The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization
Two distinguished scholars offer eight steps to help organizations discover and embrace an authentic higher purpose—something that will dramatically improve every aspect of any enterprise, including the bottom line.

What does a lofty notion like purpose have to do with business basics like the bottom line? Robert E. Quinn and Anjan J. Thakor say pretty much everything. Leaders and managers are taught that employees are self-interested and work resistant, so they create systems of control to combat these expectations. Workers resent these systems, and performance suffers. To address the performance issues, managers double down on the coercion, creating a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But there is a better way. Quinn and Thakor show that when an authentic higher purpose permeates business strategy and decision-making, the cycle is broken. Employers and employees see themselves as working together toward an inspiring goal, not just trying to hit quarterly targets. They fully engage, become proactive contributors, and, ironically, easily exceed those quarterly targets.

Based on their widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, Quinn and Thakor offer eight sometimes surprising steps for shifting from a transaction-oriented mind-set focused on constraints to a purpose-oriented mind-set focused on possibility. This iconoclastic book will help any organization discover its authentic purpose and weave it into the fabric of everything it does, leading to unprecedented levels of personal satisfaction, service and product innovation, and economic growth.
1129854223
The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization
Two distinguished scholars offer eight steps to help organizations discover and embrace an authentic higher purpose—something that will dramatically improve every aspect of any enterprise, including the bottom line.

What does a lofty notion like purpose have to do with business basics like the bottom line? Robert E. Quinn and Anjan J. Thakor say pretty much everything. Leaders and managers are taught that employees are self-interested and work resistant, so they create systems of control to combat these expectations. Workers resent these systems, and performance suffers. To address the performance issues, managers double down on the coercion, creating a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But there is a better way. Quinn and Thakor show that when an authentic higher purpose permeates business strategy and decision-making, the cycle is broken. Employers and employees see themselves as working together toward an inspiring goal, not just trying to hit quarterly targets. They fully engage, become proactive contributors, and, ironically, easily exceed those quarterly targets.

Based on their widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, Quinn and Thakor offer eight sometimes surprising steps for shifting from a transaction-oriented mind-set focused on constraints to a purpose-oriented mind-set focused on possibility. This iconoclastic book will help any organization discover its authentic purpose and weave it into the fabric of everything it does, leading to unprecedented levels of personal satisfaction, service and product innovation, and economic growth.
29.95 In Stock
The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization

The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization

by Robert E. Quinn, Anjan Thakor
The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization

The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization

by Robert E. Quinn, Anjan Thakor

Hardcover

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Overview

Two distinguished scholars offer eight steps to help organizations discover and embrace an authentic higher purpose—something that will dramatically improve every aspect of any enterprise, including the bottom line.

What does a lofty notion like purpose have to do with business basics like the bottom line? Robert E. Quinn and Anjan J. Thakor say pretty much everything. Leaders and managers are taught that employees are self-interested and work resistant, so they create systems of control to combat these expectations. Workers resent these systems, and performance suffers. To address the performance issues, managers double down on the coercion, creating a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But there is a better way. Quinn and Thakor show that when an authentic higher purpose permeates business strategy and decision-making, the cycle is broken. Employers and employees see themselves as working together toward an inspiring goal, not just trying to hit quarterly targets. They fully engage, become proactive contributors, and, ironically, easily exceed those quarterly targets.

Based on their widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, Quinn and Thakor offer eight sometimes surprising steps for shifting from a transaction-oriented mind-set focused on constraints to a purpose-oriented mind-set focused on possibility. This iconoclastic book will help any organization discover its authentic purpose and weave it into the fabric of everything it does, leading to unprecedented levels of personal satisfaction, service and product innovation, and economic growth.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781523086405
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date: 08/20/2019
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert E. Quinn is a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and a cofounder of the Center for Positive Organizations there. He is a fellow of the Academy of Management and the World Business Academy and is the author of eighteen books.

Anjan J. Thakor is the John E. Simon Professor of Finance at the Olin Business School at Washington University. Prior to that, Thakor was the Edward J. Frey Professor of Banking and Finance at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, where he also served as chairman of the finance area.

Table of Contents

Preface v

Part I The Economics of Higher Purpose 1

1 Seeing What Cannot Be Seen 3

2 Higher Purpose Changes Everything 15

3 Imagining Organizations of Higher Purpose 27

4 Transforming Self-Interest 38

5 Reframing Economics 53

6 Why Isn't Everyone Doing It? 69

Part II Eight Steps for Creating the Purpose-Driven Organization 83

7 Step 1 Envision the Purpose-Driven Organization 85

8 Step 2 Discover the Purpose 97

9 Step 3 Meet the Need for Authenticity 111

10 Step 4 Turn the Higher Purpose into a Constant Arbiter 123

11 Step 5 Stimulate Learning 134

12 Step 6 Turn Midlevel Managers into Purpose-Driven Leaders 144

13 Step 7 Connect the People to the Purpose 156

14 Step 8 Unleash the Positive Energizers 170

15 Taking Action: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions 186

Notes 203

Acknowledgments 211

Index 213

About the Authors 221

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