This book was a recommended text in my Organizational Behavior class. I'll need a new copy because I have underlined and highlighted so much of the text! Dr. LaBier has deftly identified theoretical and practical "gaps" in the fields of clinical psychology, organizational psychology, organizational development and management consulting. The Big Question ... What type of organizational context/environment are individuals being encouraged to adapt to? The personal costs of so-called healthy adjustment to one's work environment often include suffering from symptoms of value conflicts, negative coping and overadapting? These symptoms are exacerbated if you are a healthy well-adjusted individual. They are significantly diminished if you are an individual whose daily interactions are already rife with maladaptive behaviors! Have you discovered that many managers and leaders seem to make others sick? Then you've been exposed to the individual that Dr. LaBier describes in great detail. The workplace winner could be a very disturbed individual whose mental aberrations are valued as strengths in our workplaces. Unchecked, these individuals spread malaise, low morale, mistrust and other damaging workplace dynamics.

One of the key paradoxes illuminated in this book... what are the implications for individuals and society when the maladaptive individual can adjust and flourish in a corporate (disturbed) environment and the healthy, adjusted person is depleted mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually by the same (disturbed) environment? What are the responsibilities of organizational experts whose primary task is to develop or "fix" individuals or teams so they may successfully "adjust" to their disturbed work environments? There are positive and negative repercussions to the pursuit of career success, Dr. LaBier encourages his readers to question the assumption that adaptiveness equates to healthy functioning.