Leading Contemporary Organizations
Psychodynamic Perspectives on Crisis and Change

Fraher explains how the likelihood of crisis increases when leaders are challenged to make difficult decisions in ambiguous contexts.

Amy L. Fraher (Author)

9781316614754, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 May 2020

308 pages
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

'All CEOs and Risk and Crisis leaders within organizations should read this thought provoking book. Amy dissects a wide range of contemporary crises in a critical manner and helps explain why most of these could have been avoided.' Brian McGarrie, Director, Part Time BSc Business Management Programme (Singapore), University of Birmingham

Why do organizations fail? What hinders otherwise responsible leaders from recognizing looming disasters? What prevents well-intentioned people from responding properly to an emerging crisis? Using systems psychodynamics to analyze an array of international crises, Amy L. Fraher explores ethical challenges at Silicon Valley tech companies, the Wall Street implosions that led to the 2008 financial industry crash, and a wide range of social crises, policy failures, and natural disasters, offering a crisis management philosophy applicable in diverse settings. Rather than viewing crises as anomalies that cannot be anticipated, Fraher persuasively argues that crises can, and should, be embraced as naturally occurring by-products of any organization's change management processes. If leaders do not proactively manage organizational change, they will inevitably manage crisis instead. This accessible textbook will appeal to business students and researchers studying leadership, change and crisis, as well as progressive-minded business leaders keen to improve their own organizations.

Preface
Crisis case studies
1. Irrationality and crisis
2. Leadership and crisis
3. Change and crisis
4. Hubris and crisis
5. Sensemaking and crisis
6. Ethics and crisis
7. Identity and crisis
8. Policy and crisis
9. Power and crisis
10. Paradox and crisis
Endnotes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Management: leadership & motivation [KJMB], Business & management [KJ], Occupational & industrial psychology [JMJ], Psychology [JM]