Organization Theory and Public Management
"Of the texts I have seen recently, Tompkins book is by far the most clearly written and does the best job of simplifying complex ideas. His scholarship is exemplary and explains beautifully some of the classic writers. I think students will understand his work and benefit from it. One of the major problems in teaching this class is clarity of both explanation and context. He does that wonderfully. . . . His writing style is lively and interesting.""The proposed text, relative to [my current text] is much richer, more insightful, and generally more useful. The writing is accessible and clear. . . . Would I adopt this book? In a New York minute. The quality of both content and writing are first-rate..""This is a clearly presented, easily digestible presentation of the extremely large volume of traditional material related to Organizational Theory at both the macro and micro level. In addition, the section on "The Limits of Generic Management Models' for application in public management is among the best I have read. . . . I like the way the author presents current examples of how seemingly old theoretical perspectives are still applied today."" I like this text a lot. . . . I like the historical approach, and I agree with Professor Tompkins' comments that such an approach helps us better understand the complex nature of organizational theory and helps us understand organizational theory as a whole."