MegaChange.

From 1990-95, 85% OF U.S.-based corporations engaged in some variety of restructuring, but 60% report that they didn't get the productivity gains they wanted from the changes and 44% say that things actually got worse. What's more, "The vast majority of current transformation efforts are doomed

The reason why, according to William F. Joyce, is that companies have been working on the assumption of human limitations as a basis for reorganizing. He posits that change must be based on assumptions of human capability instead of human limitations in MegaChange just published by Simon & Schuster.

The necessity for organization change is clear according to Joyce. "We are witnessing the birth of . . . hypercompetition,' a state in which the rate of change in the competitive rules of the game are in such flux that only the most adaptive, fleet, and nimble organizations will survive."

In toppling the old bureaucratic management structures and its emphasis on cost reduction and reorganization efforts, the author focuses on people. "We must be more competitive, but now we must do it in a way that recognizes the desire - perhaps the demand - for meaningful and valuable work, the recognition of family, and personal satisfaction." He hammers this point, noting, "Financial objectives dominate corporate strategies, but people do not get up in the morning to make 'earnings per share."

The author, who has served as a strategic consultant to AT&T, TRW Systems, Citibank, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, supports his thesis for change with a theoretical model based on practice. By MegaChange he means a total system-wide cultural transformation based on an assumption of human capability. It has four main action components: empowering the workforce, engaging systems, reforming structures, and remaking strategy. To illustrate his thesis, Joyce describes the Price Waterhouse Market Focused Organization Project because it "provides a visible example of best practice in reforming structures."