The IEBM Handbook of Organizational Behaviour

Citation

Borghini, S. (2002), "The IEBM Handbook of Organizational Behaviour", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 232-233. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2002.23.4.232.2

Asserting that this handbook, built on titles from the International Encyclopedia of Business and Management, can be considered a rich collection of contributions in the wide field of organizational behaviour (OB) is true, but does not give the right credit to the work of the editors and authors. The most remarkable contribution of the editors is the choice of the subjects dealt in the handbook and the way the chapters are assigned in the seven sections.

As well as the first section, addressed to introduce the field and its history, the titles are organized in six distinct sections which give the collection an internal coherence. One part of the handbook deals with the paradigms and the theoretical approaches that in some way have influenced the evolution of the field. The variety and the theoretical distance between them enlighten the reader on the existing pluralism in organization theories.

A second section highlights the specific role made by contexts and environments on organization behaviour introducing the factors that are traditionally considered to have an effect on it: organizational culture, business systems, network, communication, corporate governance, accounting, technology and so on.

The following section – not necessary consequential to the previous described – deals with a series of subjects necessary to observe and “perceive” better how organizational processes work: organizational information and knowledge, decision making, co‐ordination and control, leadership, organizational structure, crisis management and so on.

Another section is devoted to help the reader to understand the importance of the role made by individuals – and especially their feelings, emotions, interests, aspiration or resistance to power, motivations and satisfactions – and groups.

A special section collects some titles which deal with the processes strictly involved in innovation, evolution and decline of organizations such as change, development and learning.

To complete the collection, in the last section is included a set of biographies of management thinkers who have made an important contribution to OB.

In each section, the titles present an overview of a particular concept, paradigm or person that contributed to build up the field and offer to the reader some proposals for further reading as well as complete cited references and other related titles in the handbook or in IEBM.

Like the titles of an encyclopaedia, a reader can chose any subject of the book, without respecting any particular order, depending only on one’s own interests or previous knowledge. This shape allows me to recommend the reading to both academics and practitioners interested in any aspects of organization. On the other hand, this feature can make the handbook something difficult to deal with, especially for neophytes who are looking for easy one‐way teaching.

Finally, it can be asserted that this handbook leaves to everyone the possibility to build one’s own idea on the different paradigms or theoretical approaches to OB. It helps to explore and investigate the wide and complex world of organizations and, above all, to start a personal learning path.