Book Reviews and Notices : Processes of Organization and Management. EDITED BY CATHERYN SECK-LER-HUDSON. (Washington, D. C.: Public Affairs Press. 1948. Pp. vii, 296. $3.75.)

• Author: Robert H. Connery
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Date: 01 September 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200352
• Subject Matter: Articles

469

Processes

of

Organization

and

Management.

EDITED

BY

CATHERYN

SECK-

LER-HUDSON.

(Washington,

D.

C.:

Public

Affairs

Press.

1948.

Pp.

vii,

296.

$3.75.)

The

anthology hardly

needs

justification

in

this

crowded

age.

It

can

assemble

the

&dquo;best&dquo;

literature

on

a

subject,

so

that

the

hurried

or

lazy

reader

does

not

have

to

skim

his

own

cream.

It

can

offer

a

representative

selection

of

writings,

broadening

the

reader’s

perspective

and

orienting

him

in

an

area

much

as

a

textbook

does.

Both

entail

the

employment

of

a

critical

and

objective

mind

to

winnow

chaff

from

grain.

The

anthology

can

also

be

used

as

a

springboard

for

launching

the

ideas

of

one

or

several

new

writers

in

the

safe

company

of

recognized

authorities.

Any

of

the

types

listed

above

has

its

degree

of

value

for

those

whose

attention

must

necessarily

be

briefly

focused,

or

for

those

who

seek

a

&dquo;survey

approach.&dquo;

Whether

a

field

of

concentration

has

been

sufficiently

developed

to

offer

literature

adequate

to

allow

an

anthology

to

fulfill

its

critical

function

is

another

question.

It

is

quite

conceivable

that

a

selection

of

writings

might

be

presented

with

the

very

useful

purpose

of

putting

between

the

covers

of

a

book

the

several

ideas

of

writers

bent

on

finding

a

place

in

the

world

for

an

emerging

field

of

study,

or

on

stimulating

dis-

cussion.

Those

who

are

interested

in

such

a

new

venture

of

ideas

should

welcome

such

a

book

as

Processes

of

Organization

and

Management.

Its

editor

has

long

been

known

as

a

stimulating

and

able

teacher

of

the

subject.

One

may

suspect

that

the

selections

contained

here

were

based

upon

those

that

she

has

found

most

valuable.

There

is

one

notable

comment

to

be

made

concerning

the

editor’s

selections.

The

majority

of

them

were

written

in

the

last

five

years,

having

appeared

in

various

periodicals

such

as

Advanced

Management

and

Personnel.

The

fact

that

only

three

contributors,

Woodrow

Wilson,

Russell

Robb,

and

Bernard

Gladieux,

antedate

this

period

might

seem

to

indicate

that

nothing

worthwhile

was

written

prior

to

the

present

decade.

Harlow

Person’s

interesting

article

on

Frederick

W.

Taylor

sug-

gests,

of

course,

that

something

was

being

done

some

time

back.

The

writers

who

have

contributed

to

this

volume

are

able,

even

though

some

of

them

may

not

be

widely

known.

One

does

wonder,

how-

ever,

why

some

of

the

articles

were

chosen,

while

the

published

works

of

such

men

as

Barnard,

Fayol,

Friedrich,

Glaser,

Gulick,

Merriam,

Millett,

Roethlisberger,

Harold

D.

Smith,

Taylor,

Urwick,

White,

and

Yoder

are

given

only

brief

listing

in

a

selected

bibliography.

For

the

student

who

wants

an

introduction

to

the

subject

of

organiza-

tion

and

management,

particularly

in

public

administration,

this

book

may

well

serve

a

useful

purpose.

A

newcomer

might

be

overwhelmed