The Abilene Paradox

The Abilene Paradox may be unlike any other management book you've ever read. Jerry Harvey's observations on the absurdities of organizational life will make you laugh, ponder, wince — they may even infuriate you — but chnces ae, you'll hear your own thoughts and frustrations echoed in its pages. And you'll begin to see your company in a new way.

Harvey challenges you to face such questions as:

• Do you work in a "phroag" farm? (In fairy tales, a princess' kiss can turn frogs into princes, but you can expect just the opposite to happen in most organizations.)
• What can the experience of the Japan Air Lines pilot who made a perfect landing into the San Fransisco Bay teach us about honesty and risk-taking in organizations?
• How well would Marshall Matt Dillon — who constantly faced down angry lynch mobs on TV's Gunsmoke — do in your company?
• Why is the management of agreement rather than conflict one of the greatest challenges facing managers today?

1. Introduction
2. The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement
3. Organizations as Phrog Farms
4. Management and the Myth of Abraham; or, Go Plant a Cabbage on God's Behalf
5. Captain Asoh and the Concept of Grace
6. Eichmann in the Organization
7. Group Tyranny and the Gunsmoke Phenomenon
8. Encouraging Future Managers to Cheat

• Notes
• Selected Readings
• About the Author

A very interesting book about management and organizational behavior.

Not mind-blowing, but a very good and interesting book that get you to think, which is indeed high praise.

Recommended.