Hewlett-Packard is often held up as a model company in many respects. This book documents the case of introducing successful change in a large organization.

How is it relevant? It is important that consultants, executives and organization development professionals work not only from theory, but also from understanding how real companies have made real, constructive change.

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Product Description

How do corporations achieve change? In the first analytic book about Hewlett-Packard, Deone Zell also offers an ethnography of corporate redesign, documenting Hewlett-Packard's radical reorganization of both a manufacturing and a research division. Because she writes from within the process as it unfolds, Zell is able to demonstrate how the inclusion of employees in every step of redesign can inspire the knowledge and commitment to transform an organization.

Hewlett-Packard is among a growing number of companies in the United States exploring what is called sociotechnical systems (STS) redesign. As competitive pressures have grown, interest in STS has increased because it has the potential to catalyze comprehensive organizational change and avoid the pitfalls of a piecemeal or small-scale approach. STS works from the ground up, involving front-line employees in analysis and redesign of the entire organization and in explicit examination of an organization's culture.

In Hewlett-Packard's California Personal Computer Division, production operators worked alongside managers to redesign their printed circuit assembly line into self-managing teams of employees. In the Santa Clara Division, a very different workforce of engineers, initially unwilling to standardize their creativity, had to develop commercial applications and become more responsive to customers in order to survive.

On the basis of Hewlett-Packard's success, Zell concludes that, with top-level support and a high investment of resources at the outset, redesign can inspire relatively rapid change, especially suitable for organizations in fast-paced environments. As one H-P manager commented, "Empowerment is no longer a nice thing to do. It is now a business imperative."

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1860254 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 180 pages

From Library Journal
Zell (vice chancellor's office, UCLA), who based this work on her 1994 doctoral thesis, offers a detailed ethnographic case study of two sociotechnical systems (STS) redesigns at Hewlett-Packard. She begins with a brief, historical introduction to organizational change, including a summary of the rise and fall of mass production, the emergence of mass customization, and three current strategies for change?TQM, business process reengineering, and STS. She then launches into an ethnographic study that provides a rich, insider's view of the redesign process and how it actually works. Finally, she synthesizes her material into a set of recommendations and concepts for guiding others through the redesign process. A shorter description of this study appeared in Wellford W. Wilms's Restoring Prosperity (LJ 10/1/96). Recommended for academic business libraries.?Michael R. Leach, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American
I cannot think of another book that better conveys the sense of what it is like to be inside an organization that is radically rethinking its core activities and assumptions. The issues and disputes that emerge not only convincingly portray the nature of daily life inside an organization but also point to the kinds of details that, if overlooked, can thwart even the best-intentioned organizational schemes.

Review
This is the first participant observer report on an important organizational design project in a major company. It is also the first book to describe the process fully as it is taking place, and it makes clear implications for such major changes in other companies. -- William F. Whyte, Cornell University

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Customer Reviews

An In Depth INsight into Radical Culture Change
This book give 2 in depth studies from HP factory and R&D environments. I found the insights and information invaluable in my work as a consultant. As a consult to HP I found that the atmosphere rang true. I have recommended it to HP top managers and they have ordered it too!

An inspirational and eye-opening book!!!
This book gives organizations a vision of positive and effective change. It confirms that it is possible with the correct ingrediences...