RESPONSIBLE SELF-MANAGEMENT

"Empowerment: The Emperor's New  Clothes"
- Provocative explanations of why  empowerment change programs usually don't work, and  suggestions of what can be done to help leaders think and act  more sensibly about empowerment
by Chris  Argyris, Harvard Business Review, March-April  1998
 
Diagnosing the System for Organizations
- Origins of the Viable System Model (VSM) of organizations, based upon fundamental cybernetic principles of communication and control
by Stafford Beer, Wiley, Chichester, 1985.
 
" The Viable System Model as a Framework for Understanding Organizations"
by Raul Espejo & Antonia Gill, Wiley, Chichester, 1989.

The Self Managing Organization: How Leading Companies Are Transforming
the Work of Teams for Real Impact
- participative design methods used to develop effective democratic decision-making in companies like Lockheed Martin, American Express, Sequa Chemicals, and Syncrude Canada; with an important and unique conclusion on 'The Role of Management in a Self Managing Organization'
by Ronald Purser & Steven Cabana, 1998;
The Free Press, New York, NY.

"From Control to Commitment in the Workplace"
- Still a classic description and explanation of the key choice in operating philosophy between the traditional and the new workplace
by Richard Walton,
Harvard Business  Review, March-April 1985