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Driven
Topics: Decision Making-Decision Choices and ConditionsInformation-BooksOrganizations-Organizational StructureIn
Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices, HBS professor
emeritus Paul Lawrence and professor Nitin Nohria explore one
of the most basic questions of human behavior: What motivates
us to act the way we do? Drawing on theories of evolutionary biology
and social science, Driven establishes an innovative framework
for understanding the human experience and offers intriguing insights
into individual and organizational behavior with practical applications
for government, business, and community leaders.
Noted experts on organizational behavior, Lawrence and Nohria
argue that human behavior is the result of conscious choices that
are influenced by four fundamental drives: the drive to acquire
objects and experiences that improve our status relative to others;
the drive to bond with others in long-term relationships of mutual
care and commitment; the drive to learn and make sense of the
world and of ourselves; and the drive to defend ourselves, our
loved ones, our beliefs, and our resources from harm. The authors'
findings are based on their collective seventy years of research
on human behavior in the workplace and their synthesis of scholarly
work in numerous academic fields, ranging from neuroscience to
political science and paleontology to economics.
In the first of the book's four sections, Lawrence and Nohria
consider the evolution of the human mind, including the "Great
Leap" in intellectual development that occurred a hundred
thousand years ago when modern Homo sapiens emerged. Next,
they analyze the origins of the four drives mentioned above and
discuss their role in everyday life. The authors then look at
the drives in terms of their relationship to human culture, emotions,
and skills. Finally, they discuss ways to apply their four-drive
theory within organizations and suggest possibilities for its
application elsewhere.
Lawrence and Nohria admit that "two Harvard Business School
professors might seem like unlikely candidates" to propose
such an expansive model of human behavior. But they maintain that
the School's multidisciplinary approach to research creates
an opportunity to weave together disparate threads of scholarship.
A fascinating outcome of this broad intellectual overview, Driven
provides a new way to look at the unseen forces that guide the
choices we make every day in our personal and professional lives.
by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
(Jossey-Bass)
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