Walking and talking chester I. Barnard

The influence of Chester Barnard in contemporary management and organization theorising is substantial but often barely acknowledged. Contemporary authors sometimes ‘borrow’ a fragment to support their case but his was a fundamentally holistic work which sought to interweave and integrate rather than dissect and disintegrate. The research data reported in this paper were not generated to test Barnard's work but in the process of analysis, it emerged that Barnard spoke in a voice which echoed closely the comments of senior executives. Indeed, he is the only theorist to do so in such a comprehensive way. On further reflection, it was found that his work embraces a breadth and depth of conceptual thought which remains unequalled in our vast literature. His intellectual foundations were quite radical for his time, again in a way which does not find contemporary parallel. In what remains a rare gestalt analysis of organization, he manages to blend the contradictions and conflicts of individual and organization and inherent fickleness and ambiguity of social life together with a dexterity and integrity which resembles the practitioners of executive arts rather more than contemporary theorists. This paper seeks to highlight some of the areas in which his work still exposes our current lack of conceptual imagination and ability.     

Foreword papers in honor of chester I. Barnard

I hope that I will not be regarded as demeaning either myself or my fellow contributors to these papers in honor of Chester Barnard if I suggest that the most valuable product of this exercise may be to cause some readers who have never done so to read The Functions of the Executive, and some others who have done so in the distant past, to read it again.⁽¹⁾ Barnard's book is often referred to as "hard," both in the senses of hard to read and rigorous; no one is likely to recommend if for bedtime or ocean beach reading. But I believe that its "hardness" is closely related to the depth and rigor of its ideas, and that it is written about as clearly and simply as the nature of these ideas will admit. Barnard does not use long words where short words will do, nor many words where few will do. For anyone who devotes thought to organizations, its messages are pretty clear, and refreshingly creative. When read attentively, it can be read with enjoyment.     

Chester I. Barnard and other antecedents of the present managerial order

The interwar decades of the 1920s and 1930s were arguably the most important in management history. Not only did America finally achieve a national identity as a managed society, management itself evolved a paradigm that has remained in place until the present day. Chester I. Barnard's work is the quintessential expression of the modernist spirit.     

Chester I. Barnard: president of the uso, 1942-1945

This article focuses on a relatively unheralded dimension of Chester I. Barnard, author of the classic 1938 management text The Functions of the Executive. Barnard was President of the United Services Organization, Inc. (USO), a morale-enhancing volunteer organization for allied servicemen and women during World War II. The article's purpose is to describe and analyze Barnard's activities and accomplishments at the USO from 1942 to 1945, Barnard used the general management principles that he espoused through his writings in this volunteer management environment.     

Barnard and morality in organizations

Since Chester I. Barnard wrote The Functions of the Executive in 1938 numerous authors have cited his many ideas about organizational and individual behavior. Barnard believed that an individual's willingness to cooperate and function within an organization related to his or her “zone of indifference,” and the amount of authority the individual was willing to grant to a superior. Barnard's ideas concerning the zone of indifference are related in this article to “Stages of Moral Development” as measured by protocols developed by Lawrence Kohlberg.     

The functions of the executive and the republic: Exploring the platonic roots of chester barnard

This essay examines the similarities between Plato's Republic and Barnard's Functions of the Executive.The essay argues that comparisons between Barnard and Plato are not overstated in form or substance. Three major areas of each work are compared: the ethical foundations, the political foundations, and the role of education in achieving those political means. Implications arising from the comparison are discussed and the essay concludes by linking the Barnard-Plato dialogue with current issues in management theory and practice.     

I.A.S.P. guidelines for suicide prevention. I.A.S.P. Executive Committee

There are a number of ways in which suicide can be prevented. Broad social issues can be influenced by firm advocacy for change in appropriate areas in different countries, such as by restricting access to specific means of suicide and by enhancing health and social services in general. At the individual level, after the establishment of rapport, there should be screening for the presence of specific mental disorders, which, if present, should be treated vigorously. If medication is indicated, the safest drug should be prescribed, although it is emphasized that even if drugs are utilized, nondrug treatment is important for every suicidal person. The focus of supportive therapy, which can be provided by both the helping professions and volunteer organizations, should be the provision of hope for the future, the enhancement of independence, and the learning of different ways of coping with the inevitable stressors of everyday life. If these guidelines are followed, there is every reason to believe that an impact can be made upon the worldwide problem of suicidal behavior.     

Analytic Models and Policy Prescription: Understanding Recent Innovation in U.S. Counterterrorism

The threat of terrorism, particularly terrorism involving a weapon of mass destruction (WMD), has received enormous attention in the last decade. Since the mid1990s, the federal government has embarked on a concerted national effort to prepare the country for acts of WMD terrorism. A key component of the counterterrorism agenda is the domestic preparedness program, a series of initiatives aimed at reducing America's vulnerability to a WMD terrorist attack. However, there is a heated debate over whether or not the United States needs a domestic preparedness program at all. This article argues that much of the debate originates in disparate approaches to analyzing terrorism. Terrorism studies specialists use an internal model that analyzes the root causes, motives, and historical patterns of terrorism and concludes that the threat of WMD terrorism against the United States is not sufficient to warrant the domestic preparedness budget. Policy makers and national security experts, however, rely on an external risk assessment model that considers terrorism within the context of the many risks to American security. This assessment model evaluates WMD terrorism on the basis of risk and consequences, and reaches a logical conclusion that the potential for mass destruction not only merits, but also requires a level of domestic preparedness.     

Terminating intervention: Understanding exit strategy and U.S. involvement in intrastate conflicts

The term exit strategy is misleading because it elevates exit considerations over and above the demands of proper goal setting and mission accomplishment in limited engagements. Despite this fact, developing an appropriate exit strategy is mandated by the Clausewitzean framework that suggests three components: 1. a clear statement of the political objectives to be pursued; 2. a derivative group of operational goals that must be secured; and 3. a set of fallback options that must be anticipated if the original objectives and goals cannot be attained. Examining six U.S. interventions ‐with a view to understanding whether and how exit strategies were integrated into entry decision‐making, this study finds that they have been well integrated only in the case of high‐level interventions. They have been mostly neglected in low‐ and midlevel interventions, even though the latter incur all the potential hazards associated with high‐level engagements.     

Understanding the next act

Abstract

This essay argues that the practical difficulties of dealing effectively with terrorism reveal a basic problem in the terms of conventional moral understanding. Specifically, current moral principles permit us to condemn any act of terrorism as categorically unjustifiable only in terms which impose crippling restrictions upon the range of justifiable counterterrorist measures. This problem arises from an abstract individualism which pervades current moral and political thought. If this abstract individualism is rejected, then it is possible to construe acts of terrorism as savage in a special sense, insofar as they rejct the prior moral authority of the community to determine its own standards. On this basis, such acts may be condemned as inherently incapable of moral justification, and in terms which license vigorous counterterrorist measures.     

Understanding the last tsar

Ferro, Nicholas, Nicholas II: The Last of the Tsars. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, 305 pp.

Lieven, Dominic, Nicholas II: Emperor of all the Russias. London: John Murray, 1993, 292 pp.

Radzinsky, Edvard, The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II New York: Doubleday, 1992, 462 pp.

Verner, Andrew, The Crisis of Russian Autocracy: Nicholas II and the 1905 Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990, 372 pp.