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Title: The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton, Harvard Business School Press ISBN: 1-57851-124-0 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.28 (25 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not really applicable to small companies
Comment: This book is not so much about knowing-doing gap as about how things are done in big traditional hierarchical organization. I doubt that there are many small entrepreneurial companies that have similar problems.
When talk replaces action - when there are too many people in the company whose sole job is "analyzing", "monitoring" and "controlling". No wonder that their performance is measured by talking, presenting and writing. In a company of 10 people nobody would tolerate a "talker" for more than several days.
When memory replaces thinking - on the whole that's not a bad thing because we are talking about experience and intuition here. Big corporations have so much "memory" that they don't need to think much about anything. Actually in such cultures as Japanese intellect and formal knowledge are almost synonyms.
When measurements prevent good judgment - measurements are needed when real-life results and actual work are set too much apart. In small companies you simply deliver or not.
All other major key points of the book are also applicable mostly to big companies and don't explain why in small companies knowing - doing gap exists. Maybe because thinking replaces memory?
Rating: 3
Summary: Contemporary Update on Change Management
Comment: 'The Knowing-Doing Gap' describes the barriers to turning knowledge or strategy into action based upon surveys, interviews, and case-study evidence spanning many sectors. The problem: US companies annually spend over US$100 billion on training and consulting often failing to improve operations.
The well-referenced and presented chapters span:
* knowing "what" is not enough- evidence, measuring & significance of the knowing-doing gap, and knowledge management projects.
* when talk substitutes for action- presentations, documents, mission statements, planning, smart-talk, smart negative people, business school 'bad' training, and complexity & jargon (remedies described include working leaders, simplicity, vocabulary).
* when memory is a substitute for thinking- convention & consistency, culture, history, and need for cognitive closures.
* when fear prevents acting on knowledge- fear as management and the remedies.
* when measurement obstructs good judgement- problematic measures, short-term financial focus, over-complexity, and in-process versus outcome measures (remedy- simplicity & focus on critical elements).
* when internal competition turns friends into enemies- undermining loyalty & teamwork & knowledge sharing, and significance of interdependence.
* firms that surmount the knowing-doing gap- British Petroleum, Barclays Global Investors, and New Zealand Post.
* turning knowledge into action- 8 guidelines including- company philosophy, knowing from doing and teaching others how, action counts more than elegant plans & concepts, forgiving mistakes from action, drive out fear, fight external competitors, measure what matters, and lead by example.
Weakness include the subjectively dry "unemotional/unengaging" style of writing; the verbatim repetition of some sections in different chapters (perhaps a re-edit could reduce page count by 25% without losing content); occasional errors in use of sector-specific jargon; and relatively shallow treatment of significant subject- perhaps a deeper follow-up text with case-study evidence of whether the recommendations actually work together is due? Also the book neglects attention to dot.com enterprises- which are through self-fulfilling prophecies- transforming the global business landscape.
Overall a timely text, addressing a real-problem, that is worth shelf-space. Despite that, to this reviewer there were no new 'aha' moments- as the findings/recommendations repeated many already existing in change management business texts spanning the last 3 decades.
Rating: 3
Summary: too lengthy but good ideas
Comment: I like the writings of Bob Sutton and had high expectations when I read this book but was somewhat disappointed for a couple of reasons. First, the book is about a number of (very good) ideas, which could have been brought across in much fewer pages. After some pages, the same couple of thoughts about the same couple of companies become repetitive. Secondly, as with many management books, there tends to be black and white but not much gray (eg where the authors interview employees and where you get a sense that the output is very one-sided). But in business, there's a lot of gray, and true understanding is often about the nuances.
Nevertheless, the book is strong where it's about unconventional approaches and makes good, albeit sometimes light, reading.
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Title: Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation by Robert I. Sutton ISBN: 0743212126 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People by Charles A. O'Reilly, Charles A. O'Reilly, Jeffrey Pfeffer ISBN: 0875848982 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First by Jeffrey Pfeffer ISBN: 0875848419 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Ram Charan, Charles Burck, Larry Bossidy ISBN: 0609610570 Publisher: Crown Business Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Working Knowledge by Thomas H. Davenport, Laurence Prusak ISBN: 1578513014 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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