In a breakthrough Organization Man for the twenty-first century, bestselling author Art Kleiner reveals that every organization is driven by a desire to satisfy a Core Group of influential individuals and explains why understanding this group’s expectations is the key to success.

When corporate leaders announce, with seeming sincerity, “We make our decisions on behalf of our shareholders,” their words are taken at face value. But as recent news stories prove, this imperative is routinely violated. In Who Really Matters, Art Kleiner argues that the dissonance between a declared mission and actual operation can be seen at organizations large and small. All organizations have one motive in common. Every decision—which projects to back, who to promote, or how to spend money—is affected by the perceived wants and needs of a core group of people “who really matter.”

The composition of the group can differ from organization to organization. Often, the most senior people in the hierarchy are members—but not always. Sometimes, the people who “matter” can extend far down the corporate ladder, or even reach outside the company to include key customers, labor union leaders, and stockholders. Kleiner gives readers clues about how to identify a core group’s real mission by observing its day-to-day actions, listening to the fundamental message it sends employees, examining its management of new members; understanding the ideas that shape its policies about management, money, and the way the world works; and avoiding the taboos governing the way it operates.

Whether you’re a member of the Core Group—or want to be—this deft, engaging blend of argument and observation, anecdotes and advice, is the one guide you’ll need to achieve your career goals and aspirations by navigating the hidden pathways in any organization, large or small.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A philosophical approach to power in organizations
Comment: I have always enjoyed Kleiner's writing and this book is no exception. Whether his "theory" is thoroughly researched or tightly validated is not the point. The "core group" or "who really matters" in an organization is a reality we all live with at some level. His book is more a commentary about what we may already know but have not been able to verbalize -- Kleiner puts those words out there for us.

This is not a book of instruction with "how-to" steps but more of a book that will spark your thinking and provide you an opportunity to analyze your situation and how it might/could be better. His "diagnostic exercises" are a series of question to help you guide you through a process of uncovering and improveing your core group.

Especially helpful is the admonition not to be a core group enabler, a person who keeps dysfunctional core groups going even though they know it is wrong. A powerful admonition to embrace your freedom to choose in the midst of pressures to conform.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: THE BOOK on organizational politics
Comment: Who really matters is the first practical guide to corporate politics I have read. Sure there are lots of books about corporate politics, complete with Cosmo Magazine style self assessments. But these pale in comparison to Kleiner's systematic review and dissection of the issue.

Many people wonder what is really going on in corporate politics and how some good people can never seem to break into the leadership team. Call it a clique, or a core group, this book shows how and why these groups form and why some success is based on "who you know" rather than "what you know".

I found Kliener's observation that many entreprenuers start their own companies in part to start their own core groups particularly interesting.

What puts this book over the top for me is the diagnostic questions and points it raises on who is in the core group, what it is about, and how you can work with it

This is a must read for anyone starting a new job, transferring, or wanting to break through that glass ceiling.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: excellent on the craft of intervention
Comment: This book offers a great bunch of descriptions of organizational predicaments, and keeps a steady focus on the individual with great expectations - what can that person really accomplish in a large organization without actually getting to run it? By the time I got to chapter 23 I saw that I'd committed almost every one of the mistakes Kleiner lists - bullying the core group, badmouthing them, fleeing into a slapdash Skunk Works, fomenting revolution . . . There's quite a bit to say about what's so valuable about the book, but I especially admire its insight into the ethics and the craft of intervention. Once you read the precise anatomies of organizational situations you've been suffering, I think you'll be especially convinced by Kleiner's explanations of why carefully constructed intervention is the only path that leads anywhere in the world of organizations. The book is full of good ideas about what effective intervention looks like and how it becomes possible. It took me a long time to be in a position to be able to appreciate the depth of what this book is saying, and I am convinced that it will offer readers a short-cut that I wish I'd had.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A brilliant confrontation with the realities of power.
Comment: The book is written around a simple but powerful idea. Whatever their public stance, organisations are in fact run by and for the benefit of a core group. At best, this is the source of a dynamic that produces great benefits for all players. At worst, it leads to a primary purpose of extracting wealth from all other constituents for the benefit of members of the core group.

As developed in the author's highly readable style, this deceptively simple idea produces extremely valuable insights into the dynamics that actually drive organisations and the great issues involved in ensuring that these organisations, the society in which they are embedded and the physical environment on which both depend live in reasonable harmony. (It is interesting that, almost in passing, the author deals a deathblow to the outdated notion of Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' on which the neo-conservatives still rest their political and economic philosophy.)

Interestingly, the fact that the idea appears 'new' and yields a genuinely useful and sometimes surprising perspective on these great issues is itself a product of the evolution of organizations. If the same theory had been put forward when family businesses were dominant, it would have been too obvious to merit comment, (and each small enterprise would also have been governed, however imperfectly, by the 'invisible hand'). Kleiner has chosen to study organisations which:
* have become so large that they are political entities rivalling many governments, and in which the study of power and its exercise has all the complexities of wider political theory
* operate within a wider system of societal governance, but are able to treat with the wider government almost as independent sovereign powers - and are often large enough to challenge, change or ignore it to their own benefit
* overtly reject (with a very few, very interesting exceptions) the notion of democracy within the organisation. Real power (as distinct from the often purely formal power of a Board member) is obtained and exercised through processes that are seldom transparent, not always legitimate, and therefore only very imperfectly accountable. (The parallels to a medieval court are startling, and it is a bit surprising that Machiavelli is not cited in the bibliography.)

These are the organizations that dominate our global economy. Most of them are American, so it is valuable that that the study is by an author with an intimate knowledge of American business culture.

The book explores three broad themes:
* the nature, structure and dynamics of core groups
* at the micro level, relations within the organisation - the 'ins', the 'outs' and the 'wannabes' and how they interact
* at the macro level, the relationship between the organisation and wider society

Most of book is an exploration of the structure and dynamics of core groups, their virtues and defects and the consequences for success and even survival of the various strengths and pathologies encountered among them. There is an interesting 'bestiary' of core group types, such as the distinction between an 'extended core group' (attempts at moderate or radical inclusiveness) and 'Welchism' (overt pursuit of a tight-knit inner circle, hopefully a meritocracy, but often degenerating into cronyism or worse.) There is also, towards the end (Chapter 23), what could be called a guide to revolutionaries - some advice on how an outer group might work to transform - or infiltrate - a core group.

At the micro level it goes into detail on who makes up the core, how does a core group emerge, how does one get in, and the appropriate behaviour (in their own self-interest) of 'ins', 'outs' and 'wannabes'.

A sub-theme of the book, based on recognition that the vast majority of employees are and will remain 'outs', is the notion of the 'employee of mutual consent' with sage advice on what such employees can do either to remain happily with the organization or to ensure that, on parting, they take with them suitably marketable or protective wealth, skills and reputation. The central message is to reinforce the need to take an independent view of your own career. (Kleiner, whether consciously or not, focuses on what can best be called the 'managerial class'. It is interesting to compare his advice with the harsher view of the reality of present-day employment in Beynon: Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work, which has a somewhat stronger focus on 'blue collar' and supervisory staff).

At the macro level, the book touches on the the great issues of how one ensures that the interests of the core group are and remain consonant with those of society at large. Essentially this has two elements: corporate governance and the formal relationship between private organizations and government (as manifest in regulatory bodies and regulation). This is covered mainly in two short chapters, 24 on corporate governance and 26 on the body politic, but is also mentioned in chapter 19 on government agencies.

These are subjects of great importance - perhaps of the greatest importance, and hopefully the author will return to them. One of the really interesting questions is what it is that causes one core group to ignore or ride roughshod over these wider issues, while another embraces the issue of sustainability thoroughly, effectively - and profitably. Kleiner discusses this briefly in his chapter 25 The Cycle of Noble Purpose, and the business case for sustainability is developed in some detail in Holliday et al: Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development.

Those who want to pursue the issue of corporate governance further would do well to look at Cadbury, Adrian: Corporate Governance and Chairmanship, A Personal View. Sir Adrian Cadbury chaired the UK government review of corporate governance and his book compares European, UK and American governance requirements and traditions. One of the problems that he and Kleiner both highlight is the fact that, in the USA, the CEO is often also Chairman and Board members may be little more than a cheer squad for the Chairman/CEO. Cadbury's views on sound governance and the distinctive role of independent board members are very relevant to Kleiner's concerns on governance.

Similarly, any view of the relationship between organizations and government needs to reach beyond the USA, to compare the very different 'flavours' of capitalism in, say, Germany, France, Singapore, Sweden and the UK. Of them all, American capitalism is the most hostile to the role of government, a fact that is probably not unrelated to the spate of high profile scandals that have beset it. Having said that, the ideas of American authors such as Hawken: (The Ecology of Commerce. and Natural Capitalism.), Harman: (The New Business of Business.), and, more radically, Korten: (When Corporations Rule the World. and The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism.) provide pointers toward a more constructive relationship.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: weLEAD Book Review from leadingtoday.org
Comment: Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and co-author of Built To Last, says, "Art Kleiner has uncovered a central truth about the way organizations work." Every decision, such as who gets the promotion or how to spend money, is affected by the perceived wants and needs of a group of people who are the genuine heart of an organization. This group, called the Core Group, is usually made up of most, but not all, of the people at the top of the organization chart. It may also include others. A Core Group might be huge, or it might be small. But be sure, if you have an organization, you will have a Core Group.



A Core Group guides and controls the organization. Core Groups are informal networks of key people who set the direction of the organization. Only rarely will a secretary or aide rise to the level of Core Group member. Usually they stand as gatekeepers to the real Core Group members.



The vast majority of employees are outside the Core Group. They make up "employees of mutual consent." These are people who feel their jobs require them to protect the position and status of the Core Group. The Core Group may consist of tenured faculty, established executives, or whoever the bureaucracy might be. The needs and wants of the Core Group actually come first, despite lip service that "the student comes first" or "the customer comes first."



In fluid organizations membership in the Core Group shifts from year to year, while in other types of organizations, such as family firms, membership of the Core Group is fixed enough to last for generations. When times get tough, sometimes a Core Group is streamlined, as in the case of "Welchism." Jack Welch was brought in as CEO of GE in 1981 to turn the organization around. He redefined the Core Group at GE-from a large body of employees with lifelong membership to a very small group of people whose membership is permanently insecure. Those in the new Core Group were expected to have the same brash, hard-driving, energetic personality that Welch himself has.



Occasionally one finds an organization where the chief executive is barely a member of the Core Group. For instance, Art Kleiner points out that in some universities nothing happens without the approval of long-standing tenured faculty members in critical departments. The president or dean has a limited term or limited power, and if he or she tries to change the organization, people simply say yes but ignore the changes. A dean may ask, "What is the difference between a tenured faculty member and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist."



In rare cases, such as Southwest Airlines, Scientific Applications (SAIG), Toyota, or St. Lukes Advertising Agency in London, an organization may have an expanded Core Group, where everyone's welfare and development is one of the entire organization's priorities. However, an "Expanded-Core Group" organization is difficult to create and maintain. This is because it must continually refine and expand the financial and learning-and-development structures, trying to make them more transparent and inclusive.



The author explains why more organizations don't follow the model of Toyota or Southwest Airlines. It is "because it would require most Core Group members to fundamentally change-not just what they say, but how they think, how they are paid, how they carry themselves, and how they build relationships." He then points out that most Core Group members have an unconscious vested interest in keeping themselves and their organization going in the same pattern of basic management. They have invested their careers, their habits, their thinking, and their feeling in an organization that maintains its current Core Group form.



Art Kleiner is a talented and seasoned writer. He worked as a collaborator with MIT lecturer Peter Senge, helping him conceive and edit his best seller, The Fifth Discipline. He later collaborated with Senge to produce the follow-up Fifth Discipline Fieldbook series which included The Dance of Change and Schools That Learn. He is a contributing editor at strategy+business magazine and the author of The Age of Heretics, which was a runner-up for the Edgar G. Booz Award for the most innovative business book of 1996. Who Really Matters is destined to be another significant contribution to this body of knowledge!


Review By Dr. J. Howard Baker

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