"The Organization As Your Instrument"
by D.M. Shusterman and M. A. Ivanov
To fully realize her enormous potential, Russia is in need of foreign investment. But confident investment requires not only the assessment of business plans, financial models, markets and technology: management is coming under increasing scrutiny. The pressure to put together effective teams of competent managers is growing, and there is, as everywhere, a huge deficit.
This is not just the role of business education: practical organization development (OD) consultants play an important role in developing managers - for they are process consultants whose ultimate success is the development of clients who see, understand and manage change within their enterprises.
Shusterman and Ivanov ( ) have written the cornerstone work on OD in a market where effective management is only lately becoming fully appreciated, and where few realize the value-added OD has to offer. In short, the authors are ahead of their time, or should I say right on time. They lay out the basics in an accessible and logical way, leading the consultant or manager through the components of the organization and the subtleties of managing change.
The authors walk a fine line, making explicit the details and layers of the organization, yet avoiding the obvious trap of oversimplification. They do not pretend to 'rewrite OD', to rename it or to brand it as their own, but only to place it in the profoundly unique cultural and organizational contexts of the Russian business environment. Shusterman and Ivanov lend this groundbreaking work the credibility of practicing consultants, among the first and certainly among the most prominent.
Furthermore, the authors are very clear on their definition and approach to consulting: they eschew the expert approach in favor of process consulting, and orient themselves on the client and on the action learning process. They make clear the path of the consultant - to relentlessly context themselves, at once on the levels of national culture, business environment, corporate culture and the personal paradigms of their manager-clients.
Shusterman and Ivanov provide valuable insights into the Russian cultural paradigm () - insights which will be helpful to foreign and domestic consultants alike. For the Russian market is unique, and effective consulting depends on knowledge in at least two fields: the fundamentals of management and OD supported by a profound grasp of the specificities of this Russian business context. Shusterman and Ivanov provide a coherent and credible overview of both of these fields of knowledge.
"Moscow At Your Door"
by Maria Kostromina-Wayne and J Paul Wayne
A new title in the "Culture Shock" series by Times Publishers of Singapore.
