Marvin Weisbord is a US-based consultant and writer, and his revised textbook, Productive Workplaces Revisited delves into the concepts and case studies presented in his twenty-something-year-old original work.
The book is divided into three sections: The search for productive workplaces, Transforming theory into practice and practice into theory, and Learning and applying new practice theories. The first part looks at the history of organisational development pioneers such as McGregor, Lewin and Trist and examines their contribution to modern workplaces. In the second part, Weisbord elaborates upon their theories and further refines his own for boosting workplace productivity, through processes such as ‘open systems thinking’. The third and final part looks at how these processes can be applied to the workplace, and issues a call to readers to further the growth and evolution of organisational development.
While Productive Workplaces Revisited is an academic text and heavy going at times, Weisbord shows readers the outcomes and implications for organisational development practitioners. All in all, a good balance of theory and practice infused with a number of useful insights.
News