People and Organizations Interacting

People and Organizations Interacting Edited by Aat Brakel Consultant, Formerly with Shell International Petroleum Company Through a series of case studies this book explores the interactive process between people and organizations which has resulted through rapidly changing technologies. By concentrating on one pioneering company—Shell—it shows how a successful industry and its employees can adapt and survive in an ever–changing environment. At the same time the contents illustrate how practice and theory interact and how organizational theory, both explicitly and implicitly, has been used in very diverse cultural settings. This book explains why and how organizations adapt both in content and context and emphasizes that to move towards a more desirable future it is essential to look at organizations in an interactive way. Contents Foreword; Introduction; 1. A way to look at things, Aat Brakel; 2. The Project with the long breath’: Organizational change in a tanker company, Jacques Roggema and Theo Voors; 3. Organization change on a North Sea project, Donald Mungall; 4. From vertical to horizontal; New organizational principles in a refinery. Arie Langstraat and Jacques Roggema; 5. Redesign in research: Participative redesign of work organizations, Cees Th. Greeve; 6. Organization development on the shop floor, Jeroen van der Veer and Jan E. M. Boezeman; 7. Evolution, revolution, and the battle for survival, Dave Cormack and Brian Wallace; 8. Organization design in Canada: Shell Canada’s Sarnia Chemical Plant, Norman Halpern; 9. Development in A/S Norske Shell’s organization, Lars Gjemdal; 10. Working life in Japan, Osamu Hattori; 11. A group in transition, Jim Watson and Wendy Pritchard; 12. The cultural perspective, Geert Hofstede; 13. Managing diversity, Aat Brakel; Index.