Summary

The four gods of the title - Zeus, Apollo, Athena and Dionysus - symbolize the different styles of management and culture to be found in organizations.

The four gods of the title - Zeus, Apollo, Athena and Dionysus - symbolize the different styles of management and culture to be found in organizations. The underlying point is that management is not a precise science, but more of a creative and political process, owing much to the prevailing culture and traditions of the organization. Part 1 explains the theory of cultures and how it applies to organizations; Part 2 examines the major cultural crisis affecting businesses today; as the multi-layered and multi-structured organizations - in the Apollonian or bureaucratic model - have reached a dead end and must give way to the cultures of Zeus and Dionysus, gods of individualism and personal power.