Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
Imagine a company where people love coming to work and are highly productive on a daily basis. Imagine a company whose top executives, in a quest to create the most "fun" workplace ever, obliterate labor-management divisions and push decision-making responsibility down to the plant floor. Could such a company compete in today's bottom-line corporate world? Could it even turn a profit? Well, imagine no more.
In Joy at Work, Dennis W. Bakke tells the true story of this extraordinary company—and how, as its co-founder and longtime CEO, he challenged the business establishment with revolutionary ideas that could remake America's organizations. It is the story of AES, whose business model and operating ethos -"let's have fun"-were conceived during a 90-minute car ride from Annapolis, Maryland, to Washington, D.C. In the next two decades, it became a worldwide energy giant with 40,000 employees in 31 countries and revenues of $8.6 billion. It's a remarkable tale told by a remarkable man: Bakke, a farm boy who was shaped by his religious faith, his years at Harvard Business School, and his experience working for the Federal Energy Administration. He rejects workplace drudgery as a noxious remnant of the Industrial Revolution. He believes work should be fun, and at AES he set out to prove it could be. Bakke sought not the empty "fun" of the Friday beer blast but the joy of a workplace where every person, from custodian to CEO, has the power to use his or her God-given talents free of needless corporate bureaucracy.
Read more
In Joy at Work, Bakke tells how he helped create a company where every decision made at the top was lamented as a lost chance to delegate responsibility—and where all employees were encouraged to take the "game-winning shot," even when it wasn't a slam-dunk. Perhaps Bakke's most radical stand was his struggle to break the stranglehold of "creating shareholder value" on the corporate mind-set and replace it with more timeless values: integrity, fairness, social responsibility, and a sense of fun.
Liked Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
The Decision Maker Shares business, leadership, management -
Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst Shares business, management, leadership -
Het weekend van 7 dagen Shares business, management, leadership -
Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work Shares business, leadership, management
“People who read Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (business about work), start with these.”
“If it was the management that hooked you, try one of these.”
“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”
-
Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman: What Men Know About Success that Women Need to Learn
-
Managing for Happiness: Games, Tools & Practices to Motivate Any Team
-
Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies
-
Do the Right Thing: How Dedicated Employees Create Loyal Customers and Large Profits