Beyond Reengineering: How the Process-Centered Organization Is Changing Our Work and Our Lives

In the old-fashioned, task-oriented corporation, closely supervised drones perform isolated functions, slowly and inflexibly. By contrast, in the forward-looking, process-oriented corporation envisaged by bestselling business guru Hammer (Reengineering the Corporation), self-directed, autonomous workers who act like professionals focus on interrelated groups of tasks. Amplifying the message of his previous book, he uses case histories featuring Showtime Networks, GTE Corp., Aetna Life, American Standard, General Electric and other firms to show how companies can make the transition to a process focus. He discusses the impact of reengineering on job definition, remuneration, leadership, planning. No competitive manager can afford to miss this manual, which offers fresh insights into how to detect and zap non-value-adding busywork, how to tap workers' imagination and resourcefulness and how to turn employees from organic robots into entrepreneurial team players. $150,000 ad/promo; author tour. Translation rights: Bob Barnett Agency; U.K. rights: HarperCollins UK. (Aug.)