Book Review: Work, Death, and Life Itself: Essays on Management and Organization By Burkard Sievers. 1994: Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 346 pp., 66.90.

Abstract

This book represents the author’s “attempt to find (his) own voice in relation to the experience, emotions and thoughts I have had in my various role s both professional and private” (1994, p. xi) . His core concerns are that modern organizations are ill-fitted to meet the requirements for a dece nt life for its me mbe rs and, more powe rfully, pre ve nt the m from confronting the ir mortality. From these concerns he develops a number of other themes, including the proble m of meaning, leadership, manage ment, and the deve lopme nt of wisdom in organizational life . Although his inte llectual sources are eclectic, there is a primary inte rest in psychoanalytic perspectives.