5 stage approach to making partnerships work. This involves (1) forming the initiative (2) establishing common ground and shared vision (3) developing the structure (4) delivering an action plan and measuring progress and (5) an exit strategy and ‘life after death’. Many of the tricky bits are addressed – who should govern, dealing with conflict, and developing the long view. A very useful guide. Review
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To Our Mutual Advantage
by Charles Leadbeater and Ian Christie
Pub Demos 1999 £9.95 ISBN 1 898309 84 1
A review and analysis of mutuals and co-operatives that shows the significant position that they occupy in providing services today, and factors that influence their success. Mutuality had its heyday in the 19th century - perhaps it can be reborn in the 21st century. Review
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Working Together
By Ben Jupp
Pub Demos 2000 ISBN 1841800252 £7.95
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Networking Culture: The Role of European Cultural Networks
By Gudrun Pehn
Pub Council of Europe 1999 ISBN 9287139253 £7.50
A delightful and thoughtful study of networks and their current influence on European 7. Cultural policy and planning. Beginning with the origins of the word and historical examples of networks, the author then brings us right up to the present with criteria for networked organisations and the new role of the individual in them. Review
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Leadership

Dilemmas of Leadership
By Tudor Rickards, Murray Clark
Pub Routledge Sept 2005 ISBN 0415355850

In this essential new text, Rickards and Clark encourage students and practitioners alike to delve deeper into leadership complexities, and to discover what’s new and important by testing and re-drawing their leadership ‘maps’; their aspirations of leadership, transformational leadership, 5th level leadership, servant leadership, and the management of ethical dilemmas, and it illustrates the confusions and contradictions of leadership.  Issues covered include: - trust based leadership – social identity explanations of leadership – distributed leadership – ‘tipping point’ theory transformational change.  Based on the well-known Manchester Method of discovery learning, this key text includes guides and maps for leadership journeys, and advice on map reading, map testing, and map-making.

A Manager's Guide to Leadership
By Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne, Tom Boydell
Pub McGraw Hill 2004 ISBN 0077104234 £19.99 [£24.63 inc p&p]
This book is UK based and there is an emphasis on action and learning.  It starts by posing questions:  “What do you think leadership is?  And how does it differ from management?  What do you think is the best way to learn about leadership?”  It is based on research, experience and a wide reading of the leadership literature.  Leadership and management are seen as linked and overlapping, with leading more concerned with finding direction and purpose in the face of critical challenges.  Most other models are based on personal competency and focus on the individual, whereasthe model here has three domains – challenges, characteristics and context and all are important.  Rather than seeing leadership as modelled on heroic individuals, this proposes “the connected individual creating a better world in good company”.  The responsibility is on the person, but in company and relationship with other people.  Seven core practices are given – On Purpose, Power, Living with Risk, Challenging Questions, Facilitation and Networking, and then 21 key leadership challenges are posed with explanation activity and further reading.  An enormous amount of useful stuff in one book, and easily used in an arts setting.
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Principle-Centred Leadership
By Stephen R. Covey
Pub Simon & Schuster 1992 ISBN 068485841X £10.99

“Principle-centred leadership introduces a new paradigm – that we centre our lives and our leadership of organisations and people on certain “true North” principles”. The book deals with what the principles are, why we need to become principle-centred, and how we attain this quality.  Fairness, equity, justice, integrity; honesty and trust – these are what Covey suggests as a self-evident and self-validating natural laws that don’t change or shift. “Correct principles are like compasses – they are always pointing the way”.  Values, Covey says are like maps – and maps are not the territory, but the more our values are aligned with correct principles – the more accurate and useful they will be. The book examines the practice of principle-centred leadership at four levels – personal, interpersonal, managerial and organisation…  People are at the centre, and the thinking is holistic, and recognises organisations as ecosystems. With links back to his own Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and to other management thinkers’ models, this book provides a rich resource for those leading arts organisations.

Inspirational Leadership: Timeless insights from Shakespeare’s greatest leader
By Richard Olivier
Pub Spiro Press 2004 ISBN 1904298214 £10.99 [£14.49 inc p&p]
Henry V is Shakespeare’s greatest leader – inspired and inspiring, visionary yet pragmatic, powerful yet responsible. The book draws on Richard Olivier’s intimate knowledge of the play and its absorbing central character, to unmask the secrets of inspirational leadership and reveal the timeless lessons it holds for managers and leaders today.
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The Leader of the Future - New Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the Next Era
Eds Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard
Pub: Jossey-Bass 1996 £11.50 plus p&p 0787909351
Written for the American not-for-profit sector, this is a compendium of new thought. A wonderful book, and great for busy people as it is a collection of short chapters or essays written by different 'big names' from the world of management thinkers and Chief Executives from US corporations and not-for-profits. Here are the distilled thoughts of Peter Drucker, Charles Handy, Edgar Schein, Peter Senge, Ken Blanchard, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Stephen Covey and plenty of others, on the leadership required to move us into the exciting unknown of the future. Highly recommended.
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The Leadership Challenge: The Most Trusted Source on Becoming a Better Leader
By Kouzes Posner
Pub Jossey Bass 2002 3rd Ed ISBN 0787968331 £12.00 [£16.64 inc p&p]
A big book that describes itself as a field guide to take along on your leadership journey.  Written to strengthen your abilities and uplift your spirits – the principles and practices are based solidly in research.  It describes what leaders actually do, explains fundamental principles that support leadership practice and provides case examples of real people who demonstrate each practice.  The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership revealed by the research are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.  Credibility is seen as the foundation of Leadership, and values are your guides.  While aimed at American business, there is much here that can be translated for UK cultural leadership.
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The Way of The Leader: Applying the principles of Sun Tzu and Confucius – Ancient strategies for the modern business world
By Donald G Krause
Pub Nicholas Brealey 1997 ISBN 1857881370

The rulers of ancient China spent a great deal of time studying and thinking about leadership, and here the concepts of the famous general Sun Tzu and the great philosopher Confucius are brought together and applied to 21st Century business.  The ideas are not, of course, new but time and again over the last 2500 years, they have worked well.  The book first introduces “Leadership Basics” from the philosophy of Sun Tzu and Confucius as it applies to business; then introduces the SPARKLE principles – Self-Discipline, Purpose, Accomplishment, Responsibility, Knowledge, Laddership (you’ll have to read the book for an explanation of this), and Example.  The Third Section, “Lessons in Leadership” contains a series of anecdotal discussions about famous leaders from more recent history including George Washington, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison.

Perfect Leader: All you need to get it right first time
By Andrew Leigh & Michael Maynard
Pub Random House 2003 ISBN 1844131475 £6.99 [£9.59 inc p&p]
A clear, concise piece of writing with some very interesting material in it.  One of the authors was an actor, and both now promote leadership, teamwork and change management through training (including drama-based work), consultancy and publications.  Working from the premise that Old Style ‘command and control’ leaders belong to yesterday, they promote a new style of facilitating and empowering through relationships.  Being a leader depends on others, and they will be supporters rather than followers.  Most leaders are made not born, and leaders keep learning, growing, and know themselves and what they want.  Leaders need to practise a personal repertoire of leadership styles.  The book then uses a 7 ‘I’s model of leadership – Insight, Initiative, Inspiration, Involvement, Improvisation, Individuality, Implementation – to explore the topic in some detail.
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Effective Leadership: How to develop leadership skills
By John Adair
Pub Macmillan 1993 ISBN 0330302302 £6.99 [£9.74 inc p&p]
An acknowledged “classic” on the subject of leadership from the world’s first professor of “leadership studies’. The three sections cover the theoretical, the more applied aspects and finally how to ‘grow’ leadership both as an individual and in an organisation. Many of the schools of thought on leadership are discussed in the course of the book and are drawn together through the three circles model of “action –centred leadership”. This model illustrates the three areas of concern for all leaders: task, group and individual. The relationship between these complementary but competing circles is the basis of the leadership challenge. What you have to be and what you have to do to achieve this balance. “Leaders should always be aware of the group and the individual and seek to harmonise them in the service of the common task”.
There are numerous diagrams, examples and anecdotes to illustrate the text and some exercises to try out your own knowledge and skills. The book is dated in the sense that it concentrates on the individual rather than relational oriented notion of leadership that is finding increasing if sporadic advocacy amongst organisations but is nevertheless a good starting point for leadership studies.
Out of stock

Maverick: The success story behind the world’s most unusual workplace
By Ricardo Semler
Pub Random House 1999 ISBN 0712678867 £7.99 [£10.87 inc p&p]
A tale of flying in the face of accrued business wisdom.  Richard Semler puts freedom and democracy at the heart of this business – employees are free to book a desk, sofa, or café table at any one of four offices spread across San Paulo, Brazil and he tells his people constantly “we’ve all learned to answer email on Sundays, but none of us has learned to go to the movies on Monday afternoon.”  He talks of “growth without bondage”, and that “control is passé and a badge of incompetence”.  There are no policies, no rules, no dress code, no receptionists or other boring jobs.  The company has absolute trust in its employees – in fact it describes them as partners.  Managers set their own salaries, decide when to come to work and go home, and all staff have access to the company’s financial information.  The book is the incredible story of the company’s growth, and the surprising and unorthodox decisions taken along the way.
Available here at SAMs Books

What A Way To Run A Railroad
By Landy et al
Pub Comedia  1985 ISBN 0 906 890 80 £9.95
Written in 1985, looking back at radical organisations that emerged in the 70s only to fail after a short period of success, this book explores key concepts of the 70s – collectively, internal democracy, participation. It presents an argument that these radical projects needed to take on board questions of efficiency, finance control and marketing if they were to survive.  It is wonderfully out-spoken about “a history of blind spots”, “the revolt against structure” and “how to share the skills you can’t admit to having”.  One particularly poignant issue is its description of the radical organisations’ view on management.  “The Left avoids the idea of management by calling people co-ordinators – as if the skill of management was merely that of stopping people bumping into each other” and there is a diatribe against Adair’s Action Centred Leadership in the chapter “Looking at Management with a Jaundiced Eye”. The book was one of a series that aimed to define effective ways of working that were congruent with democratic aspirations and principles.  Is this so dated, or still relevant today?
Click here to buy from the publisher

Leading and Managing the Expressive Dimension - Harnessing the Hidden Power Source of the Non-Profit Sector
by David E Mason
Pub: Jossey-Bass 1996 £22.50 (Hardback) ISBN 0787901431

The expressive dimension is described as the motivational forces that influence the decision to work for a non-profit - to work towards a common goal with people who share our most deeply held beliefs, to meet exciting new challenges with distinction, and to play an active role in shaping important events. If that's the business you are in as a manager, then this book is an interesting read, with ideas, understanding behaviour, attitudes towards management and organisations, and leadership options. It is grounded by theory, with examples from practice in the States.

Change management

Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds
By Howard Gardner
Pub Harvard Business School Press 2004 ISBN1578517095

Written by top cognitive psychologist, and author of Frames of Mind, this is a book for leaders and managers and people who influence others.  The focus is on applying our own knowledge of how the mind works to bring about positive change, both for ourselves and for those who impact on our daily lives.  The author uses examples from science, religious leaders and artists, people who have broken the mould and helped to reshape our thinking.  Of art in the form of literature, music and sculpture, to name but a few, he challenges his readers to acknowledge the subconscious power of the arts; the power to bring about a change of mind and new ideas.

Who Moved My Cheese?: An amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life
By Dr Spencer Johnson
Pub Random House 1999 ISBN 0091816971

One of those slim easy-read “buy at the airport” books which uses a simple story to get across a powerful message about our reactions to change.

How to Manage Organisational Change
by D E Hussey
Pub: Kogan Page 2000 £7.99 ISBN 0749432519
This short, practical book identifies types of change, and covers causes of resistance to change, as well as developing the author's own practical approach to managing change. This is EASIER, which denotes envisioning, activating, supporting, implementing, ensuring and recognising. In my view, this book has all the ingredients needed to be useful - a solid grounding in theory and experience, accessible language, a clear focus on practical management, and it is a manageable length.
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Ten Keys to Successful Change Management
by John Pendlebury, Benoit Grouard and Francis Meston
Pub: Wiley 1998 ISBN 0471979309

See also General Management and New Thinking.
see also under Marketing heading, Relationship Marketing : Creating Stakeholder Value for coverage of relationship marketing in network organisations.

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