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Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)
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Sales rank 237,266
Customers rating (based on 16 reviews)
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A touchstone for understanding how we behave on the job "This is a stimulating and provocative book in bringing together important ideas from different fields, and, thereby, giving us a whole new slant on 'human nature.'" —Edgar H. Schein, Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus and Senior Lecturer, MIT In this astonishing, provocative, and solidly researched book, two Harvard Business School professors synthesize 200 years of thought along with the latest research drawn from the biological and social sciences to propose a new theory, a unified synthesis of human nature. Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria have studied the way people behave in that most fascinating arena of human behavior—the workplace—and from their work they produce a book that examines the four separate and distinct emotive drives that guide human behavior and influence the choices people make: the drives to acquire, bond, learn, and defend. They ultimately show that, just as advances in information technology have spurred the New Economy in the last quarter of the twentieth century, current advances in biology will be the key to understanding humans and organizations in the new millennium.
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| Publisher | Jossey-Bass | | Release date | 09/2002 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Paperback |
| | List price | $19.95 | | Our price | $17.05 (you save 14.54%) | | Used price | from $4.05 |
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 Driven: How Human Nature Shapes our Choices
Harvard Business School professors Lawrence and Nohria present a sociobiological theory of motivation directed to the business environment. They claim that humans possess four basic drives to acquire, to bond, to learn, and to defend. The unique approach in their book is the manner in which they apply their theory specifically to the workplace. Historical case studies are used to show that successful organizations are those that give their employees opportunities to fulfill all four of these drives. There are of course a number of competing drive theories from Freud's sexual drive to Steven Reiss's 16-drive theory. The authors, well versed in sociobiology, openly acknowledge that the numbers and exact nature of our drives need further exploration and provide suggestions for research projects. Irregardless of how many more drives one human may or may not posses their theory is enlightening for any reader. While being academic in its approach and presentation it is written with the lay reader in mind so any undergraduate will comfortably assimilate the information provided. This is ideal for any business leader that would like to better understand what not only drives them but also those around them.Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)
 A nuanced view of human nature
Readers who like the idea in this book should also enjoy Steven Reiss's idea of multidimensionality of human nature (see Reiss's "Who Am I: The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities" and "The Normal Personality"). Little wonder why Amazon bundle the two books together.
Putting the two sets of ideas side by side (and they are developed independently using different research methods), one see a clear match between the typology of Lawrence & Nohria's basic drives and Reiss's basic desires, although the 4 drives in Lawrence & Nohria are higher-order groupings of Reiss's 16 basic desires.
The only comments that I would like to add here is that the 4 drives in Lawrence & Nohria should be seen as psychological rather than biological. Secondly, the concept of individuality (i.e. individual differences in "how much" we desire each of these basic drives) is not apparent in this book as it is in Reiss's work.
 House built on sand
The arguments presented are based on weak theories and opinions. Authors say we have 4 basic drives (drive to aquire, bond, learn, and defend) and we "naturally" become cooperative to ensure our own self-interests (reminiscent of Adam Smith's invisible hand theory). While these drives seem reasonable, what about other drives? And how can the authors argue that cooperation is the "natural" product when we are left alone? Anyone with children will understand the importance of education in helping to "teach" cooperation.
Great concept
The book lays out the concept of four human drive. To Acquire, To Bond, To Learn, and To Defend. The concept is pretty much lecture by the Franklin Covey seminars and many books as preaches by the great Stephen Covey, the author of 7 habits of highly effective people. It says 4 things drive people. To Live, To Love, To Learn and To Leave a Legacy. The fourth drive from this book and Franklin Covey is similar but not the same. Overall its a good book.
Who Is In Your Driver's Seat?
At first glance this book seems to be leaning too much toward the scientific/academic side. I was actually dreading to read the book, however the authors have done a magnificant job of livening up each academic part with real world case studies. The main theme of this text is how we base our decision making on four psychological drives that every person is born with regardless of religion, race or other factors:1.) The Drive to Acquire (D1) - We all have it, it is normal but some have too much of it. Those who have an overdose of D1 tend to teeter on the edge of self-destruction and those around them. 2.) The Drive to Bond (D2) - Everybody likes to feel wanted and belong to some type of organisation (family, cultural, religion, hobby, etc., When a person engages in decicion making, they will usually decided positive for the person who has something in common with them. 3.) The Drive to Learn (D3) - Learning is a part of life and when this drive is not satisfied in people they become aggressive and restless. Have you ever seen a highly intelligent well-paid co-worker leave a job although this person never had any problems with peer or superiors? Chances are that this person was in dire need of a cerebal orgasam i.e. The person was somebody who needed to be mentally challenged. 4.) The Drive to Defend (D4) - We have learned certain beliefs and take them to be true until proven otherwise. When somebody attacks or tries to show us otherwise we become agitated, angry or beligerent because deep down in our subconscious we have a defense mechanism that does not want to be proven wrong. This is an excellent book for markets, negotiators and employers. What makes us tick inside our crainium. The authors have excellent examples taken from Hewlett-Packard and how they created a bond between employees and the company. Other scenarios show why some companies work extremely well with labour unions and some companies never seem to have any peace between management and unions. Why do we prefer a product over another? All of these answers are in this text.
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