Framebreak: The Radical Redesign of American Business

In this captivating work, Mitroff ( The Unreality Industry ), Mason ( Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions ) and management consultant Pearson postulate that the draconian downsizing of America's corporations has resulted from dysfunctional ``multifunctional, multidivisional, and hierarchic'' organizations. They observe that ``The large bureaucracies of the nineteenth and twentieth century have become victims of their past success . . . trapped inside a form that no longer works.'' The authors argue that we must reconceptualize the business organization as a whole around substantive functions: issues and crisis management, total quality management, environmentalism, globalism and ethics. Their total systems approach draws heavily on a what they say is a radical new structure that encompasses four major dimensions: (1) knowledge and learning, (2) recovery and development, (3) world service and spirituality and (4) world-class operations. Deftly using case studies (e.g., Exxon, The Body Shop) and a sharply focused narrative, the authors have crafted a work that is too brief but intriguing. (Apr.)