Beginning

we are witnessing a remarkable transformation of the American industrial landscape as companies are being forced to adapt to a rapidly changing and unpredictable global economy.

Part 1( chapter 2,3,4) is intended to broaden readers’ understanding of organizational change and to provide a historical context for the case studies. chapter 2 summarizes the dramatic rise and fall of mass production which once led America to economic pre-eminence but today is a liability in the face of intense competition and an unpredictable environment. chapter 3 describes the emergence of mass customization, anew business concept that sets new standards for employee involvement and flexibility. chapter 4 reviews two popular strategies for change-TQM and EPR(business process reengineering and explains why neither is able to produce the necessary knowledge and commitment to respond quickly to changing conditions. also in chapter 4, I introduce the concept of organizational redesign, a strategy that engages employee in designing their own systems or produce organizations that can learn from their environment.

part 2 (chapter 5,6,7) gives the reader an insider’s view of organizational redesign at hp to see how it actually works. chapter 5 introduces the giant electronic company and describes the research method I used to capture hp’s work redesign efforts in rich detail. chapters 6 and 7 show how managers and employees in the two HP divisions struggled to share power, expand their thinking, and learn new