Your Organization: What Is It For? Challenging Traditional Organizational Aims Routledge Library Editions: Management Series

This book, first published in 1993, challenges the accepted and practised methods organizations use to set standards of performance and quantify their achievements. Using in-depth case studies, John Argenti compares the performance of companies with that of non-profit making organizations to reveal remarkable insights into corporate culture. He notes how companies meticulously evaluate their performance, yet behave poorly in society while, in stark contrast, these actions are reversed in non-profit making organizations.

Your Organization: What Is It For? is essential reading for everyone who exercises the role of governance and is responsible for the overall performance and conduct of their organization.

Preface; 1. The Problem 2. The Solution 3. Organizations: What Are They For? 4. The Purpose Sequence 5. Performance Indicators 6. The Target Sequence 7. The Purpose Sequence for Companies 8. The Spoilers 9. The Purpose Sequence for NPOs 10. A College and the Girl Guides 11. The Prisons. Local and National Government 12. The Police. Architects 13. The Stakeholder Theory 14. The Principle of Engagement 15. Defective Systems of Governance 16. The Governing Directors 17. The Management of Organizations 18. The Consequences of the Beneficiary Doctrine 19. The Governance of Nations; Glossary; References; Index