Book Description
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? sums up Lou Gerstner's historic business achievement, bringing IBM back from the brink of insolvency to lead the computer business once again.Offering a unique case study drawn from decades of experience at some of America's top companies -- McKinsey, American Express, RJR Nabisco -- Gerstner's insights into management and leadership are applicable to any business, at any level. Ranging from strategy to public relations, from finance to organization, Gerstner reveals the lessons of a lifetime running highly successful companies.
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"
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? sums up Lou Gerstner's historic business achievement, bringing IBM back from the brink of insolvency to lead the computer business once again.Offering a unique case study drawn from decades of experience at some of America's top companies -- McKinsey, American Express, RJR Nabisco -- Gerstner's insights into management and leadership are applicable to any business, at any level. Ranging from strategy to public relations, from finance to organization, Gerstner reveals the lessons of a lifetime running highly successful companies. "
Customer Reviews:
Great leader.......2007-08-27
When I started the book, I have no idea about the history of IBM. I am not an IT person, so I have heard IBM but that is basically it.
I learned a lot from the book about IBM, what they did wrong and how he changed it.
But besides everything he revised the company culture and organizational structure. I think that is the hardest thing a CEO can achieve. His vision, his attention to details but still seeing the big picture amazed me. No wonder they picked him as the great saver of the IBM legend.
The book is long and sometimes repeats itself, without going into details.
The part I enjoyed the most was his e-mails. How encouraging was he after 9/11, he mentioned employee names and all the things they did both to help and also to get their business going. He sent e-mails to his 300.000 employees. His tone and the things he mentions, his clarity was amazing. He is an excellent leader. IBM is very lucky to have such a good CEO.
What Life at the Top is Really Like--As Told By a Superb Leader.......2007-08-16
Having spent twenty-three years in management before I became an entrepreneur, I recognize that moving from one side of the desk to the other side may be the longest journey a professional person ever makes. When we shift into a leadership spot, not only do we find that our prior perceptions might have been totally inaccurate, we have to address personal and professional challenges we would have never imagined.
I applaud this book as one man's record of what life at the top is really like. He won me over immediately when he decided to wear a blue shirt because everyone else was wearing white. Thoreau would have applauded his individualism.
With my current profession dedicated to improving individual and corporate communication, I agree with Gerstner's assertion that "No institutional transformation takes place, I believe, without a multi-year commitment by the CEO to put himself or herself constantly in front of employees and speak in plain, simple, compelling language that drives conviction and action throughout the organization."
Another striking bit of Gerstner wisdom: "Success in a company comes foremost from success with the customer, nothing else."
He's right on target again when he observes that "lack of focus is the most common cause of corporate mediocrity."
Yet Gerstner goes beyond mere platitudes: "Execution--getting the task done, making it happen--is the most unappreciated skill of an effective business leader."
Possibly two of Gerstner's words capsule his approach to awakening IBM to its possibilities: "constructive impatience."
In my judgment, Louis Gerstner should rank alongside Jack Welch as a take-no-prisoners leader. Read this book, and you will agree that he was the right man at the right time for IBM.The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!
Where Were the Details?.......2007-06-06
Throughout this book Gerstner discusses the changes IBM made and how he helped turned the company around. I have no doubt that he was a large part of the dynamic shift at IBM to again make it the successful, global company that it is today, but I felt that I went through the book without completely understanding what those changes were. There was a lot of discussion of how IBM was operated and managed when Gerstner took control of the company in 1993 as it was falling apart before the public's eyes, and there was a lot of explanation of how IBM was successful and reborn when he stepped down from the CEO position in 2002. But there was little substance in between. I am not sure if that is because the day-to-day steps taken throughout the mid and late 1990s are too mundane for the average business reader, of if the details were just left out. Gerstner does share some insight into leadership skills and his management style, but IBM as is left in the shadows. All in all, this is not a bad book, but be aware that the reader is left wondering exactly how IBM regained its dominant position in the marketplace.
A leader thru change.......2007-05-17
Mr. Gerstner provides his story of when he took over the reigns at IBM and brought the company back on its feet. This is a strict business book with internal memos and charts at the end so it can lend itself to being a bit boring in some parts. However, when the authir describes how he was able to navicate thru the huge complexity of all the different divisions, then this book becomes a valuable reference for any business leader who needs to go thru the same process.
smooth transaction, exact product, nice&easy supplier.......2007-05-14
exact product at an affordable price w a smooth transaction
Book Description
This best-selling book is dedicated to the development of decision-making skills in marketing. It introduces concepts and tools useful in structuring and solving marketing problems, while extensive case studies provide an opportunity for those concepts and tools to be employed in practice. Consisting of 10 chapters and 43 cases that feature contemporary marketing perspectives and practices, this book covers the topics of marketing management: its foundations; financial aspects; decision-making and case analysis; opportunity analysis, market segmentation, and market targeting; product and service strategy and brand management; integrated marketing communication strategy and management; pricing strategy and management; the control process; and comprehensive marketing programs. For marketing executives and professionals.
Customer Reviews:
Chapter two is most valuable!.......2007-03-22
Chapter two has a really good, in depth, review of basic marketing math.
Shippment.......2005-07-08
Book was in perfect condition with the exception of some small damage that occurred during shipping. The company packaged it well, I think the postoffice just used metal straps during shipping which damaged the book a little. But the company shipped it out immediately which is appreciated!
Strategic Marketing Problems... Not Solutions.......2003-08-17
I was disappointed. The book does contain some interesting thoughts, but 90% of the content is a description of companies facing marketing problems (case studies with a lot of facts). The author doesn't offer the solutions and best practises that would help solve these problems. While reading this book, i felt i was eating a burger without meat. Something is missing...
This is a good book for teachers who want case studies for their students to work on. It's a classroom book. It's not a good book if you want want to read marketing theory and best practises (if you're already in the management world).
Great and comprehensive.......1998-05-28
I am a MBA Candidate with a finance focus who had the pleasure to use this book. Never before had I imagined that marketing could have the amount of numerical focus that this book shows. There's a case for every type of industry and many world-famous companies in this book. What else is missing from an introduction to marketing text?!
A good book..........1997-10-23
I'm a MBA student in marketing. This book is good, but just that... good. I'm absolutely certain that somewhere has to be a book about strategic marketing that has a little more information (that's the problem, little theory and plenty of numbers) and not so expensive.
Teresa M. Rodríguez
Book Description
Written by two of the most respected and honored individuals in the field, this definitive casebook of actual real-life public relations situations serves as a reference and guidebook for helping public relations professionals apply effective, cutting-edge public relations theories, principles, and practices to a wide variety of situations --involving all types and sizes of organizations. Features actual, real-life cases on each aspect of public relations --employee relations, media relations, community relations, issues, crises, investor relations, consumer relations and ethics. Some cases end favorable for the organization involved, some end in failure, and others are unresolved. Provides comprehensive introductions to each series of cases. Stresses the importance and necessity of combining all public relations actions with both personal and professional ethics in behavior -- as outlined by the Declaration of Principles of PRSA's Code of Ethics. For any practicing public relations professional.
Customer Reviews:
the real world.......2002-08-22
This book should be required for everyone even thinking about entering the field of public relations. The case studies give a very real view of how public relations are in the real world. Michael Levine's Guerrilla PR Wired is also another book that gives a real-life accurate view of PR. I would recommend in particular his Magoo Theory of public realtions.
Public Relations Practices has clear intelligent writing that talks to the reader without talking down to them
Real World Public Relations.......2000-03-26
If ever a book was written that applied the concepts, theories, and functions of public relations to actual real-life senarios, this is the one. In their Public Relations Practices, Center and Jackson breathed life into theoretical public relations, bringing it into "the real world" with cases in several areas of public relations--media relations, consumer relations, employee relations, investor relations, community relations, crisis management, public and private issues, interests, & concerns, and most importantly, standards, values, & ethics. Two probable prerequisites to this book would be a book on the basic principles and practices of PR and a book on PR campaign strategies. Public Relations Practices is the door through which the reader is invited to enter "the real world" of PR. Anyone, from the student of public relations to the working practitioner with decades of experience, can greatly benefit from the information contained within this text.
The best PR text I have ever read.......1999-06-01
I read this book in a college public relations class. Now, as an account executive in a public relations firm, I still find it invaluable. This text places special emphasis on the evaluation of public relations, and thus it is a credit to our field. I can't recommend it highly enough. Once you have read some introductory book on PR principles, this is required reading.
Book Description
In Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management, Bob Paladino shares his decades of experience to provide proven, real-world implementation insights from globally recognized and award-winning organizations. You’ll discover what today’s Fortune 100 companies are doing right, and how to implement their enterprise techniques and strategies within your own organization to maximize success.
Customer Reviews:
Five Key Principles is meaningful and actionable.......2007-08-20
Mr. Paladino has incorporated CPM theory, practical application, professional experiences, and proven practices from a variety of top-notch organizations into one concise book. CPM novices and experts alike will find the content meaningful and actionable.
Excellent Practical Advice for Implementing CPM in Your Organization.......2007-08-20
Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) is an excellent book for you if you are looking to improve business performance by installing CPM processes and tools or for refining your existing processes and tools. While so many books talk and remain at at a high level, and make no mistake the five key principles provide a strong model for implementing CPM, Bob Paladino provides real-life examples that show the model has been proven and tested. The examples also serve to help customize your implementation of the the five key principles for the unique challenges and strengths of your organization.
Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management builds and extends on the proven Kaplan/Norton Strategy Focused Organization methodology. If you are interested in vastly improving your corporate performance using proven methodology and information gathered from real-world implementations, I highly recommend this book.
Real-World Experience TrumpsTheory Every Time.......2007-08-12
So many of the business books available today are written by authors with little practical experience to back them up. It's very easy to come up with a theoretical approach to improving business performance. The problem is, most theories don't account for the realities of the business environment that only real-life, in-the-trenches experience teaches. Instead of selling an approach to performance management developed in an academic or theoretical environment, Bob Paladino has instead brought to this book real-world examples of how actual companies, by applying his five key principles, have achieved measurable and ongoing success. The book is straight-forward, and offers a broad-enough cross sampling of case studies that the reader is able to find commonality to which they can link their own efforts at performance management. Clearly not a one-size fits all approach, but rather practical advice from someone who's been there before, and succeeded at achieving measurable and lasting results.
A Collection of Fascinating Case Studies.......2007-08-08
Bob Paladino adeptly utilizes award winning companies to illustrate the implementation of the 5 Key Principles. The easy to follow exhibits and best practice sidebars included provide additional support and illustration to the cases.
Bob emphasizes the importance of a dedicated CPM office, as well as tips on dealing with corporate silos and cross functional cooperation to address the key concepts necessary to reach strategic goals.
This book is an outstanding reference and primer for both executives, consultants, and students to better understand the necessary practices to achieve process excellence and ultimately financial success.
Highly recommended .......2007-08-06
Whether you have been engaged directly in organizational performance management for years or are seeking an introduction to the topic, this book should be extremely valuable. It is clear that the author has many years of "hands on" and practical experience yet he also puts forth a comprehensive and excellent conceptual model of performance management.
The book is both stimulating and a fun read. While other books may go into a great amount of detail on particular aspects of performance management, the author stays at a level that holds the attention of the reader while providing ample real life examples to make the material understandable.
This is probably the first book to complete the circle of organizational performance management in such a comprehensive manner. What I found especially helpful was that the author taps into the knowledge from a variety of quality and performance management organizations.
Highly recommended.
Book Description
Pierce and Newstrom’s Leaders and the Leadership Process, 4e is a collection of readings, self-assessments, case studies and experiential exercises on leadership intended to give students a feel for the breadth and richness of this study. This paperback book provides students with a sense of the complexity associated with leadership in organizations as well as an understanding of the pieces that serve to define leadership. The text encourages students to engage in dialogue and to think critically about the leaders and the leadership process. Self-assessments, which begin most chapters of the book, encourage students to look at their own personal leadership style. A capstone section of Applications, in the form of case studies and experiential exercises, asks students to move beyond theory to the practice of leadership. The authors use this combination of readings, self-assessments, and applications to create a "leadership mosaic" - one that encourages students to examine the concepts, propositions, perspectives, and theories one at a time as it builds towards the students ultimate unique leadership mosaic.
Customer Reviews:
Very Thorough - Highly Technical.......2006-06-17
This is the text that was used in my Master of Science - Organizational Leadership Introductory Course.
It is not easy reading, nor should it be for a course at a high academic level.
It in effect provides a very broad outline of the theory and supportive research of leadership in the past 70 - 80 years. Obviously, such an endeavor cannot be exhaustive. What is aimed at here, is an exposure to the foundations of Leadership Theory and how it breaks into the major camps of Leadership espoused by the majority camps in the field and in practice outside of academia.
First, the negative factors, and bear in mind the overall strong rating of the text and please note the strengths concluded with below.
1. The Book itself is composed of a brief introduction to the particular element of leadership theory followed by readings drawn from major journals to give some idea of the current state or the development of research and findings. In keeping with this format, the physical layout of the book is similar to what you would find in an academic journal using 8 1/2" by 11" paper. This is bound in a softcover binding. I found the dimensions of the book to be very frustrating in the constant referring back and forth from articles, journals etc. necessary when using the book as a reference for the academic papers involved. It seems to be that the binding should better, the size smaller and possibly even something in a hard-cover. Afterall, this is supposed to be a cornerstone in a students leadership library. I know that is a pipe-dream in this day of high cost academic books and cost-cutting measures, but it needs to be said. You'll need to work carefully to keep this tome from becoming dog-eared and available for reference moving forward.
2. This is a personal bias but bears stating. There are only 3 mentions in the entire book relevant to Servant-Leadership which is one of the more popular important theories to have arisen since its inception in 1977. It appears to have been summarily dismissed as an unteneble theory in view of the values of the servant-leader needing to be embraced by the stakeholders. That in and of itself is debatable. However, I embraced or not, there was obviously little reference to this major theory and that in my opinion speaks to bias on the editing of the book. Agree or not, to truly represent the field this needed more interacting with the tenets of the theory to truly be a representation of current leadership-theory.
Those 2 elements aside, this is what speaks in favor of the book.
1. The research in the supporting theories is very thorough and gives a good foundation for further work and understanding of work in this realm involving both Quantitative and Qualitative Research. If you're just looking for some popular discourse on leadership approach, you will be overwhelmed by this element. It is however, a text for use in Academic circles, so this is as it should be.
2. Good attention is paid to multi-cultural and cross-cultural issues in leadership that are increasingly relevent in the global economy and advent of the multi-national corporation.
3. The bibliographies of each chapter are more than sufficient to serve as a roadmap to the additional reading that can fill in the many gaps that necessarily exist.
Not for the faint-hearted or casual reader. Overall, an excellent resource that in my opinion could have been just a little better.
Think before you lead.......2005-08-25
An excellent view and review of why we lead, why we don't want to follow, how we lose our leadership capacity, what we had and why we lost it, and how much it costs to lead.
What do Steve Yzerman and Jack Welch have in common? Well, they're both great leaders. And I think that Mr. Welch also played hockey. That might be it.
Here's a tough one. What can they teach us? Probably nothing. I can't skate and it's unlikely that I will end up as a CEO of a billion dollar company. And it's more than certain that the issues that Captain (of industry) Welch and Captain (of the Red Wings) Yzerman run into, I will never have to address. If you're like me, you're a regular human and you wonder why things don't work and could they work better? Pierce and Newstrom write great introductory essays on points and issues and then leave us to read the best articles on that topic.
Why are women better leaders in certain circumstances? How do leaders emerge? How do leaders define meaning? Is it fluid? Is it dynamic? What makes followers follow because if they don't, then all these leadership questions are like the old philosophy axiom about the 'tree falling in the forest.' And what is the right stuff?
I found this very informative and selected it as the text my school is going to teach Leadership from. I guess if I am tarred and feathered at the end of the semester it won't have been a success, but I'm betting it will be extremely well received. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury
Book Description
Famous "Work-Out" change-management tool explained by the people who helped develop it.
GE's legendary Work-Out program played a key role in the company's phenomenal success over the past decade and has been implemented in many other organizations. Now three executives and consultants who developed the original Work-Out approach at GEoften working directly with CEO Jack Welchdiscuss the inner workings of Work-Out and their experiences at successfully implementing the program at GE.
Filled with effective assessment and decisionmaking tools, The GE Work-Out provides concrete and realistic guidance for anyone who wants to implement Work-Out and break down bureaucracy and hierarchy within an organization.
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GE's legendary Work-Out program played a key role in the company's phenomenal success over the past decade and has been implemented in many other organizations. Now three executives and consultants who developed the original Work-Out approach at GE often working directly with CEO Jack Welch discuss the inner workings of Work-Out and their experiences at successfully implementing the program at GE.
Customer Reviews:
Sound advice for delivering speed, simplicity, and solutions.......2005-01-07
'Work-Out' is the famous organizational process that General Electric, the greatest industrial firm in the world, used to bust bureaucracy - fast.
At its core, Work-Out is a simple, straightforward concept for cutting out bureaucracy and solving organizational problems - fast. Large groups of employees and managers - from different levels and functions of the organization - come together to address issues that they identify or that senior management has raised as concerns. In small teams, people challenge prevailing assumptions about "the way we've always done things" and come up with recommendations for dramatic improvements in organizational processes. The Work-Out teams present their recommendations to a senior manager in a "town meeting", where the manager engages the entire group in a dialogue about the recommendations and then makes yes-or-no decisions on the spot. Recommendations for changing the organization are assigned to "owners" who have volunteered to carry them out and follow through to get results. That's Work-Out in a nutshell.
Work-Out can be applied to almost any type of problem. It was first used at GE to harvest the low-hanging fruit of OVERGROWN BUREAUCRACY by getting unnecessary and unproductive work out of the organizational system - e.g. reduce meetings, reports, and approval levels. They asked what procedures didn't make sense? Where were they wasting time? What activities seemed to add little value? Some of the bureaucratic procedures were expense reimbursements, making travel arrangements, obtaining office supplies, updating personnel data, taking education courses, upgrading software, and more. But also in the core functions, bureaucracy was found: filling out forms for deals, preparing presentations for approval meetings, keeping track of customer data, obtaining approval for materials purchasing, overwhelming amounts of extra analysis to justify various investments or initiatives. Some of the results were e.g. that expense accounts did not need multiple approvals, people could purchase approved software without going through the IT department, and a pre-deal process was established to see if deals were worth pursuing before going through all the analytics.
Work-Out has been successfully adapted to any type of organization - public or private, commercial or non-profit, large or small. In all of these organizations, no matter what the issue, the process remains much the same.
1. Bring together the people from the organization who know the issues best
2. Challenge them to develop creative solutions
3. Decide on the solutions immediately in a public forum
4. Empower people to carry them out
Despite its massive impact on GE and other firms, Work-Out is not a snake oil or magic elixir. It is a simple set of concepts, tools, and experiences. When stripped to its essence, Work-Out allows people to get some obstacles out of the way so they can do their work better. In many firms, that alone would be a significant gain.
The real merit of this book is the practical approach. If you are - as I am - struggling with the challenges of continually keeping our organizations lean, then this book can help you. It contains many inspiring worksheets, action plans, tools, and hands-on case studies.
The authors of this book helped GE create Work-Out. So don't expect theoretical contributions. Only sound advice.
Co-author Dave Ulrich is one of my favourite HR experts. I can recommend many of his books, e.g. `Results-Based Leadership' and `Delivering Results'. To him, HR is about delivering business performance and organizational capabilities. Cause if you don't, you'll soon be out of business. The tricky part is balancing the soft and hard part of HR. Dave Ulrich has many good concepts to make that happen. This book is not a bad place to start, if you'd like to pick his brains...
Peter Leerskov,
M.Sc. in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business
Packed Wiyh Knowledge!.......2004-05-02
There's no denying the effectiveness of the Work-Out system at General Electric (GE). This book is a straightforward and comprehensive introduction to what Work-Oout means and how it helped GE achieve such astonishing results under Jack Welch, who introduced it. This clear, well-organized book makes it possible for any executive or manager to apply at least some elements of the work-out program in any organizational context. We do caution you, however, that the Work-Out program as portrayed here demands a great deal of commitment and moral fortitude from leaders. Empowerment may be effective, but it is rarely comfortable for the powers that be. Just ask "Neutron Jack."
Good Idea - Bad Book.......2003-12-19
I completely agree with the reader who said that this book could have been written much more effectively. It is nearly 400 pages and should have been no more than 25 to 50. Most issues or thoughts in this book while being solid are explained in far far too painful of detail with a great deal of redundancy. This made reading the book extremely wasteful of my time.
Perhaps the authors should have a "Work Out" on improvement of their materials.
Great. Lots of first-hand tips to turnaround a large company.......2003-03-28
Unlike other books on Six Sigma that focus on variation reduction, statistics and other tools, this book is full of practical examples of techniques and implementation tips. The focal point of the book is on the process of generating the turnaround in a large conglomerate such as GE. In this case the aspects of organizational behavior constitute THE critical success factor (rather than statistical/other tools). Workout has undoubtedly been fundamental for generating the cultural transformation in GE. This book is addressing these organizational behavior aspects in a pragmatic manner presenting a detailed road-map from planning all the way through implementation.
Most examples deal with administration/bureaucracy and I would have expected to read more on operational aspects such as value chain improvement in a Production/Logistics environment.
This book is a must for top managers that search for a generic methodology to translate their vision into reality.
Very Bad Buy.......2002-12-05
This is one of the worst books I've ever purchased. The ideas in this book could be fully explained in no more than two or three pages. I bought it relying on the CV's of the authors but it turned out to be a true dud. It rehashes the same ideas over and over and over and over. It's for the braindead.
Book Description
Applications in Human Resource Management is a single source of cases, exercises, incidents, and skill builders to supplement introductory human resource management courses. These materials offer a fresh approach based on dynamic, real-life organizational events confronting both human resource managers and line managers. The cases are based on "real" events that have taken place in organizations and the exercises and skill builders are intended to give learners the hands-on skills they will need in facing the challenges of today's workplace.
Customer Reviews:
Great teaching resource........2007-01-04
This is an excellent case book. I have been using it for a number of years and find that my students learn a great deal from the wide variety of cases. I strongly recommend this book. In fact, I dropped the text and use this instead. I supplement the case discussions but students get much more from the class by using this book.
Book Description
Case Problems in Finance is a Harvard case course presenting real business situations that pose debatable alternative courses of action. The cases contain problems that can be narrowed but not always settled by the usual techniques of financial analysis. It will teach students to discover ways of thinking that are productive in handling different types of managerial problems intelligently. The cases are grouped by major topics: financial analysis and forecasting, cost of capital, working capital management, capital budgeting, dividend policy, debt policy, financial execution, and mergers and restructuring.
Book Description
All managers get saddled with "problem" employees from time to time; what sets great managers apart is how they deal with them. Drawing from real-life stories, this helpful and humorous guide provides readers with practical advice for handling a wide range of difficult types, including:
* The Impossible "I"s: Incompetents, Idiots, and Imbeciles -- clueless employees who simply don't know what they're doing
* The Bull in the Office China Shop -- the frequently angry worker ready to confront anyone and everyone
* The Party-Time Performer -- the employee who, although great with people, constantly turns work-time into fun-time
* I've Got a Problem -- employees whose work is compromised by any of a range of personal demons, from drug and alcohol problems to emotional issues
From whiners and wastrels to the needy and nefarious, this book gives readers the tools they need to handle any type of difficult employee.
Customer Reviews:
A 'must' for managers.......2007-02-03
A 'must' for managers is Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.'s A SURVIVAL GUIDE TO MANAGING EMPLOYEES FROM HELL, telling how to handle a typical problem employee. Humor blends with practical, life-tested advice for handling different types of employee issues, from the clueless incompetent to the party-time performer who can't seem to separate work from fun. Case histories blend with advice and techniques from the field in a manual key to any level manager's success.
A common-sense approach to the difficult employee.......2007-01-29
We have all known the "employee from hell" in all of his or her guises: the complainer, the egomaniac, the troublemaker, the passive-aggressive type, the clever con artist, and many more.
In this plain-spoken book, management consultant Gini Graham Scott categorizes bad employees into some three dozen pigeonholes (like the "impossible intern," the "negative Nelly," and the out-and-out liar) and assigns each a brief chapter that opens with a succinct case study. In each setting, Scott asks the same question: Did the boss handle the situation well? Should she have fired the employee on the spot, put him on probation, called a staff meeting, had a one-on-one conversation with the troublesome employee, let the whole thing go, or done something else entirely?
Scott's advice springs largely from common sense. She acknowledges that there isn't just one way to handle a difficult worker. A good deal depends on the office atmosphere, the employee's and boss's personalities, and other intangibles. In discussing a saleswoman who gives so much attention to the first customer of the day that she neglects her duties to other customers, Scott suggests a variety of steps: giving the worker one more chance, explaining that she will be fired if she doesn't change, clarifying where she has gone wrong, asking another employee to monitor her behavior, and rewarding her with small bonuses if her performance improves.
Of course, some problematic behavior - drug use on the job, stealing from the employer, a pattern of lying -- can't be tolerated, and Scott urges that supervisors should fire people who do those things, even if the employee is a friend, or the friend of a friend. Still, there are a number of ways to dismiss someone, and Scott insists that even a fireable employee should be shown the door graciously.
Customer Reviews:
Academic Text.......2007-06-26
Fairly good text book, while it explained the use and need for CLD's it fails to provide a first reader on how to actually draw the loops! It does not guide or recoomend what software to use in doing the drawing... we are all not technical drawers.....
Best used as a course book.......2002-06-22
At 144 pages this book is a short introductory text and workbook that is designed to introduce systems thinking. It starts by building an awareness of systems thinking as a discipline, and by providing a series of learning activities that lead you through the basics.
The two main techniques that this book teaches are (1) behavior over time graphs and causal loops, both of which are the main tools employed in systems thinking. These are also the foundation of system dynamics of which systems thinking is a subset (system dynamics uses expanded techniques such as simulation models and analysis of alternatives).
What I like about this book is the clear explanation of the basics and the use of illustrations and learning activities. I also like the summaries of system archetypes and system thinking tools included in the appendices, which provide starting points for further study. It's not the best book for self-study because it is written more as a workbook than an introductory text. As such it is best used in an instructor-led course, or in conjunction with more in-depth books about system thinking (my favorite is Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity by Jamshid Gharajedaghi).
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- Winter of the Ice Wizard (Magic Tree House 32)
- Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny
- Writer's Market 2007 (Writer's Market)
- 40 Weeks +: The Essential Pregnancy Organizer
- A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation
- A Planner's Guide for Selecting Clean-Coal Technologies for Power Plants (World Bank Technical Paper)
- Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Controlling Risk
- Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Controlling Risk
- An Introduction to High-Frequency Finance
- Architectural Graphic Standards, Tenth Edition (Book only)
Books Index
Books Home
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General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company
Jack: Straight from the Gut
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials)
Confessions of an Advertising Man
What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School: Notes From A Street-Smart Executive
