The enormous changes in America s economy over the last fifty yearsonly one in six Americans now grow or make anything for a livinghas seen the country shift away from the bureaucratic rules and structures organized by large, centralized companies decades ago. In this book sociologist Bruce Fuller explores America s renewed commitment to the localto decenter how we organize ourselves to get work donedelving into four cases of largely decentralized organizations: a Pennsylvania health-care firm, a New York international bank ...
Read More
The enormous changes in America s economy over the last fifty yearsonly one in six Americans now grow or make anything for a livinghas seen the country shift away from the bureaucratic rules and structures organized by large, centralized companies decades ago. In this book sociologist Bruce Fuller explores America s renewed commitment to the localto decenter how we organize ourselves to get work donedelving into four cases of largely decentralized organizations: a Pennsylvania health-care firm, a New York international bank, an inventive charter school in California and a small collection of NGOs that tries to aid Iowa s vets. Using these locally rooted organizations that often thrive and occasionally fall short, Fuller makes the case for why unrelenting forceseconomic and ideologicalwill continue to subvert big, bureaucratic organizations, and he unearths the key cornerstones that underpin how the new decentralists shape human cooperation. Overall, Fuller hopes this book will inform and perhaps lend order and evidence to the nation s wider, often strident debate about who holds the legitimacy or raw economic power to structure how we work together. That is, when should we fight to preserve central regulation, say to enforce greater fuel efficiency for cars, or who gets to define marriage between loved ones? Or when should we simply lift the rules or cultural norms that define how we cooperate with one another to better motivate learning, health, or trade?"
Read Less
