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Using 18 new cases this book shows that in the past companies did not manage labour or customers as long as they did not need to. Tougher competition has forced them to recover control using more processes and reporting systems. But the result has been the opposite: the more they rule, the more they lose control.

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Business in the 21st Century: Towards Simplicity & Trust Introduction Speaking the language of ideology How companies lost their grip: ´managerial sloth´ and its consequences Employment and work: two sides of the same coin When fact is stranger than fiction Temporary workers, an adjustment variable How companies lost their grip Front-line managers have been sacrificed on the altar of intermediate bureaucracies Can we do things differently? Conclusion The vicious circle of work and employment Some keys to the new organisations

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FRANCOIS DUPUY is an independent consultant specialising in the sociology of organizations and has worked for some of the major corporations in Europe. He was formerly a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and an affiliate professor at INSEAD, France and Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, USA.

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