Decoding the Socio-Economic Approach to Management. Results of the Second SEAM Conference in the United States

A volume in Research in Management ConsultingSeries Editor: Anthony F. Buono, Bentley UniversityIn May 2014, the French research laboratory ISEOR (Socio‐Economic Institute for Firms and Organizations) andthe University of St. Thomas co‐sponsored a second conference on the application of the Socio‐Economic Approachto Management (SEAM) paradigm and methodology in the United States. SEAM is a scientific approach to consultancy that focuses on uncoveringthe dysfunctions and hidden costs that exist in organizations, "hidden" in the sense that they are not captured by traditional accounting methodsand financial analyses. Through intervention that encompasses the entire organization - what the ISEOR team refers to as the HORIVERT approach(combining horizontal and vertical intervention) - the underlying goal is to enhance organizational performance by attacking the "TFW virus," avestige of the early work by Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, and Max Weber that has sufficiently infiltrated our thinking about management and organizationto the point where are falling well short of our own potential. The resultant dysfunctions this virus unleashes creates hidden costs thatreadily destroy a firm's value‐added possibilities. The volume captures the ideas, applications, and exchanges of that meeting, attempting to bringthe reader into the conference itself. Chapters include the contributors' presentations ("Chapter Prologue: Conference Remarks"), revised conferen...