Out of the box thinking for successful managers

"Preface During my years spent in the corporate world, first as an employee, then as a consultant, and during the close to 20 years I have taught management theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, I have tripped continually over management practices that don't make much sense. For example, why do so many companies have evaluation and reward systems that force employees to compete against each other while, at the same time, these companies preach the gospel of cooperation and teamwork? Why is MBO still so popular? Why do companies continue to downsize when this practice has been proven antithetical to long-term success? Why do we continue to pay homage to the Baldrige Quality Award criteria when so many companies that have shaped their cultures around these criteria, even companies that have won the award, continue to run into serious problems afterward? Why do executives keep flocking to the next version of Frederick Taylor's scientific management as the holy grail in terms of increasing productivity when all the versions previously introduced have fallen short, and for the same reason? Why do efforts to improve the ethical climate in organizations continue to focus on "converting" the individual employee, rather than on redesigning the processes that encourage, that sometimes even force, unethical behavior? Some of these practices I have written about in books--Quality Improvement: A Systems Perspective in 1998; The Roots and Future of Management Theory: A Systems Perspective in Au: OK to change heading to Preface? AU: Please use full term for MBO"--