This book appears to be aimed primarily at practitioners, but it is also intended to be a bridge between theory and practice in both directions. This intention is rarely achieved elsewhere and therefore to be applauded.
Flamholtz and Randall set out to use both theoretical and practical models of organisational change. They give a number of change management models and these are straightforward and would be easy to apply. The authors highlight academic research, which backs up their work, but practitioners are likely to draw their own conclusions on the plausibility of the models and find space given over to research justification distracting.
Nine case studies are documented. By giving a large number of cases, the authors have selected a good mix of organisation/change management types, however as by far the largest chunk of the book, this section of the book would have benefited from an edit coup. The chapters could have been much more readable if had they been written from the point of view of “what would the reader benefit from knowing”. There is useful information in these chapters, but a lot of the content is not of immediate interest. The chapters end in different formats, a clear structure to the conclusions and perhaps a set of clear and quick to read summaries, e.g. key lessons learned would have been easier to follow and been of more use.
The presentation of the book is in a staid format; perhaps this is a reflection of the ambiguity of purpose (in terms of whether it is intended as a guide for practitioners or as an academic text). It is in a layout format that works well enough, but would have been much easier to access with the use of, e.g. colour/box inserts to highlight significant sections and also by the provision of clear checklists and bullet points. If the book is aimed primarily at practitioner change leaders, the value of the content may be lost in the dry presentation style; they may be used to much easier to access information. An effective feature is the split references for further reading – with separate practitioner and academic oriented lists.
In conclusion, in this book there are models, which would be valuable to practitioners in leading effective management of change projects. Whether the authors will achieve the aim of influencing academic view on change is less clear cut. Flamholtz and Randall have made a genuine approach to give theoretical models, which will be of use in practice.
At a price of £25 would I buy it? If it was for an organisational project, (i.e. they were paying for it), yes I would!
