Author: Pamela S. Harper

ISBN: 0971573948

The following review was contributed by: John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

It is a failing of business education, from which I can scarcely excuse myself, to try to put across the message that problems in a company, once identified, can then be solved. Emphasis is placed on measuring those things which can be measured and managing those things which can be managed in the expectation of subsequent performance improvement. When that improvement fails to occur, perhaps stubbornly and persistently, the message is to try harder or even try something else. Little attention may be paid to the underlying issues which prevent strategies (good, bad or indifferent) from being enacted as desired. This is at the centre of Pamela Harper’s very useful and nicely-presented book Preventing Strategic Gridlock. She employs the concept of ‘strategic gridlock’ to identify the often complex set of motivations, misunderstandings and miscommunications that can hamstring even the most carefully planned and managed companies. Until these issues are addressed, she argues, no new strategy will ever be successfully implemented.

Harper’s ideas and suggested solutions are well thought out and based on a series of nicely chosen case studies, as well as her extensive experience as a practitioner and management consultant. However, they are not particularly new. Henry Mintzberg has been producing similar material for years, identifying such phenomena as the reinforcement of failure, the unwillingness to accept evidence, the witting or unwitting ignorance of the perceptions of other stakeholders and so forth. Nevertheless, there is always room for single volume books which encompass lessons from diverse sources which managers have little time and inclination to gather together for themselves. I certainly would have no problem with recommending this book to MBA level students seeking ways of thinking about why their organisations behave the way they do. I would do so knowing how difficult it is to persuade people to invest the time in the thoughtful reading of research, of history and of theory with a view to developing personal approaches to the corporate world.   

John Walsh, Shinawatra University, October 2005