Maslow on Management

Abraham Maslow

This book is a transcript of Maslow's notes on a variety of subjects that touch the fields of psychology, economics, management, and sociology. While Maslow is best known as the mind behind the theory of the hierarchy of needs and self-actualization, this book also includes his observations from extensive observation of various firms. He was intrigued by questions about human nature, motivation, and productivity. Throughout the book he grapples with how these concepts all work together in compensation plans, managerial practices, and culture.

That Urge to Achieve

David McClelland

In this article, McClelland asserts that There is a minority which is challenged by opportunity and willing to work hard to achieve something, and the majority which really does not care at all. He offers a perspective on human nature and productivity that differs sharply from Maslow and McGregor, consistent more with McGregors Theory X management.

The Human Side of Enterprise

Douglas McGregor

In this article, McGregor lays out the details behind the two different perspectives he thinks that managers take to their work. These two approaches, dubbed Theory X and Theory Y, were later used by Maslow and others to talk about management philosophies and actually draw on Maslows heirerarchy of needs featured in Maslow on Management. The opposing views are also an illustration of the institutions of national economies applied within a firm. Theory X is a more command-and-control model, which McGregor points out is self-fulfilling by its very nature. Theory Y, on the other hand is entrepreneurial, taking a more favorable view of human nature and productivity.

The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages

Tom Bethell

How did property rights save the first English colonies in North America? Did a lack of property rights cause the Irish Potato Famine? Do property rights explain the wealth of some nations and the poverty of others? How do you set up a successful commune? In The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages, Tom Bethell brings lifeand historical pertinenceto the usually drab subject of property rights. The New York Times labeled it learned and amusing, and few books on such an important subject are as informative and easy to read.

The Neuroscience of Leadership

David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz

This article offers insight from the field of neuroscience into exactly how the brain functions under different leadership and learning styles. It touches on the importance of mental models, expectations, and processes of institutional and behavioral change to show that we are hardwired to develop routines that literally make change painful. The also offer advice on how to deal with this physiological reality to best effect change in an organization.

Halo Effect

Phil Rosenzweig

While the classic books written on management practices have boasted strong sales numbers, Rosenzweig challenges both their research methodology and their prescriptive recommendations. Most of these books and magazine articles written in the same style are researched by asking CEOs of successful companies to reflect upon the keys to their success. These studies thus fall victim to the Halo Effect, which is a inability to separate evaluations of performance from the apparent results of the efforts. He even looks at the way the same companies and CEOs are described during successful years versus less profitable ones. Rosenzweig points out all the different ways that management researchers delude themselves and their audiences in a search for an inspirational story for readers; and while he sees value in a compelling story, he reminds readers that the business world isnt full of variables like the world of physics, and theres no single formula of culture, strategy, execution, etc. for success.

Ten Ways to Create Shareholder Value

Alfred Rappaport

In most cases, the practice of giving stock options to upper management has not reached the goal of shifting to a long-term value creating model. This article looks at why this is the case. In addition, the author makes a few suggestions for different steps that might be taken to alleviate this problem.

The folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B

Steven Kerr

Kerr illustrates beautifully that managers often design systems with one desired outcome, but mistakenly reward behavior that is inconsistent with that result. He provides examples of this in academia, sports, business, and more. While the article doesn't address the difficulty of crafting better incentives, it demonstrates just how destructive poorly designed systems can be.

Constrained and Unconstrained Visions

Thomas Sowell

When examining the nature of man, two opposite assumptions concerning human limitations have been ardently defended throughout history. Man is either inherently constrained by his own internal imperfections or inherently unconstrained but for society's hold on him. Sowell, in chapter two of his book A Conflict of Visions, shows how opinions regarding this philosophical question have affected everything from historic revolutions to daily economic choices of people around the world.

Shared Vision

Peter M. Senge

Senge uses perceptive examples and engaging rhetoric to argue that shared visions emerge from personal visions in his book The Fifth Discipline. This principle inspires his analysis of vision-casting, vision-led leadership, and the vital importance of visions escaping their current arenas: the pages of non-relevant informational handbooks and the world of idealistic sentences with no application to reality. Senge presents a model for reality-based and influential vision-making that guides every member of an organization.

The Pricing Process

Ludwig von Mises

In this chapter of his well-known book, Human Action, Mises dissects the process and motivation of prices. He advocates the vital need for the entrepreneur in the pricing process and the free markets tendency to move towards equilibrium. He also speaks to the role of value in prices, including his analysis of why the term a fair price is both illogical and impossible.

I, Pencil

Leonard Reed

In this famous short essay, Read uses the simple illustration of the manufacturing of a pencil to explain valuable market principles. He outlines a process involving wood, lacquer, metal, labels and lead, and by doing so, creatively illuminates principles such as comparative advantage, spontaneous order, and self interest.

How the West Grew Rich

Nathan Rosenberg & L.E. Birdzell, Jr.

Progress and prosperity stand as exceptions to the rule in most of the world. However, contrasting a global standard of poverty, plague, and illiteracy, the past two hundred years of Western civilization has exhibited unmatched wealth, health, and education. In the introduction to their book, How the West Grew Rich, Rosenberg and Birdzell examine the nature of wealth, previous explanations for the Wests success, and their analysis of the true reason for this unprecedented growth.

The Process of Creative Destruction

Joseph A. Schumpeter

The process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in. In chapter seven of his book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Schumpeter demonstrates the vital role of creative destruction within markets and the logical fallacy in examining current industry structures instead of organizations' potential to create and destroy.

The Republic of Science: Its Political and Economic Theory

Michael Polanyi

In this article Polanyi, a man known for his work in both science and economics, uses the historic pursuit of scientific discovery to model the behavior needed for productive innovation and discovery. He emphasizes the value of scientists being able to pursue independent initiatives with no restriction. Polanyi argues that those independent initiatives, both in science and within the market, lead to the natural coordination of creativity.

The Use of Knowledge in Society

F.A. Hayek

In a world of dispersed knowledge, the challenge is to coordinate that knowledge effectively. Hayek explains how markets and prices offer the best way to organize knowledgein other words, a lack of central organization actually creates the most effective organization.

Pipe Dreams-Warner Corp

Jay Finegan

This case study analyzes the business and market solutions implemented by CEO Tom Warner and Warner Corp, a plumbing company in the DC area. He took a rapidly plummeting business and revitalized it into a rapidly growing network by transforming his workers from mere paid employees into incentive-driven, risk-taking, small business owners.