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. "...an interesting book which explores and integrates findings from several disciplines and which contributes further to the field of evolutionary psychology in a readable manner..." (The Occupational Psychologist, April 2002) What universal characteristics make us human? Are there biological drives that motivate us as human beings? Why do we choose to do what we do? At last we have the answers to these and other timeless questions about human nature. In this groundbreaking book, Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, two Harvard-based researchers, take a multidisciplinary approach that bridges the gap between the latest findings from evolutionary biology and insights about human behavior derived from social science. Driven compellingly sets forth the authors' scientific theory for understanding human nature and behavior. Lawrence and Nohria conclude that the way we act is a result of the conscious choices we make. These deliberate choices are fueled by the internal battle constantly raging among our four innate, subconscious, brain-based drives: The drive to acquire objects and experiences that improve our status relative to others The drive to bond with others in long-term relationships of mutual care and commitment The drive to learn and make sense of the world and of ourselves The drive to defend ourselves, our loved ones, our beliefs, and our resources from harm. Driven offers a workable model to help make sense of the human experience-- at the dinner table, the card table and the conference table-- and reveals the common heritage of humans, no matter how diverse our cultural or social backgrounds. The authors-- knowing that humans will always be contentious and never reach the idealized goal of total balance and agreement-- urge us to attend to the well-being of our souls. If we attempt to balance our four drives, we can find the way forward to the next stage of our evolution as human beings. "Darwin with an MBA.." -- Terry Burnham, coauthor, Mean Genes What Drives You? The Drive to Acquire? The Drive to Bond? The Drive to Learn? The Drive to Defend? Learn what two Harvard researchers-- Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria-have discovered about what drives us to make the choices we make. Driven reveals the scientific foundation for an understanding of human nature and the mysteries of human behavior. "Driven makes a daring leap across disciplinary boundaries to show how recent research in biology sheds light on human nature, and thus social behavior. Social scientists need to pay attention to important works like this." --Francis Fukuyama, author, The Great Disruption and The End of History and the Last Man "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, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Paul R. Lawrence is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Organizational Behavior Emeritus at Harvard Business School. His research, published in twenty-four books and numerous articles, has centered on the human aspects of management, organizational change, and organization design. Nitin Nohria is Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration and chairman of the Organizational Behavior Unit at the Harvard Business School. He is the author of more than seventy-five professional articles and the coauthor or editor of seven books, including the award-winning The Differentiated Network.