The "Greatest Business Book of All Time" (Bloomsbury UK), In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school, and bedside table. Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management -- action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices -- that made these organizations successful. Joining the HarperBusiness Essentials series, this phenomenal bestseller features a new Authors' Note, and reintroduces these vital principles in an accessible and practical way for today's management reader.
The Book Publishing Industry focuses on consumer books (adult, juvenile, and mass market paperbacks) and reviews all major book categories to present a comprehensive overview of this diverse business. In addition to the insights and portrayals of the U.S. publishing industry, this book includes an appendix containing historical data on the industry from 1946 to the end of the twentieth century. The selective bibliography includes the latest literature, including works in marketing and economics that has a direct relationship with this dynamic industry. This third edition features a chapter on e-books and provides an overview of the current shift toward digital media in the US book publishing industry.
How can public officials move large government agencies to produce significant results? In Leadership Counts Robert Behn explains exactly what managers in the inherently political environment of government need to do to obtain such performance. In 1983 the leadership of the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare -Charles M. Atkins, Thomas P. Glynn, Barbara Burke-Tatum, and Jolie Bain Pillsbury-set out to educate and train welfare recipients, place them in good jobs, and move them from dependency to selfsufficiency- From these efforts to accomplish a specific and important public purpose, Behn extracts the fundamental ingredients of successful public leadership. Behn's analysis spans the spectrum of managerial tasks-from the almost spiritual responsibility to create and communicate a public mission to the seemingly mundane chore of motivating specific individuals to accomplish specific tasks. He describes how to manage for performance, examines how effective leaders can use external success to build internal morale, and analyzes the dilemmas of evaluating ongoing and evolving public policies. He explains in detail how accomplishing specific purposes requires management by groping along. And he analyzes three different metastrategies for government executives -strategies that emphasize policy, administration, or leadership. Leadership Counts is more than an intriguing success story. It offers specific lessons that the nominal head of any government agency can employ to become the organization's true leader. This insightful book will be of interest not only to students and teachers of public management but to leaders at all levels of government-from the principal of a school to the secretary of defense.
Critically acclaimed author Robert Klara's The Devil's Mercedes chases down one of the most improbable stories of the postwar era: the national drama that erupted when Hitler’s armored limousine surfaced in the US. In 1938, Mercedes-Benz began production of the largest, most luxurious limousine in the world. A machine of frightening power and sinister beauty, the Grosser 770K Model 150 Offener Tourenwagen was 20 feet long, seven feet wide, and tipped the scales at 5 tons. Its supercharged, 230-horsepower engine propelled the beast to speeds over 100 m.p.h. while its occupants reclined on glove-leather seats stuffed with goose down. Armor plated and equipped with hidden compartments for Luger pistols, the 770K was a sumptuous monster with a monstrous patron: Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party. Deployed mainly for propaganda purposes before the war, the hand-built limousines—in which Hitler rode standing in the front seat—motored through elaborate rallies and appeared in countless newsreels, swiftly becoming the Nazi party’s most durable symbol of wealth and power. Had Hitler not so thoroughly dominated the scene with his own megalomania, his opulent limousine could easily have eclipsed him. Most of the 770Ks didn’t make it out of the rubble of World War II. But several of them did. And two of them found their way, secretly and separately, to the United States. In The Devil’s Mercedes, author Robert Klara uncovers the forgotten story of how Americans responded to these rolling relics of fascism on their soil. The limousines made headlines, drew crowds, made fortunes and ruined lives. What never became public was how both of the cars would ultimately become tangled in a web of confusion, mania, and opportunism, fully entwined in a story of mistaken identity. Nobody knew that the limousine touted as Hitler’s had in fact never belonged to him, while the Mercedes shrugged off as an ordinary staff car—one later abandoned in a warehouse and sold off as government surplus—turned out to be none other than Hitler’s personal automobile. It would take 40 years, a cast of carnies and millionaires, the United States Army, and the sleuthing efforts of an obscure Canadian librarian to bring the entire truth to light. As he recounts this remarkable drama, Klara probes the meaning of these haunting hulks and their power to attract, excite and disgust. The limousines’ appearance collided with an American populous celebrating a victory even as it sought to stay a step ahead of the war’s ghosts. Ultimately, The Devil’s Mercedes isn’t only the story of a rare and notorious car, but what that car taught postwar America about itself.
A handbook on organizational consultation. This second edition includes more than 35 new chapters and an expanded list of international contributors. It analyzes all aspects of organizational consulting - including normative, empirical and political topics - and offers a broad view of consultation diagnoses, problem centres, and interventions.
The "Greatest Business Book of All Time" (Bloomsbury UK), In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school, and bedside table. Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management -- action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices -- that made these organizations successful. Joining the HarperBusiness Essentials series, this phenomenal bestseller features a new Authors' Note, and reintroduces these vital principles in an accessible and practical way for today's management reader.
Organization Development provides a forum for the ideas and experiences of a researcher and consultant concerned with change in organizations. It shows how choice and change can be guided in a world now characterized by what the author terms "permanent temporariness." The book is at heart an approach to increasing the amount of responsible freedom at work. In this respect, the volume responds to an avalanche of social criticism that has been directed at bureaucracy, "organizational America," and the "organizational ethic." The field at organization development is informed by such criticisms but transcends it via technology and values that drive change and choice alike.
Stop! If you have been looking for the one resource for managing a business of any size, this is it. Based on the extensive business experience of five experts, this authoritative guide provides an in-depth look at what every leader must know about managing across departments, functions, divisions, or companies. Drawing on decades of combined experience, John Colley and colleagues detail the wide range of skills, tools, and conceptual understanding as well as the qualities of leadership that a successful general manager must acquire. In an era of specialization and specialists, the authors return due focus to the generalist. No other book so passionately and thoroughly examines the roles and responsibilities of the general manager and the full scope of this distinct, pressure-filled occupation. The authors explore the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the job and discuss how the skilled manager moves an organization from abstract goals to definitive action. For every profit center or plant manager, function head, division president, or CEO, this book is indispensable reading.
Shares compassionate advice for sufferers on such topics as sleep management, educating family members about the disorder, and finding or creating an RLS support group, in a guide that explores possible causes and treatment options. Original. 30,000 first printing.
This is a reprint of a previously published work. It deals with good mangement based on action and the judgment of the individual manager on deciding appropriate action.
A Brookings Institution Press and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation publication It started two decades ago with CompStat in the New York City Police Department, and quickly jumped to police agencies across the U.S. and other nations. It was adapted by Baltimore, which created CitiStat—the first application of this leadership strategy to an entire jurisdiction. Today, governments at all levels employ PerformanceStat: a focused effort by public executives to exploit the power of purpose and motivation, responsibility and discretion, data and meetings, analysis and learning, feedback and follow-up—all to improve government's performance. Here, Harvard leadership and management guru Robert Behn analyzes the leadership behaviors at the core of PerformanceStat to identify how they work to produce results. He examines how the leaders of a variety of public organizations employ the strategy—the way the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services uses its DPSSTATS to promote economic independence, how the City of New Orleans uses its BlightStat to eradicate blight in city neighborhoods, and what the Federal Emergency Management Agency does with its FEMAStat to ensure that the lessons from each crisis response, recovery, and mitigation are applied in the future. How best to harness the strategy's full capacity? The PerformanceStat Potential explains all.
Robert Wuthnow has been praised as one of "the country's best social scientists" by columnist David Brooks, who hails his writing as "tremendously valuable." The New York Times calls him "temperate, balanced, compassionate," adding, "one can't but admire Mr. Wuthnow's views." A leading authority on religion, he now addresses one of the most profound subjects: the end of the world. In Be Very Afraid, Wuthnow examines the human response to existential threats--once a matter for theology, but now looming before us in multiple forms. Nuclear weapons, pandemics, global warming: each threatens to destroy the planet, or at least to annihilate our species. Freud, he notes, famously taught that the standard psychological response to an overwhelming danger is denial. In fact, Wuthnow writes, the opposite is true: we seek ways of positively meeting the threat, of doing something--anything--even if it's wasteful and time-consuming. The atomic era that began with the bombing of Hiroshima sparked a flurry of activity, ranging from duck-and-cover drills, basement bomb shelters, and marches for a nuclear freeze. All were arguably ineffectual, yet each sprang from an innate desire to take action. It would be one thing if our responses were merely pointless, Wuthnow observes, but they can actually be harmful. Both the public and policymakers tend to model reactions to grave threats on how we met previous ones. The response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, for example, echoed the Cold War--citizens went out to buy duct tape, mimicking 1950s-era civil defense measures, and the administration launched two costly conflicts overseas. Offering insight into our responses to everything from An Inconvenient Truth to the bird and swine flu epidemics, Robert Wuthnow provides a profound new understanding of the human reaction to existential vulnerability.
This classic study of ethics in business presents an eye-opening account of how corporate managers think the world works, and how big organizations shape moral consciousness. Robert Jackall takes the reader inside a topsy-turvy world where hard work does not necessarily lead to success, but sharp talk, self-promotion, powerful patrons, and sheer luck might. What sort of everyday rules-in-use do people play by when there are no fixed standards to explain why some succeed and others fail? In the words of one corporate manager, those rules boil down to this maxim: What is right in the corporation is what the guy above you wants from you. Thats what morality is in the corporation. This brilliant, disturbing, funny look at the ethos of the corporate world presents compelling real life stories of the men and women charged with running the businesses of America. This anniversary edition includes an afterword by the author linking the themes of Moral Mazes to the financial tsunami that engulfed the world economy in 2008.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1988.
Managing Diversity in Organizations focuses on a key issue that organizations are facing—diversity. It is here, and it is growing. The only question now is how well we deal with diversity, especially in organizational contexts. Golembiewski identifies the many forces and factors propelling us into the age of diversity in organizations—ethical, political, philosophic, demographic, and so on—and details the historical and contemporary approaches. Most practice has focused on a "level playing field" or equal opportunity and "tilting the playing field" or equal outcomes. This volume focuses on diversity as a strategic device rather than as a nicety rooted in behavioral and organizational research. Managing diversity successfully in organizations requires a thorough understanding of management infrastructure that is consistent with diversity--especially structures of work, policies, and procedures that institutionalize and build diversity.
Church leaders want to know that their leadership strategies are informed by Christian teaching and made credible by the authority of Scripture. In addition, pastors have an unquenchable thirst for new and unique approaches to leadership. These needs and many more are met as Robert Dale takes the reader through four primary leadership strategies in the New Testament. Focus is a strategy that one learns through study of Jesus' mission and leadership influence. Flexibility is the strategy learned as the Church expands through the Acts of Apostles. Future-Orientation is the strategy emphasized through the pastoral Epistles. Feasibility is the Strategy developed in the Book of Revelation, when the churches are in crisis or in survival mode. Each strategy is illustrated with practical application for the life of congregations so that leaders can sharpen leadership skills with integrity and authority.
Rapid Results! shows how to make large-scale changes succeed by using 100-day results-producing projects to develop this vital implementation capability. Written by Robert H. Schaffer, Ronald N. Ashkenas, and their associates--leaders in the field of change management--Rapid Results! describes an approach that has been field-tested by real organizations of every size and description to improve performance and speed the pace of change. Rapid results projects produce results quickly, introduce new work patterns, and enable participants to learn a variety of lessons about managing change. Step by step, the book describes how the use of rapid-cycle, or 100-day, projects will multiply your organization's power to succeed at large-scale change. Schaffer and Ashkenas specifically outline the concept behind 100-day projects and show you how to Set up the architecture to implement rapid results projects Improve operational performance and also attain hard results in the soft areas of management Build rapid results into major organizational change such as reorganization, acquisition integration, and international development Use rapid results to drive leadership development and culture change
In a world grappling with seemingly insurmountable challenges like systemic corruption, elitism, and chronic inequality, this book is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of practical solutions. Brimming with real-world examples and actionable insights, this remarkable anthology equips readers with the knowledge and inspiration needed to ignite transformative change. The book explores topics as awesome as world development, as sordid as extortion, as vital as cultural responsiveness, as intimidating as racial inequalities. Its settings stretch from Harvard to the Himalayas, from the corridors of power to the backwaters of poor places. What binds together its diverse topics is the author’s belief in the possibility of simultaneously being humane and analytical, of dealing with both ultimate goals and concrete choices. Tailored to resonate with policymakers, activists, and scholars alike, this anthology’s global scope and unwavering focus on positive and practical solutions make it an indispensable addition to any collection.
Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear--firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place. The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.
A challenge to re-examine beliefs, biases and actions is presented through the exposure of misleading research and faulty diagnosis in the current policies and pratices of canal irrigation.
This book presents the first published accounts and evaluations of the first free market in education in the U.S., Arizona charter schools.. The charter school is fast becoming one of the most significant attempts at public education reform in this country. Over 1100 charter schools operate in twenty-seven states, with several hundred more to be added in the next two years. School Choice in the Real World looks at the charter school movement through a highly focused lens: it examines charter schools in Arizona, which currently account for nearly one-quarter of all charter schools. Using this state as a case study, the editors examine the experiences of actual charter school operators, social scientific analysis, policy discussions, and criticism and forecasting for the future. School choice is the most talked about reform of American public education, yet writings about choice remain highly speculative because no state has adopted a free market approach to education--until now. The charter school is fast becoming one of the most significant attempts at public education reform in this country. Over 1100 charter schools operate in twenty-seven states, with several hundred more to be added in the next two years. School Choice in the Real World looks at the charter school movement through a highly focused lens: it examines charter schools in Arizona, which currently account for nearly one-quarter of all charter schools.Since 1994, Arizona has implemented a charter school law with the lowest barriers to entry in the nation. As a result, Arizona has more than 200 charter school campuses. Some districts have even lost more than 10% of their students to charter schools. Using the state of Arizona as a case study, the editors examine the experiences of actual charter school operators, social scientific analysis, policy discussions, and criticism and forecasting for the future. The editors bring together academics, policy-makers, and practicioners, and they explain and evaluate how school choice works in the real world.
Having led change successfully at three sprawling, monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—Robert M. Gates offers the ultimate insider's look at how leaders can transform large organizations and companies. For many Americans, bureaucracy and corporate structure are code words for inertia. Gates knows that it doesn't have to be that way. With stunning clarity, he shares how simple plans, faithfully executed, can cut through the mire of bureaucracy to reform organizational culture. And he shows that great leaders listen and respond to their teams and embrace the power of compromise. Using the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to duty, he empowers leaders at any level to effectively implement his leadership strategies.
A Lifelong Call to Learn is aimed at directors of lifelong learning and continuing education that serve both clergy and laity in Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish seminaries and conference and retreat centers. While proposing new approaches in continuing theological education, it also addresses the need for programs that involve both clergy and laity at the congregational level and that support ongoing interreligious dialogue in our increasingly pluralistic society. The contributors to this book include seasoned practitioners as well as teachers and scholars in seminaries and universities from every part of the country in both denominational and ecumenical settings. The chapters explore historical perspective and educational contexts; theory and research in professional continuing education; innovations in continuing theological education; development, management, and promotion of programs; and directions and resources for the future. Particularly in this time of foment in theological education, when institutional leaders are striving to develop new models for the basic master of divinity degree, this collection will be of keen interest to theological educators in every setting.
If you’ve employed consultants and embarked on a Lean transformation only to find your efforts stall after the consultants leave, this book will teach you what you must do to stay the course over the long term. Using a compelling novel format, Sustainable Lean: The Story of a Cultural Transformation illustrates the process of implementing a sustainable Lean transformation. The book follows Jim, the plant manager of an electronics firm that has already seen its first Lean initiative fail. Jim realizes that if he doesn’t act quickly, his job and the jobs of everyone in the factory might be in jeopardy. Jim meets a Lean consultant who agrees to help him implement and sustain a new transformation. Readers follow along as Jim learns invaluable lessons that help him and his plant see costs plummet, on-time delivery reach nearly 100 percent, and defects drop by close to 80 percent. Using simple terms and an ongoing example, the book demonstrates how to use top-down metrics to identify strategic and tactical opportunities for improvement. It describes how to conduct Hoshin Kanri (strategic policy deployment). It also describes the relationship between top-down metrics, organizational accountability, the breaking down of "stovepipes," and the concept of "alignment" that comes about as the result of Hoshin Kanri. Detailing a data-driven methodology to help you set boundaries for effective decision making, this book will inspire manufacturers to achieve world-class production and efficiency standards—one factory, one business at a time.
Strategic anticipation enables businesses to embrace shifts in the marketplace early on and align market research and forecasting into the structure of the business. This comprehensive book provides managers with tools they can use to align their company's market research and business planning efforts with their organization's overall business strategy and operations.
Robert Collins examines the critical and controversial developments of the 1980s and the unmistakable influence of Ronald Reagan on their making. Portraying the former president as a complex political figure who combined ideological conservatism with political pragmatism, Collins demonstrates how Reagan's policies helped limit the scope of government, control inflation, reduce the threat of nuclear war, and defeat communism. In the 1980s other changes occurred as well, including the advent of the personal computer, a revolution in information technology, a more globalized national economy, and a restructuring of the American corporation. In the realm of culture, MTV, self-help gurus, and postmodernism realized the cultural shifts of the postwar era, creating a conflict that pitted cultural conservatism against a secular, multicultural view of the world. Entertaining and erudite, Transforming America explores the events, movements, and ideas that profoundly changed American culture and politics during an important decade.
Want to achieve spectacular success in your personal and business life? Looking for ways to mold and capture superior teamwork, cohesion, and bone-deep dedication? Put Real Dream Teams on your list of must reads. From the headlines used to describe groups such as the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team, to Hollywood production moguls, to attorneys clashing in major criminal cases, we have all heard the phrase "dream teams" used and misused. Real Dream Teams is a book that focuses on extraordinary efforts by conditioned winners who have achieved outstanding results through what the authors call "synergistic group dynamics." Let Real Dream Teams point you in the direction of becoming a more effective team leader and team member. Read of team efforts and extraordinary practices and results as demonstrated by recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Medal of Honor, national championships, and best-in-industry awards. Take tips from those who have achieved their membership in Real Dream Teams:
A practical guide to attacking the most common of phobias: fear of failure A practical guide to attacking the most common of phobias: fear of failure Since its publication in 2011, What's Stopping You? has offered readers a hard look at the quality of their careers and personal lives. For those who'd give themselves a solid "C+", this brutally honest guide to taking stock also offers the keys to self-improvement. By dismantling the fear inhibiting all achievement—fear of failure—author Robert Kelsey offers a set of seven steps designed to help readers map out their actions, and attain what once seemed elusive milestones. Written for the frustrated underachiever or anyone who feels like one, this unique book addresses can the real obstacles hindering both professional and personal growth. Includes a new chapter with tactics for overcoming a fear of failure Explores methods for dealing with different types of people in a host of situations, such as getting a new job, pitching for new work, making presentations, or communicating clearly in an argument With a Foreword by one of Britain's most successful businessman, Luke Johnson, this unique handbook to overcoming the most basic of fears is a must for anyone who would like to upgrade the quality of their life.
Satellite Monitoring of Inland and Coastal Water Quality: Retrospection, Introspection, Future Directions reviews how aquatic optics models can convert remote determinations of water color into accurate assessments of water quality. This book illustrates how this conversion can generate products of value for the environmental monitoring of opticall
Assesses the problem of corruption in developing economics, suggests guidelines for creating anti-corruption policies, and looks at five successful cases.
Every nation likes to believe myths about itself. Americans' belief in the superiority of their managerial know-how seemed to be among those most solidly based in reality. Yet, Locke argues, despite its universal claims, American managerialism has never been more than a cultural peculiarity, one whose claims to superiority had not been proved but assumed, on the premise that the best economy must have the best management. That premise, moreover, has not served American managerialism particularly well, for in the 1970s a gap opened up between the mystique of American management and the realty of a mediocre American managerial performance. The 'mystique' collapsed and those looking for best practice began to look elsewhere. Locke traces the evolution of American management in the postwar era - the phenomenon once described by Churchill as that 'clear cut, logical, mass production style of thought'. He goes on to discuss in detail the views of such business writers as Chandler, Reich, Senge, and Deming. But the force of his critique rests on a thorough examination of alternative forms of management that grew up in West Germany and Japan during the past decades. He argues that these alternative management forms have done a better job managing capitalist economies since the 1970s than has American managerialism. But the book is not an essay in negativism. In the final chapter the author suggests paths that American management can follow in order to fulfil its original promise.
“An excellent workbook-like guide” to the nuts and bolts of professional conflict and the strategies you need to make conflict work for you (Booklist, starred review). Every workplace is a minefield of conflict, and all office tension is shaped by power. Making Conflict Work teaches you to identify the nature of a conflict, determine your power position relative to anyone opposing you, and use the best strategy for achieving your goals. These strategies are equally effective for executives, managers and their direct reports, consultants, and attorneys—anyone who has ever had a disagreement with someone in their organization. Packed with helpful self-assessment exercises and action plans, this book gives you the tools you need to achieve greater satisfaction and success. “A genuine winner.” —Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence “This book is a necessity . . . Read it.” —Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Liberian peace activist “Innovative and practical.” —Lawrence Susskind, Program on Negotiation cofounder “Navigating conflict effectively is an essential component of leadership. Making Conflict Work illustrates when to compromise and when to continue driving forward.” —Hon. David N. Dinkins, 106th mayor of the City of New York “An excellent workbook-like guide.” —Booklist, starred review
This book is about all forms of interpersonal relationshipswhich we commonly call customer servicewhether your company is a doctors office, retail store, restaurant, law firm, nonprofit organization or any other business. Even if you generally rely on social media, texting or email for basic communication, eventually everything boils down to one human being talking to another human being. I intend this book to be a wake-up call for people. We need to stress the value of good customer service, because good customer service promotes strong relationships and complements sound business strategies. Learn to be successful in your business relationships and you will be successful in your business.
This book offers an acute theological analysis of the influence and importance of leadership in our culture today. The authors begin by analyzing the current growing interest in leadership and examining its development within the church. Next, they consider the spiritual dimensions of leadership. Finally, they offer examples of exceptional Christian leadership and discuss ways to nurture this type of leadership for the future.
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