Doug Becker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>You make excellent points, John.
>
>A more comprehensive look at how Corporate Management works 
>(including HP) may be found in "Moral Mazes" by Robert Jackall.
>
>Be appalled! Be very appalled!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195060806/qid%3D966367578/002- 
9277878-4360021

(You may have to reassemble this URL if somebody along the line
splits it -- now, there is some language play :-)

From the reviews at Amazon on the (split?) URL in question:

Los Angeles Times:
"Scandals over 'insider trading,' as practiced by Oliver North
as well as by Ivan Boesky, have helped turn business ethics
books into a booming business. Moral Mazes is the best of the
recent releases."

Geoffrey C. Hazard, Yale Journal on Regulation:
"An interesting, unorthodox, and provocative book....Better
than any other I have seen, [Jackall's] study reveals the
reality of the manager's world."

Craig Calhoun, Contemporary Sociology:
One of the most distinguished contributions [to the study of
the business world] to date....[Jackall's] account of the place
of bureaucratic politics in managerial work is powerful and
persuasive, a significant addition to the literature."

John Van Maanen, Administrative Science Quarterly:
"A disturbing book....It evokes, cautions, and speaks of the
secrets to be found in organizational worlds, and few readers
will be unmoved by the author's careful, culturally informed
critique of managerial practice."

Calvin Morrill, Science:
"A finely crafted work that can and should be read by both
scholars and practitioners interested in organizational life.
It will surely be the standard by which to measure future
studies of morality and bureaucracy."

A reader from Waterloo, Ontario:
This book ought to be required reading for all MBA candidates
and would be corporate middle managers as an intro into the
sad and dysfunctional but real corporate world. In numerous
scenes that will be instantly familiar to anyone who has worked
at a Fortune 200 firm the book recounts numerous instances of
failed and misdirected management. Depressing because it reveals
the underbelly of corporate America and capitalism but readable
in its accurate portrayal. Occasionally at times slow
(particularly towards the end when he presumably is tired of
writing) it does a clinical autopsy on management. Like watching
a train wreck you are compelled to keep reading even as you
realize the denouement. If you think that ignorance is bliss -
give this a miss - on the other hand, if you are a frustrated
idealist and need proof that in order for evil to overcome good,
good only has to do nothing, it is worth the investment. An
excellent primer on why we need ethics courses but more importantly
ethical actions.

  _______________
|               |
|               |
|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
|_______________|