Title

Open Book Management: A Review of Underlying Systems

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2009

Department

School of Business

Abstract

Although it has been practiced for over 20 years, Open Book Management (OBM) is a relatively new phenomenon for the field of management. The concept began to receive attention and be included in the survey textbooks within the last ten years. As an organizational development intervention, OBM appears to draw on the contributions of several existing systems, including Hoshin planning. This paper compares performance management and Hoshin planning to the characteristics and operationalization of OBM. The characteristics of a successful OBM implementation is proposed. The need to connect employees with corporate goals has led to the development of several management interventions. Several different types of programs have been introduced to translate organizational goals into performance measurement and feedback systems that can be transferred to the shop floor level for employees. An overreaching assumption has been made that there must be subsets of objectives in order to motivate shop floor employees. In the field of human resources, performance management systems have been designed as vehicles for goal translation from top management to lower levels. The total quality management literature introduces hoshin planning systems as a formula for disseminating goals between layers within the organization. Hoshin management's stated purpose is the aligning of all layers of employees with the company's goals and objectives (Cowley and Domb, 1997). A new entrant to the performance management field is Open Book Management (OBM). As an intervention, Open Book Management serves as an example of a management system that links employees and organizational goals without the use of secondary objectives. The study questions to be addressed are as follows:

Volume

12

Issue

1

ISSN

15535827

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