376 Book Reviews

plementarity problems. L. Jenkins deals with the case of integer linear programming.

Finally there are a l so two contributions on algorithms of interest but perhaps not so well related to the rest of the book. E.W. Sachs reviews some Newton type methods in an infinite dimen- sional setting, with application to optimal control. A.V. Fiacco analyses the so-called SUMT al- gorithm for nonlinear programming based on con- tinuation of the logarithmic penalized function, and shows that the 'projective' variant in which the starting point is arbitrary can be embedded in the 'classical' SUMT.

A drawback of the book is that perturbation theory is not presented in two important cases: nondifferentiable data and problems in infinite dimensional spaces (for the first subject, we may refer to Nonsmooth Optimization and Related Topics, F. Clarke, V. Dem'yanov and F. Gianessi (eds.), Plenum Press, 1989). On the other hand the contributors have made an effort in writing clear papers giving a state of the art in many domains of perturbation analysis; hence this book is very useful and can be recommanded for people willing to get into the field. It also demonstrates the wealth of this subject, in which we can still hope for a lot of progress.

J.F. Bonnans B.P. 105 Inria,

F- 78153 Le Chesnay Cedex, France

Kenneth D. Mackenzie

The Organizational Hologram: The Effective Man- agement of Organizational Change

Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1990, xxii + 493 pages, Dfl.175.00, US$79.95, UK £49.50, 1SBN 0-7923-9082-2

I began reading Kenneth Mackenzie's book The Organizational Hologram with anticipation. Hav- ing come to the conclusion in my own work that new organizational forms were needed to help organizations adapt to dramatic environmental changes, I welcomed the opportunity to read a book that promised to describe and explain a new organizational form developed expressly for that purpose. It offered no less than a new theory for

organizational renewal and transformation - " the theory of the organizational hologram." The book's "central thesis is that, in order to become and remain efficiently adaptable, the organization needs to take on the qualities of an organizational hologram" (p. 19).

I was even more intrigued with the book's title. Along with co-directors Karl Pribram (1974; 1991) and Raymond Bradley (1987), I had worked over a series of four conferences to apply the ideas of holographic and holonomic order to the social sciences, i We had asked conference participants to ponder the question - to what extent a social system (a group, organization, a society) was like a hologram in that each and every part contains encoded within it information about the organiza- tion of the social whole? We knew at the meta- phorical level and from Bradley's (1987) research, that there were a number of striking parallels between holographic order and the organization of social systems. But was it possible that aspects of social systems were actually patterned in this way? The goal of our conferences was to go beyond metaphorical description and investigate the util- ity of holographic and holonomic order both as theoretical tools offering new explanatory power, and as new methods for studying social systems. Thus, in turning to Mackenzie's book The Organi- zational Hologram, I was excited to find another scholar who, at the metaphoric level, also found the topic provocative and rich enough to merit examination and application in the area of organi- zation theory.

My initial enthusiasm for the book, however, was not supported. Whether I took the perspective of the informed practitioner, or theoretician, I unfortunately did not find that the book delivered

These holographic and holonomic concepts of order describe a distinctive way in which information is organized in a quantummechanical system (Bohm, 1980). Based upon the principle of correspondence between a whole and its parts, the two concepts share in common the property that infor- mation is distributed throughout the system that information about the order of the whole system is distributed and enfolded, to some extent, into each and every part. This makes it possible to retrieve of the entire system even from very small parts (Bradley 1989, p. 233-241). Mathematically, this process involves a linear and reversible transformation formally described by a Fourier transform function (Pribram, 1991).

Book Reviews 377

on its promises. Since I assume it was written for both audiences, let me turn to what I see as its strengths and weakness from each point of view.

It is from the perspective of the informed prac- titioner that I find the book's greatest merit. The Organizational Hologram is really about achieving congruence matching an organization to its en- acted environment so there is a 'good fit' and harmony between the two, while at the same time, bonding associates (organizational members) to the organization. When both organizational level congruency and bonding congruency are present, according to Mackenzie, the organization has 'combined congruency'. Mackenzie aims to help us understand how to achieve 'combined con- gruency' and has provided examples to accomplish it both at the individual and organizational levels of analysis (see Part Two, Chapters 5-8).

Had the author used the concept of congruency as the focal point, the book would have been more successful. As Mackenzie acknowledges, the book does not depend on the metaphor of the hologram to stand on its own (p. 6).

Instead, the book is difficult to read, most of it an elaboration of the ' theory of the organizational hologram', replete with 'assumptions', 'proposi- tions', ' principles', ' holonomic processes', 'organi- zational characteristics', and 'macro-organiza- tional principles'. And while the author does 'di- gress' from the theoretical to practical (Chapters 4, 6, 11) to illustrate the diagnostic and problem solving value of the holonomic metaphor~ the lin- kage is not tightly drawn in those chapters. The reader is left with too much guessing about how the theory can be applied to solve organizational problems. And with only three chapters out of sixteen that assist in that transfer, practitioners will have to work very hard to make the linkages themselves. Chapter 14 on the 'Holonomic Cube' is intriguing and creative. The Holonomic Cube is a device to help the consul tant /manager make "quick and dirty organizational diagnoses" (p. xvii). We are even given instructions on how to make our own cube. However, the theoretical ideas that underlie the cube are extremely complex and unfortunately, somewhat obtuse, so that using the cube requires a great deal more than merely read- ing the chapter. I have read the book twice myself, and doubt that I would be able to go out and use the holonomic cube for organizational diagnosis and problem solving.

It is from the perspective of the theoretician that I find the book's greatest weakness. Although I share Mackenzie's open-systems assumptions, his concern for organizations as 'wholes', and his prescription that organizations should operate as if they were holograms to be efficiently adaptable to the environment, I find that the book lacks the essential elements of good theory (Bacharach, 1989; Stinchcombe~ 1968; Whetton, 1989). Let me use two criteria as examples.

The ' theory of the organizational hologram' lacks parsimony. It is overwhelming with the num- ber of constructs and variables that are all inter- woven and interrelated, (in keeping with the holo- nomic metaphor in which the whole is unfolded into the parts?) However, I kept asking myself if it were possible to delete some factors and distill the essence of the theory. By erring on the side of comprehensiveness, attempting to 'integrate the wholeness of organizational reality', Mackenzie disregards other theorists who warn that "sensitiv- ity to the competing virtues of parsimony and comprehensiveness is the hallmark of a good theo- rist" (Whetton, 1989, p. 490).

As presently configured, the theory is also not empirically falsifiable. And in the view of other theorists, " i f it is not testable, no matter how profound or anesthetically pleasing it may be, it is not a theory (Bacharach, 1989, p. 512). Acknowl- edging this limitation at the end of the book Mackenzie states that 'as yet there is not a general analytical schema for systematically examining possible configurations of the variables in order to explore combinations . . . . Currently this theory is too crude to precisely analyze such issues even though in practice solutions are often clear" (p. 440, my emphasis added.)

! must respectfully disagree with such a posi- tion. It is incumbent on the theorist to provide the conceptual framework for the researcher to test and not the reverse. Moreover, if the analytical schema has not evolved and if the ' theory' is ' too crude' to analyze such issues, then it is not a useful theory and should not be presented to practitioners or theoreticians as such. To my mind, what Mackenzie has, as he refers to it in the final chapter, is a "working proposal rather than a final and definitive answer" (p. 437). Billing the book as a theory of the organizational hologram is unfortunate. Not only does the author unneces- sarily set himself up for criticism, but he also

378 Book Reviews

unreasonably castes doubt about the validity and utility of holography and holonomy, some of the more important concepts to be introduced to the social sciences in recent years. This book is not about holograms, holonomy, nor even a theory of 'organizational holograms'. It is a book about strategically managing organizations and the di- lemmas and difficulties of achieving both organi- zational and individual congruence in that pro- cess. The book is bold and imaginative in its intention. However, the unnecessary use of the metaphorical lens ends up obscuring much of the organizational terrain the book covers.

papers on topics and techniques of current interest in the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), thus showing some of the many facets of the theory. The 31 papers have been divided into two categories: surveys and research contribu- tions. In turn, the research papers are groupped into four sections: - Countable (possibly finite) state space - Borel state space - Partially observable MDPs - Computat ional issues

C o n t e n t s

B i b l i o g r a p h y Part I (Vol.28) pp. 1-312.

Bacharach, S.B., "Organizational theories: Some criteria for evaluation", Academy of Management Review 14/4 (1989) 496-515.

Bohm, D,, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1980.

Bradley, R.T., Charisma and Social Structure: A Study of Love and Power, Wholeness and Transformation, Paragon House, New York, 1987.

Pribram, K., The Holonomic Brain Theory, Erlbaum, New York, 1991, in press.

Pribram, K., Nuwer, M., and Baron, R., "The holographic hypothesis of memory structure in brain function and per- ception", In: R.C. Atkinson, D.H. Krantz, R.C. Luce and P. Suppes (eds.), Contemporary Developments in Mathemati- cal Psychology, W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1974.

Stinchcombe, A.L., Constructing Social Theories, Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1968.

Whetton, D., "What constitutes a theoretical contribution?", Academy of Management Review 14/4 (1989) 490-495.

1. S u r v e y s

- Recent results on conditions for the existence of average optimal stationary policies. - R e c u r r e n c e conditions for Markov decision processes with Borel state space. - A survey of algorithmic methods for partially observed Markov decision processes. - Two extensions of asymptotic methods in con- trolled Markov chains. - On the construction of e-optimal strategies in partially observed MDPs.

2. R e s e a r c h c o n t r i b u t i o n s

Nancy Roberts Naval Post Graduate School

Monterey, CA 93943 USA

O. Hernandez-Lerma and J.B. Lasserre (eds.)

A n n a l s o f O p e r a t i o n s R e s e a r c h (Voi. 28 - 1991) Markov D e c i s i o n P r o c e s s e s - Part I A n n a l s o f O p e r a t i o n s R e s e a r c h (Vol. 29 - 1991) Markov D e c i s i o n P r o c e s s e s - Part II

Baltzer AG, Basel, 1991, 649 pages, ISSN 0254 5330

These two parts of the Annals of Operations Research contain an extremely varied collection of

2.1. Countable/finite state space

- Adaptive control of constrained Markov chains: criteria and policies. - Two-person zero-sum stochastic games. - Singularly perturbed Markov Control problem: limiting average cost. - Nonparametr ic estimation and adaptive control in a class of finite Markov decision chains. - Denumerable semi-Markov decision chains with small interest rates. - Error bound for the dynamic lot size model with backlogging. - An improved algorithm for solving communi, cating average reward Markov decision processes. - Optimal admission policies for a finite queue with bursty arrivals.