When I first read this book, I thought: “Damn - these guys have already figured it all out!” And the quality of the writing was so amazing. Upon reading it all again, I found that Purser and Cabana had NOT figured it all out yet, but they were at least half way there. By the way: All of Ron Purser's work is excellent. He is one of the few business school academics today who “gets it.”
This particular book builds on the work of Lewin, Trist, the Emerys and all others of the Socio-Technical Systems movement. But it goes a step further, I think, in wisdom and articulation.
This book is somewhat hard to get by. But you have to.