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Summary: Sensible economics?
Review: For the first time in my life I read a book by an economist and liked it! There are no islands that produce only guns and butter in here and the individual is not a point in a graph. Miller looks at the biggest dilemma facing organizational theorists: What is the best form of organizational management? With simple explanations, interesting real life examples, and no complicated math, Miller illustrates how a market environment withing an organization can spell disaster and how a hierarchy is no better solution. The self-serving actions of both managers and employees can leave the firm in a downward spiral. Finally, he proposes and demonstrates how an atmosphere of trust, cooperation and commitment can lead to happy employees, satisfied managers, and richer shareholders and actually makes it sound credible and feasible! Whether it's for the economics novice or the disciplined researcher, this book is truly an inspiring achievement
Rating:
Summary: Do you like logical constucts? Can you follow one?
Review: If YES is your answer and if you are interested in economics and you were wondering why some firms fail and others succeed, read this book. I am surprised that it has not gotten more publicity. And then may be it is natural that its message is kept under wraps: it tells us, among others, that managers have a vested interest to cheat and that many become little, and not so little dictators in their empires, with limited risk that the free market can discipline them... naturally, if they play it "right". What industry captains like this little dirty secret to be aired? And the book does not toot the horn of the socialist agenda either. So no vested interest to promote it from that side either. Briefly, a serious intellectual book: thus, few people are truly interested in our increasingly undereducated society. Are you the exception?
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Summary: the political science of the firm
Review: Miller's book is one of the most intelligent pieces of work I've ever read. It's insightfully written in clear and simple English and cuts right to the heart of the problem that is too often unasked: If markets are so good, why are most firms hierarchies and not markets? Coase's landmark piece from 1937 answered with high transaction costs which make market contracting too costly to arrive at a solution. While Coase set the path for what was to become the new institutional economics, other scholars (including Coase himself) needed to fill in the pieces of the puzzle. Miller's book goes "inside" and shows us precisely how the various dilemmas manifest in the real world with a wealth of very simple models and real-world examples. Along the way, Miller manages to answer a number of important questions about dictatorship, democracy, and the various points in between which go well beyond just the theory of the firm. Thus, while Managerial Dilemmas is written about business managers, the implications reach far into other territory.
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