"Organizations pour billions of dollars into programs that in the end prove to be nothing but fads - short lived "enthusiasms" with little purpose other than to make those who initiate and proselytize them rich. Brindle and Stearns take a long, sobering look at these vogues and fashions and illustrate the continuity and similarities among them. Fads are both product and process tied to tensions in the workplace, and to those who too quickly profess solutions to the problems these tensions cause.

The authors shed new light on these fads, show how they develop in other cultures, and give managers everywhere new ways to react to them, and ways to uncover and resist their patently nonproductive blandishments. Executives, managers, and others with stakes in how organizations function will find this a lively, insightful appraisal, and a useful guide through the labyrinth of passing fancies that ultimately prove a waste of effort and other people's money."--BOOK JACKET.