Book review: Issues in People Management Report 15: The People Management Implications of Leaner Ways of Working Institute of Personnel and Development, London, 1996. 115 pp. £14.50
✍ Scribed by D.E. Hussey
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 32 KB
- Volume
- 6
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1086-1718
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Kennie and Professor J. Purcell) examines the people management implications of leaner ways of working, summarizes the literature in the appropriate ®elds, and contrasts this with focus group discussions and case studies. It is this contribution which I found the most valuable, as apart from ful®lling its objectives, it is a very useful reference document for anyone concerned with the process of strategic change. I found many references to relevant studies that I had been unaware of, and was disappointed that so many of them con®rmed my belief that too many organizations make a mess of strategic change.
The second report is from a team from Warwick University (C. Rees, H. Scarbrough and M. Terry) and focuses more on the personnel management implications of lean systems.
Both parts attempt to de®ne leanness, whose components include world-class production, downsizing, de-layering, business process re-engineering and total quality management.
The idea of reports of this type is to impart information and ideas, and this publication does this well. Reports are even more valuable when they make the reader think, and I defy anyone to read this report and not to be concerned about his or her own organization's approach to lean working.