Corporate Abuse

How "Lean and Mean" Robs People and Profits

Lesley Wright, Marti Smye

Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 1997, 262 pages

ISBN: 0-684-81794-2

Keywords: Culture, Human Resources

Last modified: Dec. 27, 2009, 10:38 p.m.

The corporate world is a perilous land where downsizing rules the day, budget cuts are rampant, wages are stagnant and management theoris come and go with each fiscal quarter. In this atmosphere, individuals are sacrificed for the sake of the bottom line. Overworked, bullied and micromanaged, we find our contributions rarely acknowledged, ideas passed over, and our time and energy spent more on office politics and power games than on efforts to get the job done. In short, we are being abused.

Corporate Abuse is the first book to define this phenomen and show how it threatens not only employees but the very future of the business world. It details how abuse acts as a barrier to productivity and innovation; and how corporations are endangering their profit margins and potential for future success by stifling their most important assets in the information age: creative minds.

Using case histories and actual situations, it illustrates techniques on how to cope with corporate abuse, how to reintroduce civility into the workplace, how to return integrity to both corporations and their employees — and how both will profit from it.

Written by two experts in the field, this timely and controversial book redefines the corporate climate, and ensures that you'll never look at the corporate jungle in quite the same way.

  • Part One: The Dark Side of Work
    • The Dark Side of Work
    • Abuse, Justification, and Accepatance
    • Abuse and the Corporate Lifestyle
    • Lean and Mean
    • Sorcerers and Tyrants
    • Why Do We Tolerate Abuse?
  • Part Two: Working in an Uncivilized World
    • Working in an Uncivilized World
    • The Culture of Sacrifice
    • The Win/Lose Culture
    • The Culture of Blame
    • Partnerships, Not Dictatorships
  • Part Three: Civilizing the Workplace
    • Civilizing the Workplace
    • Dancing with the Devil: Identifying Abusive Cultures
    • The Boomers and the Busters
    • The New Work Regime
    • The Good News
    • The Idea-Generating Culture
    • The Creative Soul

Reviews

Corporate Abuse

Reviewed by Roland Buresund

Disappointing *** (3 out of 10)

Last modified: Dec. 27, 2009, 10:05 p.m.

This could have been a great book. The contents and the recommendations make sense and the issues are real. Unfortunately, it is one of the most boring and reader hostile books I ever laid eyes on.

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