The Ropes to Skip and the Ropes to Know: Studies in Organizational Behavior by Ritti, R. Richard / Levy, Steven Ritti, R. Richard / Levy, Steven

From the Publisher

This story is about me, and some fellow employees in The Company. When I graduated from school and started working for The Company, I never thought it would be so hard-not only learning my job, but also making sense of the everyday events happening all around me. As I soon discovered, learning the ropes at any organization takes time.

Organizations have their own myths, rituals, cultures, and most importantly, their own people. You have to be able to decipher the unwritten rules. I hope my story will provide you with a new way of looking at organizations, and help you analyze, interpret, and understand the everyday realities of organizational life.

This Seventh Edition of The Ropes to Skip and the Ropes to Know is updated and revised to give you a feel for what it's like to currently work for The Company. The new edition includes several new boxes and a new tale, and a significantly rewritten prologue. Also, a new and expanded Instructor's Manual on the website features discussion starter questions related to issues addressed in each of the tales. Extensive notes on these issues are also provided for instructors.

Whether you are a new-comer or an old-timer in the business world, I hope my story will help you on your journey as you learn the ropes.

Publishers Weekly

College faculty members Ritti (Penn State) and Funkhouser (Rutgers) have combined to produce a decidedly unacademic look at the world of business, featuring lively writing and irreverence. Their thesis is that organizations can be viewed in either of two ways: from a technical/rational viewpoint or a cultural/interpretive one. They concentrate on the latter, based on the notion that any business is a closed culture, a society unto itself. They introduce a cast of individuals who play archetypal roles in a firm they call ``The Company'': Stanley, a Candide-like figure who wises up as he climbs the corporate ladder; a CEO; a male executive who knows what he's doing, and another who doesn't; a woman executive; a black on the way up; a consultant, etc. This is a business milieu that MBA programs don't teach. (January 6)

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents