Beyond certainty : the changing worlds of organisations

The last ten years have imposed radical changes. Internationally, the West was dedicated to warding off communism, militarily and economically.

Under Thatcher and Reagan, greed was good. It was comforting to see that George Orwell got it wrong. But there is a curvilinear logic in the universe. Prosperity cannot last forever. Empires and organizations flounder. The world must be reinvented. We can now be certain only of uncertainty. And to plan for the future we must learn to think differently.

Compromise may be the path to progress, and organizations must give more freedom to individual employees to maintain a balance of commitment and creativity. In this collection of pieces from the "Director" and elsewhere, Charles Handy takes the reader on an intellectual journey through a changing world, in order to see how we must change to make our future work.