First, the authors present human resources as a critical part of a SYSTEM, integrated with the company's external environment, workforce, culture, strategy and production methods, rather than as an isolated or downstream activity.
Second, they bring insights from economics, sociology and social psychology to the topic, in a powerful way. The four appendices alone (transaction cost economics, game theory, agency theory and market signaling) are worth the price of the book.
Third, they avoid the trap of "best practice", where an author looks at a few successful firms (GE? PepsiCo? 3M?) and encourages others to imitate them. In contrast, this book offers clues to creating real and inimitable competitive advantage from a company's human resource management.
This is the only book on the market that will teach you the crucial "soft skills" of communication, facilitation, and presentation, plus a methodology for applying IT analysis skills to meet your client's business needs. Using an organized, common sense approach based on his 15 years experience as an IT consultant, Rick Freedman presents this landmark method for partnering with clients, collecting and analyzing data, creating recommendations, and delivering business benefits to clients.
Market proposals to executives, managers, and users
Plus, the accompanying CD-ROM provides you with customizable job aids for use in your own work.
Never again will you be simply a "technician-for-hire." Whether you're a newcomer to consulting or a seasoned professional, The IT Consultant provides you with a blueprint for developing your advisory skills, providing quality services, and building successful client relationships.
Customer Reviews:
its like getting $2000 training in the form of a book........2006-09-25
This book is a bit dry in places, BUT the content more than makes up for it.
I recommend this to any consultant. It will improve your level of thinking about what you do a whole higher level. Yes, it does have many effective "tips".
Discouraging.......2006-01-24
I was disappointed in the contents of the book. Although some of the information was helpful, each chapter ended with how difficult it was to be an independent IT Consultant. Also, the book is written from a UK perspective and does not focus on many aspects that are specific to the US, including new legislation (SOX) or sub-contracting.
Over-rated.......2002-10-23
This is a good book - but by no means a classic. It is perfect for its target market - geeks who don't know about business and business value and just want to read a summary of information available from more authoritive sources.
Better books include "Managing the Professional Service Firm" or "Secrets of Consulting" by Weinberg.
A great Read.......2001-11-13
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover. It's a sure must for anyone wanting to understand and learn about being an IT consultant. I wish I had this book around when I was a consultant. It describes exactly what an IT consultant is, the roles & responsibilities and attributes needed for this exciting career. Face it, most jobs today are very much IT focused, and we're all into IT in one way or the other. This gets my thumbs-up!
Insightful!.......2001-08-04
Author Rick Freedman spent many years as a consultant and his textbook and accompanying CD offer a lot of orderly advice aimed at both the novice consultant and the veteran consultant who wants to improve. Freedman covers such topics as the business of advice, the IT (information technology) consulting framework and developing superior consulting skills. Freedman's main argument is that consultants should train so that they can be of more help to their clients. Successful consultants, he maintains, rely more on their people skills than on their technical gifts. Freedman also gives aspiring consultants advice on how to remain competitive in securing and keeping clients. He instructs consultants to read a steady stream of periodicals and books to keep up with the vast daily changes in technology. We [...] suggest that you can use his book and CD set to find out everything you ever wanted to know about consulting - including how hard it is - but never knew who to ask.
Book Description
Increasingly sophisticated technology and an ever-expand-ing base of knowledge have not been enough to allow humans to halt the worldwide progression of environmental degradation. Extensive fieldwork in both Africa and the United States convinced Allan Savory that neither the forces of nature nor commonly blamed culprits-overpopulation, poor farming practices, lack of financial support-were causing the decline of once-healthy ecosystems. He also noted that once land has become degraded, leaving it alone seldom helps revitalize it. Savory eventually came to realize that on the most fundamental level, environmental problems are caused by human management decisions, and only through wholesale changes in the way decisions are made can functioning ecosystems be restored. In response to that startling discovery, Savory began to develop a revolutionary new approach to decision-making and management. Known initially as Holistic Resource Management, and now as simply Holistic Management, it considers humans, their economies, and the environment as inseparable. It includes a common-sense decision-making framework that requires no specialized knowledge or elaborate technology to utilize, and is applicable in any environment or management situation. At the heart of the approach lies a simple testing process that enables people to make decisions that simultaneously consider economic, social, and environmental realities, both short- and long-term.
Holistic Management is a newly revised and updated edition of Holistic Resource Management (Island Press, 1988), which was the first book-length treatment of Savory's decision-making framework and how it could be applied. A decade of trial-and-error implementation has strengthened and clarified the book's ideas, and has expanded the scope of the process to include all manner of decisions and management situations, not just those that relate to land and resource management.
Holistic Management has been practiced by thousands of people around the world to profitably restore and promote the health of their land through practices that mimic nature, and by many others who have sought a more rewarding personal or family life. This book is an essential handbook for anyone involved with land management and stewardship-ranchers, farmers, resource managers, and others-and a valuable guide for all those seeking to make better decisions within their organizations or in any aspect of their personal lives.
Customer Reviews:
chalenging.......2007-07-01
Very interesting tome that is overwhelming because it changlenges all of the mindsets that one generally has concerning land management. The book has sections that are good for everyone, not just the land manager, and should be skimmed by anyone who cares about this planet and wants to make a difference.
A HUGELY IMPORTANT BOOK.......2005-04-26
This is a book could be beneficial to anyone ... from individuals, to families, to cooperations, to farmers/ranchers, to governments.
Go to his webiste *holistic management dot com* for some of the most enlightening truth about the environement and our responsibility and what ACTUALLY WORKS in saving and preserving the environment. You will many Ah-Ha moments.
A very empowering book as well as you write out your QUALITY OF LIFE statement, your forms of production and your future resource base. An empowring book because it deals with really getting at the root and working towards a solution no matter who is involved.
If you want to solve problems and live with purpose and actually make a difference towards a sustainable civilization .. This book is at the top of the list.
AND.. It is just plain interesting !! Thank you Mr. Savory.
Real sustainability is about decision making.......2002-12-28
Sustainability has become the central drama of our time, yet within the sustainability movement there is a huge conflict. It isn't the environmentalists against the dam builders this time--it is between those who see nature mainly as a domain, reserve, or area, and those who see nature as a process. Both sides largely agree that there is a serious ecological crisis, we are on the brink, and that humanity needs to change its ways. But there is an enormous disagreement on the problem, and on the prescription.
For the majority of writers on sustainability, the causes of our crisis are greed, overpopulation, consumption, development, and multinational corporations. For them, sustainability is a modern, industrial-era problem. The solutions are political: shift power from the wrong people and organizations to the right people and organizations, or quit logging, grazing, or using chemicals.
Savory's book shows, in convincing and elegant detail, that those who concentrate on shifting ideology or politics to move toward sustainability are just rearranging the deck chairs. The backlash and the revenge of unintended consequences will continue. If we are serious about this, we must change our decision framework. The way we make decisions, which is usually unconscious and habitual, is the key factor. Savory and Butterfield show us how this works, from start to finish.
Very interesting, although not all I expected.......2002-12-04
I found the entire book very interesting, in that it talked in great detail about low-rainfall, brittle environments. These environments are hardly covered in most science books. Nevertheless, I expected to read more about the details of running livestock succesfully on these brittle environments. I am looking forward to further, more specific publications from Mr. Savory.
Don't missunderstand me. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and would highly reccomend it to anyone who lives off the land and who is in close contact with nature.
AW
Manage Cattle, Manage Your Life.......2002-08-17
I began reading Savory's book for a research project into ecological cattle management. Once I began reading it, I couldn't put it down, and I'm glad I didn't. Not only did the book teach me everything I could possibly want to know about Savory's cattle management methodology, but it gave a great perspective for managing life. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially people interested in any type of management (business or ecological) or anyone interested in environmental studies.
Average customer rating:
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Recruitment and Selection: A Framework for Success: Psychology @ Work Series (Psychology at Work (London, England).)
Dominic Cooper ,
Ivan T. Robertson , and
Gordon Tinline
Manufacturer: Int. Cengage Business Press
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ASIN: 1861527810 |
Book Description
The emphasis on high quality personnel recruitment is fast becoming a key concern in today's business environment. Organizations are moving away from what was traditionally a lottery when recruiting staff. Drawing on the latest scientific research this guide offers a `framework for action' to assist selectors, and students studying in this field, in this difficult task. The framework covers topics such as identifying customer needs, setting decision-making standards, developing ideas for continuous improvements and optimizing the design and return on investment of selection procedures. This framework enables the selector to predict future job performances with much greater accuracy, while helping their company to survive, prosper and grow. In addition to managers and HR professionals, students of management and occupational psychology at undergraduate and MBA level will benefit from the clear and concise coverage of this important topic.
Book Description
The underlying intention of this book is to demonstrate that while development focused on either `the organization' or `individuals' can have positive results, the most effective growth is achieved if organizational and personal development are combined and integrated. Dixon classes this as collective learning. To help achieve this ideal, Dixon sets out to clarify, in straightforward terms, what organizational learning is and how it can make a difference. To give readers a handle on this information, Dixon uses a model: the Learning cycle, which is comprehensively discussed throughout the book. Further illustration comes by way of case material from: Chaparral Steel, The World Health Organization, Johnsonville Food and discussion of the work of two key figures in the field, Chris Agyris and Reg Revan.
Customer Reviews:
A classic guide to effective organizational learning.......2000-06-09
A new edition of this 1994 classic on organisational learning. Based round use of a variant of the Kolb cycle, it is a valuable practical and theoretical guide to enhanced organisational learning. It is extensively revised, with valuable new material.
When it was first published in 1994, it immediately became a definitive text on organisational learning. The second edition builds on the first, with five new or revised chapters and incorporation of useful case study material of successful organisational learning [I judge that the new material and additional insights fully justify buying a new copy even if you have the old.]. The last five years have seen many useful additions to the literature, but Nancy Dixon's book remains my first choice for straightforward, helpful and thorough coverage of the issues and practice.
The book is practical, illuminating and wide ranging, and with quite enough examples to give it life for those who are seeking practical solutions to practical problems. I highly recommend it to everyone directly concerned with enhancing learning in their organisation (is there anyone who is not or should not be?). Even if you have no time for reading, you should at least read the Preface and Introduction.
It is worth quoting the four main themes listed in the Preface in full:
"Learning is part of work and work involves learning; these are not separate functions but intertwined; the separation we have made of them is artificial and often does not serve us well.
Learning is not only or even primarily about obtaining correct information or answers from knowledgeable others; it is fundamentally about making meaning out of the experience we and others have in the world.
Organizational learning results from intentional and planned efforts to learn. Although it can and does occur accidentally, organizations cannot afford to rely on learning through chance.
As a collective we are capable of learning our way to the answers we need to address our difficult problems. It is ourselves we must rely on for these answers rather than experts, who can, at best, only provide us with answers that have worked in the past."
For a great many organisations these principles call for a major shift from current practice and the author shows how to achieve this.
The book is well organised, well summarised, and well referenced, which makes it very accessible.
A classic guide to effective organizational learning.......2000-06-09
A new edition of this 1994 classic on organisational learning. Based round use of a variant of the Kolb cycle, it is a valuable practical and theoretical guide to enhanced organisational learning. It is extensively revised, with valuable new material.
When it was first published in 1994, it immediately became a definitive text on organisational learning. The second edition builds on the first, with five new or revised chapters and incorporation of useful case study material of successful organisational learning [I judge that the new material and additional insights fully justify buying a new copy even if you have the old.]. The last five years have seen many useful additions to the literature, but Nancy Dixon's book remains my first choice for straightforward, helpful and thorough coverage of the issues and practice.
The book is practical, illuminating and wide ranging, and with quite enough examples to give it life for those who are seeking practical solutions to practical problems. I highly recommend it to everyone directly concerned with enhancing learning in their organisation (is there anyone who is not or should not be?). Even if you have no time for reading, you should at least read the Preface and Introduction.
It is worth quoting the four main themes listed in the Preface in full:
"Learning is part of work and work involves learning; these are not separate functions but intertwined; the separation we have made of them is artificial and often does not serve us well.
Learning is not only or even primarily about obtaining correct information or answers from knowledgeable others; it is fundamentally about making meaning out of the experience we and others have in the world. Organizational learning results from intentional and planned efforts to learn. Although it can and does occur accidentally, organizations cannot afford to rely on learning through chance.
As a collective we are capable of learning our way to the answers we need to address our difficult problems. It is ourselves we must rely on for these answers rather than experts, who can, at best, only provide us with answers that have worked in the past."
For a great many organisations these principles call for a major shift from current practice and the author shows how to achieve this.
The book is well organised, well summarised, and well referenced, which makes it very accessible.
Book Description
Organization Theory: Tension and Change provides the most current and concise analysis of the development and evolution of organizational theories, forms, and practices, from the rise of the factory system to the emergence of the virtual global organization. Using a wide variety of examples and applications from private- and public-sector organizations, the text emphasizes the tensions, contradictions, and paradoxes inherent in all organizational arrangements. In addition to the classic themes such as scientific management, human relations, rational bureaucratic models, and environmental models, the book explores emerging organizational forms based on lean and flexible production, post-bureaucracy, alliancess, and networks, virtual organization and information technologies, corporate cultures, learning organizations, transnational commodity chains, and post-modernism.
Books:
- Supervision in Social Work
- Supply Chain Management and Advanced Planning: Concepts, Models, Software and Case Studies
- Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operations, Second Edition
- Supply Chain Management with APO: Structures, Modelling Approaches and Implementation of mySAP SCM 4.1
- System Engineering Management
- Taking Care of Myself: A Hygiene, Puberty and Personal Curriculum for Young People with Autism
- The Art of Classroom Management: Building Equitable Learning Communitites, Second Edition
- The Assertiveness Workbook: How to Express Your Ideas and Stand Up for Yourself at Work and in Relationships
- The Best Life Diet
- The Challenge of Effective Speaking (with CD-ROM and SpeechBuilder Express/InfoTrac )
Books Index
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From Business Strategy to IT Action: Right Decisions for a Better Bottom Line
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