Background
Cole, Robert E. was born on October 14, 1937 in New York City. Son of Bernard M. and Elizabeth Cole.
(Can managers learn from fads? That is the question Robert...)
Can managers learn from fads? That is the question Robert Cole addresses in this insightful book about the various factors supporting and inhibiting organizational learning. A longtime student of the Japanese and American quality movements, Cole focuses on the response of American industry to the challenge posed in the early 1980s by high quality goods from Japan. While most American managers view this challenge as slowly but successfully met, many academics see the quality movement that emerged from it as just another fad. In seeking to reconcile these two views, Cole explores the reasons behind American industry's slow response to Japanese quality, arguing that a variety of institutional factors inhibited management action in the early 1980s. He then describes the reshaping of institutions that allowed American companies to close the quality gap and to achieve sustained quality improvements in the 1990s. Hewlett-Packard serves as an example of a company that made this institutional transition more effectively than most. Cole describes Hewlett-Packard's successful strategies while also pointing out the serious problems that it and other companies face as they attempt to adapt, improve, and go beyond Japanese practices. He also uses Hewlett-Packard, an exemplar of the highly decentralized company, to explore effective strategies for the creation, dissemination, and implementation of knowledge. Unprecedented as a scholarly treatment of the quality movement,Managing Quality Fads provides several important lessons for those interested in management decision making under conditions of uncertainty and organizational transformation in a rapidly changing business environment.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195122607/?tag=2022091-20
Cole, Robert E. was born on October 14, 1937 in New York City. Son of Bernard M. and Elizabeth Cole.
Bachelor in Economics, Hobart College, 1959. Master of Arts in Industrial and Labor Relations, University Illinois, 1962. Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, University Illinois, 1962.
Assistant professor sociology University Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1968—1971, associate professor sociology, 1972—1978, professor sociology, 1979—1990, professor sociology and business administration, 1986—1990. Professor business administration and sociology University California, Berkeley, since 1990. Lecturer, consultant various Fortune 500 companies, since 1980.
Board directors American Productivity and Quality Center, Houston, since 1983. Director management of technical program Haas School Business, Berkeley, since 1996.
(Can managers learn from fads? That is the question Robert...)
Member of Sociological Research Association, Academy Management, American Sociological Association.
Married Ingrid L. Cole, April 17, 1960. Children: Anders Johan, Rebecca Leah.