The New Ecology of Leadership: Business Mastery in a Chaotic World

Management educator and former operations manager Hurst (Crisis & Renewal: Meeting the Challenge of Organizational Change) takes a leisurely stroll through “ecological” business thought—the contextual relationship between businesspeople and their surroundings. Using his own experiences and examples of successful businesses (including Wal-Mart, GM, and Apple), Hurst discusses how thought is changed by action and experience, and how organizations and their internal contexts change as a result of individual action. Aimed at readers with unformed management concepts who are looking for a guide, and at active practitioners trying to make sense of what is happening every day, Hurst hopes to provide a management toolbox that allows users to store organizational experiences and employ them in taking effective action. While Hurst’s emphasis on contextual thought and the importance of navigating change is admirable, the ideas are overblown and the writing needlessly convoluted and long-winded; wisdom-seekers would do best consulting the book’s “key concepts” section, which presents Hurst’s ideas without drowning them in a swamp of unnecessary verbiage. Agent: John T. Willig, Literary Services Inc. (Apr.)