Skip to main content

Stephen R. Block Reading List

I got this list of Recommended Reading from the book Why Nonprofits Fail, by Stephen R. Block. They are good references so I wanted to make note of them for my future reading.

Motivation and Achievement, by Raynor and Atkinson.
"The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Job Performance: a Meta-Analysis." by Barrick and Mount, published in Personnel Psychology, 1991 44 1-26.
Making the Right Decision, by Beach.
Managing Intergroup Conflict in Industry, by Blake and Shepard.
Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest, by Peter Block.
"Escalating Commitment to a Failing Course of Action: Separating the Roles of Choice and Justification." by Bobocel and Meyer, Journal of Applied Psychology, 1994 79 360-364.
Supervision and Performance: Managing Professional Work in Human Service Organizations, by Bunker and Wijnberg.
Charismatic Leadership, by Conger and Kanungo.
"Culture: A New Look Through Old Lenses." by Deal and Kennedy, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1983 19 498-505.
Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness, by Denison.
"The Definition of Organizational Politics: A Review." by Drory and Romm, Human Relations, 1990 43 1133-1155.
"Patterns of Political Behavior in Organizations." by Farrell and Petersen, Academy of Management Review 1982 7 403-412.
Keeping Good People, by Herman.
How to Become and Employer of Choice, by Herman and Gioia.
Ten Steps to a Learning Organization, by Kline and Saunders.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Kuhn.
The Lack of Money is the Root of All Evil, by Leckey.
Field Theory in Social Science, by Lewin.
Transforming the Way We Work: The Power of the Collaborative Workplace, by Marshall.
Team-Based Organizations, by Mohrman, Cohen and Mohrman.
Making Tough Decisions: Tactics for Improving Managerial Decision Making, by Nutt.
Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development, by Schein.
"The Role of the Founder in Creating Organizational Culture". by Schein in Organizational Dynamics 1983 12 13-28.
Organizational Culture and Leadership, by Schein.
"The Structure of Interpersonal Trust in the Workplace," by Schindler in Psychological Reports 1993 73 563-574.
Organizations in Action, by Thompson.
"Why Board Members Participate," by Widmer in Nonprofit Boards of Directors: Analyses and Applications.

from his references

"Toward and Understanding of Founder's Syndrome: An Assessment of Power and Privilege Among Founders of Nonprofit Organizations." by Block and Rosenberg in Nonprofit Management and and Leadership.
Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership, by Colman and Deal.
Managing Beyond the Quick Fix, by Kilmann.
"The New Work of the Nonprofit Board." by Taylor, Chait and Holland. In the Harvard Business Review, September/October 1996 pp 36-46.
Work and Motivation, by Vroom.

Popular posts from this blog

An Army of Davids

So, I've been spending some time with Glenn Reynold's book (Glenn being of course the seminal and highly influential Instapundit ), and I must say that it gives me lots of language I can use to talk about phenomena that are easily observable right now. I think you could say that Glenn Reynolds has done for technology what Virginia Postrel did with design topics . Which is to say, they beat the drum and say, hey, look at what this democratization of knowledge can do for you! In that vein, the book is really pretty visionary, pointing out the magic of the internet age. And I for one see it as magical. You know how Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pa in Little Town on the Prairie said to Laura that it was an amazing time to be alive (that was in the 1890s)? I've been actively thinking that to myself for the past few years, and An Army of Davids gives me ample evidence to back that up with its talk of citizen empowerment and the "comfy chair revolution." The theme of ...

Managing the Nonprofit Organization (Part Three)

1. What is the bottom line when there is no bottom line? Businesses as a default can rely on profit as an effectiveness measure. Nonprofits cannot use this concrete measure meaningfully. There are many different ways of looking at measurements that can serve as bottom lines of sorts, but the trick is to pick the right measurement to look at. And that can change over time, so it needs to be incorporated into the strategic planning (or whatever you want to call it) process. Nonprofits have many different customers which all need to be pleased to differing degrees. Drucker talks about the difficulty nonprofits have abandoning lost causes. Nonprofits have to distinguish between moral causes and economic causes. A moral cause is an absolute good. Preachers have been thundering against fornication for five thousand years. Results, alas, have been nil, but that only proves how deeply entrenched evil is. The absence of results indicates only that efforts have to be increased. This is the essen...

Public sector information design

Here's an article from the UK's Design Council talking about how information design is important in public-sector efforts. Of course, it's helpful to everyone, but this is a good example of the universal need for better presentation of information--and more design.