日常工作保證組織秩序井然

????哥倫比亞大學商學院（Columbia Business School）教授雷?菲斯曼與《哈佛商業評論》（Harvard Business Review）執行編輯蒂姆?沙利文在他們合著的新書《組織：辦公室潛在的邏輯》（The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office）的結尾引用了著名神學家萊茵霍爾德?尼布爾（Reinhold Niebuhr）的寧靜祈禱文：

????上帝賜我寧靜，接受我不能改變的事情，

????賜我勇氣，去改變我所能改變的事情，

????賜我智慧，以分辨兩者的不同。

????低聲念幾遍禱告文，然后提交開支報告，看著你的同事在格子間里忙碌，因為按照兩位作者的說法，現代組織不完善和不正常的表現雖然令人惱火，但卻不會改變。而你基本無能為力。

????菲斯曼和沙利文認為，這并不是一件壞事。這是世界上所能期望最好的體系，因為員工是很難對付的，資源是有限的，而工作運行良好。組織是經過權衡、不斷變化的復雜產物：組織應該集中嗎？或者加以規范？進行創新？委托代表？精簡結構？

????答案并沒有那么簡單，兩位作者清楚地闡述了這一點，他們為讀者展現了現代組織的邏輯結構和演變過程。

????麥當勞公司（McDonald's）應該如何應對想安裝牛肉燒烤臺的特許業務經營者？Kayak.com網站為什么要讓軟件工程師接聽客戶服務電話？制藥巨頭如何組織研發來開發全新的熱銷藥物？你如何評價衛理公會牧師在拯救靈魂方面（以及他們履行許多其他教會職責）的成效？

????菲斯曼和沙利文并沒有給出所有的答案，但是兩位作者做出了勇敢的嘗試。分析了為什么某些組織運作良好，其他組織卻運行失常。他們向讀者描繪了讓組織舉步維艱、處境困難的情形。

????兩位作者借鑒了各種組織的案例研究，這些組織規模各異。從惠普公司（Hewlett-Packard）、寶潔公司（Proctor & Gamble）和美國聯邦調查局（FBI），到基地組織、薩摩亞政府和印度紡織工廠，他們為讀者呈現了風趣的文筆和詳實的信息。書中充滿豐富的奇聞軼事、社會科學的理論分析，以及各種各樣令人驚訝的假設猜想。讀者將了解到麥當勞麥香魚的起源，哈佛大學商學院（Harvard Business School）1910年的課程。這本書甚至追溯到了20世紀70年代，當時首席執行官很少留給自己超過9分鐘的時間。

????Ray Fisman, Columbia Business School professor, and Tim Sullivan, editorial director of the Harvard Business Review close their book The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office with a serenity prayer attributed to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr:

????God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change,

????Courage to change the things I can,

????And wisdom to know the difference.

????Whisper that to yourself a few times, and file those expense reports, you cubicle-dwelling worker bees, because according to the authors, the modern organization -- maddeningly imperfect and dysfunctional as it may seem -- is here to stay. And there's not a whole lot you can do about it.

????Fisman and Sullivan also argue that it's not a bad thing. It's the best system one can hope for in a world where people are difficult, resources are limited, and work is well, work. Organizations are the complex, ever-changing product of trade-offs: Should one centralize? Standardize? Innovate? Delegate? Flatten?

????The answers are rarely so straightforward, a point the authors make abundantly clear as they walk readers through the logic and evolution of the modern day org.

????How should McDonald's (MCD) have handled an enterprising franchise owner who wanted to have a carving station for beef? Why did Kayak.com have its software engineers answer customer service calls? How can conglomerate drug companies organize R&D to develop next-generation blockbuster drugs? And how on earth do you evaluate Methodist ministers' effectiveness at saving souls (and performing their many other ministerial duties)?

????Fisman and Sullivan don't have all the answers, but the pair make a valiant attempt to parse why some organizations work and others don't, and they give readers a good picture of what makes the organization so unwieldy and so difficult.

????The authors draw upon case studies from organizations big and small. From Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Proctor & Gamble (PG), and the FBI to Al Qaeda, the Samoan government, and textile factories in India, they take readers on an enjoyable and informative romp, packed with rich anecdotes, meaty bits of social science, and all sorts of surprising factoids. You'll learn the origin of McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, Harvard Business School's curriculum circa 1910, and that even back in the 1970s, CEOs rarely had more than nine minutes of time to themselves.