Breaking the Mold
Redesigning Work for Productive and Satisfying Lives
-
- USD 21.99
-
- USD 21.99
Descripción editorial
In Breaking the Mold, Lotte Bailyn argues that society's separation of work and family is no longer a tenable model for employees or the organizations that employ them. Unless American business is willing to radically rethink some of its basic assumptions about work, career paths, and time, both employee and employer will suffer in today's intensely competitive business environment. Bailyn's message was bold when this book was originally published in 1993. Now thoroughly updated to reflect the latest developments in the organization of work, the demography of the workforce, and attitudes toward the integration of work and personal life, this second edition is even more compelling.
Bailyn finds that implementation of policies designed to allow "flexibility" is rarely smooth and often results in gender inequity. Using real-life cases to illustrate the problems employees encounter in coordinating work and private life, she details how corporations generally handle these problems and suggests models for innovation. Throughout, she shows how the structure and culture of corporate life could be changed to integrate employees' other obligations and interests, and in the process help organizations become more effective.
Drawing on international comparisons as well as many years of working with organizations of various kinds, Bailyn emphasizes the need to redesign work itself. Breaking the Mold allows us to rethink the connections between organizational processes and personal concerns. Implementation of Bailyn's suggestions could help employees to become more effective in all realms of their complicated lives and allow employing organizations to engage their full productive potential.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bailyn has written a book employees will want to give to their bosses. The author, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, argues that the traditional way companies organize their operations and measure success--around time concepts--needs to be revised. Bailyn contends that changes in society, primarily the increasing number of women in the workforce, should prompt companies to find methods that allow their employees to ``work smarter, not longer.'' Using such techniques as occupational autonomy, empowerment and flexibility, corporations can devise organizational structures that can both increase productivity and lessen chances of burnout. The book has its limitations, however. Bailyn frequently lapses into academese, which could discourage readers. Another drawback, and one which Bailyn herself acknowledges, is that the book deals only with professional employees (e.g., lawyers, consultants, engineers), making the application of some of her theories to the factory floor questionable. Still, for employers interested in learning what they can do to adapt to the needs of a changing workforce, Bailyn's book should be able to provide a tip or two.