Book Description
With its conversational writing style, cutting-edge content, current examples, the three-level integrative model, dialogues, and technological learning tools, Organizational Behavior remains
the global book, used by more readers interested in the topic than any other since 1979. The 12th edition retains all of the best features of the previous editions, yet adds much more: contemporary issues and research have been included into a seamless, whole, and comprehensive tome.
Many topics are comprehensively covered, but on the whole, this book is written in a conversational, easy to read style. Topics include: management functions; the social sciences; helping employees balance work and other responsibilities; improving people skills; improving customer service; motivational concepts; communication; power and politics; conflict and negotiation; culture; and stress management.
Globally accepted and written by one of the most foremost authors in the field, this is a necessary read for all managers, human resource workers, and anyone needing to understand and improve their people skills.
Customer Reviews:
Organizational Behavior.......2007-09-30
This was my first experience ordering a College Textbook on Amazon. I ordered a brand new book and CD and was very pleased to receive my order in time for my class. Most important I was able buy a brand new textbook at a used textbook price. I liked being able to provide my credit card information to an Amazon rep by phone rather than send it over the Internet. I plan to use Amazon again for my future requirements.
A classic reference for OB.......2007-07-01
Recently I took a course about Organizational Behavior & this was the course textbook. It's a reasonable choice for an introductory course. I found it easy to read & informative. However, the accompanying SAL CD-ROM was disappointing - I didn't think it was worth the effort.
Bottom line - I would recommend it.
Book Description
Make Human Resources work for you. STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT shows you how through its unique system of concept integration. Most Human Resources textbooks give you the theories without showing you the connections to real life. This textbook lets you see both sides of Human Resources: the theory and the application. That way, you'll not only get a great grade in class, you'll be on your way to success after college as well.
Customer Reviews:
Strategic Human Resource Management.......2006-11-04
The book covered a lot of ground. I believe it offered a lot of insight into the world of human resources, primarily, the challenges faced by HR today. Some highlights were the concept of valuing human assets, the implications of globalization, federal regulations, the importance of well-designed and applicable feedback systems, employee separation and compensation. Overall, it was a fairly easy read. I would recommend this book to professors, students, and entrepreneurs.
Book Description
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: CONCEPTS AND CASES, 7th edition provides the most accurate, relevant, and complete presentation of strategic management today. Each edition is thoroughly updated to include cutting edge research and trends that are shaping business strategy. The authors guide students through the strategic management process using a unique model that blends the classic industrial organizational model with the resource-based view of the firm to explain how firms use the strategic management process to build a sustained competitive advantage. Throughout the text carefully selected examples and highlights help put the ideas presented into context. The text's stunning four color design, illustrative models and figures also helps to focus students attention on the key points. In addition to the concepts portion, the text includes 35 compelling case studies or you can easily build your own case selections from premier providers such as Harvard, Ivey, and Darden.
Customer Reviews:
great book.......2007-02-23
this is one of the better books for strategic management, the condition was great and price was low..
Customer Reviews:
Why some companies seem to have a devoted customer base..........2007-06-20
There's a difference when you fly Southwest vs. United. You feel different shopping at Costco than you feel shopping at Wal-mart. Why? That question is explored and answered in the book Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David B. Wolfe. This is one of those books that will cause you to think about why you feel as you do towards certain companies, and how those feelings translate into real profits.
Contents: A Whole New World; It's Not Share of Wallet Anymore - It's Share of Heart; New Age, New Rules, New Capitalism; The Chaotic Interregnum; Employees - The Decline and Fall of Human Resources; Customers - The Power of Love; Investors - Reaping What FoEs Sow; Partners - Elegant Harmonies; Society - The Ultimate Stakeholder; Culture - The Secret Ingredient; Lessons Learned; Crossing Over to the Other Side; Acknowledgements
On Wall Street, companies are usually judged on their profit. Squeeze as much out of your business as you can, cut costs wherever possible, and make sure you meet your numbers. To be sure, plenty of companies are successful under those rules (such as Wal-mart). But when you look at their performance over the last few years on the stock market, returns have been stagnant or have trailed the field. The alternative way to run a business is as a "firm of endearment" (FoE). These companies have a passion for what they do/sell, they have a strongly defined purpose for what they want to accomplish, and they look to contribute to society in more ways than just the quarterly dividend to shareholders. These FoEs, like Costco, Whole Foods, Harley-Davidson, and others, include stakeholders to mean all parts of society that they touch... shareholders, employees, the community, etc. The focus isn't on pure profit, but instead on contributing to the well-being of all the stakeholders. That's why a company like Costco can afford to pay their employees a living wage, have low turnover, and *still* turn a substantial profit. They have captured the hearts of their customer base, and that base will go out of their way to shop at Costco whenever possible. That's also why a company like Ikea can propose a new location and have nearly universal acceptance in the community, while a new Wal-mart location brings out protesters in force. There's obviously a lot more that differentiates FoEs from their counterparts in the marketplace, but once you recognize an FoE, you'll understand why they are successful by *not* following the same formula as everyone else.
It's tempting to think that all the FoEs covered in this book can do no wrong. That's not the case. JetBlue was/is an FoE that badly damaged their reputation during the winter when storms caused massive cancellations. It even led to the resignation of the CEO. Like other business books of this genre (In Search Of Excellence, From Good To Great), only time will tell how these companies will fare over the long term. It may well be that a decade from now, the stars of this book will have all fallen to the wayside. But I would venture to guess that the companies covered here will have a much larger margin of forgiveness than would other companies that are just focused on the next quarter...
This is a book that is highly recommended for anyone running a business. It should cause you to rethink the factors of success for your company, as well as point you in directions that could lead you to become an FoE in your niche.
Why "endearing companies tend to be enduring companies".......2007-05-16
In the Prologue, when discussing The Age of Transcendence through which the contemporary business world is now proceeding, the co-authors (Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jagdish N. Sheth) suggest that it is "a cultural movement in which physical (materialistic) influences that dominated culture in the twentieth-century are ebbing while metaphysical (experiential) influences become stronger. This is helping to drive a shift in the foundations of culture from an objective base to a subjective base: People are increasingly relying on their own counsel to decide what the truth is...That shift acknowledges a long-suppressed idea in a world largely guided by Newtonian certainty that chemistry Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine says is scattering to the winds: Ultimately, everything is personal."
Thus do the authors establish a frame-of-reference for the thesis of their book: That each stakeholder in an organization tends to thrive best when all stakeholders thrive. That is, no stakeholder group is more important than any other. "It is disciplined dedication to the well-being of all stakeholders that separates firms of endearment from their competition." Stakeholder relationship management (SRM), the authors suggest, can achieve and then sustain superior business performance that, in turn, will create n a decisive competitive advantage. They are convinced that SRM business models will increasingly be seen "as the most efficacious way to achieve sustained superior business performance in years to come" but only if (huge "if") the interests of all stakeholder groups are brought into strategic alignment.
Two Questions: Are all stakeholder groups of equal importance and do they have the same interests? Also, are all members of a stakeholder group (e.g. shareholders) of equal importance and do they have the same interests? These questions occurred to me as I read the first chapter, especially the brief discussion of the "distinctive" core values, policies, and attributes that firms of endearment (FoEs) share in common. Eventually, Sisodia, Wolfe, and Sheth provide answers to these questions, answers best revealed within the narrative.
If indeed "endearing companies tend to be enduring companies," how do the 28 FoEs that "made the final cut" for this book compare with the 11 companies praised by Jim Collins in Good to Great? "Over a 10-year horizon, FoEs outperformed the Good to Great companies by 1,026 percent to 331 percent (a 3.1-to-1 ratio). Over five years, FoEs outperformed the Good to Great companies by 128 percent to 77 percent (a 1.7-to-1 ratio). Over three years, FoEs performed on par the Good to Great companies: 73 percent to 75 percent." (FYI, there are no duplicates on the two lists.) As with the exemplary companies discussed by Thomas J. Peters in Robert H. Waterman, Jr. in In Search of Excellence, not all companies on any such list continue to meet the criteria that were the basis of their initial selection.
For me, some of the most interesting material is presented in Chapter 11, "Crossing Over to the Other Side." At one point, the authors cite Oliver Wendell Holmes's observation "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." They then quote one of my favorite passages in James O'Toole's The Executive's Compass:
"To move beyond the confusion of complexity, executives must abandon their constant search for the immediately practice and, paradoxically, seek to understand the underlying ideas and values that have shaped the world they work in. Managers who clamor for how-to instruction are, by definition, stuck on the near side of complexity."
According to Sisodia, Wolfe, and Sheth, the big challenge of the times is to transcend the zero-sum mindset because, given the profusion of new opportunities, absolutes (by nature limiting) are found everywhere on the near side of complexity. "They emerge from people's perennial quest for pat solutions, or `silver bullets,' as they are sometimes described. This is a key point because, as Sisodia, Wolfe, and Sheth explain, a zero sum mindset leads to the conclusion that one stakeholder group can only benefit at the expense of the other stakeholder groups...However, opportunities increase by an order of magnitude when the mind breaks free of zero-sum thinking."
There are specific reasons why endearing companies tend to be enduring companies and one of the most important is their having "the ability to transcend ruthless competition and embrace the fruits of cooperation [which is] the essence of evolved humanness."
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Bill George's Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value and his later book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, co-authored with Peter Sims. Also Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, Adrian J. Slywotzky's The Upside: The 7 Strategies for Turning Big Threats into Growth Breakthroughs, Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson as well as Ram Charan's Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't, Lynda Gratton's Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and Organizations Buzz with Energy - And Others Don't, Robert J. Herbold's Seduced by Success: How the Best Companies Survive the 9 Traps of Winning, Jack Alexander's Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation, and Michael Useem's The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide--Knowing What to Do and When to Do It.
Excellent description of a service oriented business model.......2007-05-16
This book identifies a batch of companies that have oriented their business model to providing a superior feeling in the minds of their customers. In many cases I absolutely agree with them.
Wegman's supermarkets for instance presents an excellent shopping experience. I particularly love their cheese department where knowledge people stand ready to discuss their magnificant array of choices and even to giving you samples to taste seemingly without end or sales pressure. In turn I buy far more cheeses than I would otherwise. We both win.
But then they turn to Wal-Mart and repeat a litany of alleged problems with employees, suppliers, and communities. My own experience with Wal-Mart is limited to one store in the small town where I live. But my experience doesn't match the alleged problems. I go there, the people, from the greeter at the door to the most junor sales clerk are friendly and willing to walk halfway across the store to help me find something. I talk to people who work there (away from the store) and they universally say that it is the best job they've ever had. Does the Wal-Mart experience depend on the store? Are the alledged problems just that, allegations? And for that matter, does every Wegman's have such an excellent cheese department? And what about Microsoft? Everyone (nearly) uses their products and most people hate the company. What does this say about their future? I guess we'll just have to watch and see.
This is a book that describes one way of doing business that has worked for a lot of companies. It provides a good insight into what these companies do.
Impressive Examples of Serving the Full Gamut of Stakeholders.......2007-05-08
What is a Firm of Endearment? The authors argue that their example companies share a common set of core values, policies, and operating attributes which include:
1. aligning the interests of all stakeholder groups (customers, employees, partners, investors, and society) rather than seeking profit optimization
2. below-average executive compensation
3. open-door policies
4. employee compensation and benefits are above average for their industry
5. above-average employee training
6. empower employees to satisfy customers
7. hire employees who are passionate about the company's purpose
8. humanize customer and employee experiences
9. enjoy below-average marketing costs
10. honor the spirit as well as the letter of laws
11. focus on corporate culture as a competitive advantage
12. are often innovative in their industries
Companies identified include extensive examples drawn from Commerce Bank, Container Store, Costco, Harley-Davidson, Honda, IDEO, IKEA, jetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, Jordan's Furniture, New Balance, Patagonia, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Timberland, Toyota, Trader Joe's, UPS, Wegmans, and Whole Foods.
These companies are often contrasted with Wal-Mart and the Good to Great Companies identified by Jim Collins in 2001 in terms of stock price growth.
The authors argue that there is a new level of consciousness emerging that rewards those who do good while doing well. The implication is that all firms should shift to stakeholder optimization and the cultural values identified in the example companies.
While they don't make this argument, it's clear that the authors have identified many of the mindsets that lead a company to seek optimizing results for all stakeholders.
Before you assume total cause and effect, I would like to raise some issues not fully addressed in the book:
1. This is an after-the-fact evaluation. As such, (like Good to Great), we may mostly be seeing what the leaders are proud of . . . rather than what caused their success. For example, Southwest's success is focused on their corporate culture. But the company also has a better business model than almost any other airline (Ryanair's is better) and does a better job of fuel cost hedging than any other U.S. airline. Those factors aren't mentioned.
2. These companies are almost all in consumer products or services. A class of socially conscious consumers has sprung up who look hard for such firms. It's not clear that OEM and industrial buyers have evolved their preferences nearly to the same extent. So many of the lessons may only apply consumer goods and services (except for those validated by Gallup for having a motivated and effective group of people working for you).
3. Almost all of these firms are highly effective business model innovators who have gained enormous advantages over competitors who seldom innovate their business models. As a result, they can afford practices that may or may not pay off in profit without incurring any negative reaction. The next business model innovation will pay for the cost.
I was surprised that this book didn't look at the study I made from 1992-2001 that identified continuing business model innovation as the single best factor for explaining high levels of corporate performance (see The Ultimate Competitive Advantage). The books share some examples in common (including Jordan's Furniture and Timberland), but many of FoE's examples are also superior business model innovators (Amazon, BMW, CarMax, Caterpillar, Container Store, Costco, eBay, Google, Harley-Davidson, IDEO, IKEA, jetBlue, Patagonia, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, UPS, Wegmans, and Whole Food).
4. It often pays better to serve stakeholder interests than to ignore them. Why? Because ignoring stakeholders often burdens both the company and the stakeholder with costs and experiences that neither want. This economic case for stakeholder focus isn't fully developed outside of the customer arena.
5. The book emphasizes sustainability, but much of that argument is built around companies disappearing from the Fortune 500 (something that happens whenever a merger happens . . . which doesn't mean that the organization goes away, just the corporate headquarters in most cases). In the research of my students on environmental sustainability (see Hiroshi Fukushi's work, A Strategic Approach to the Environmentally Sustainable Business, for example), it's apparent that making the environment cleaner than when you touched it is economically advantaged in most situations. The idea of sustainability is based on the outmoded notion of not doing too much damage rather than finding profits in making the world better than you found it.
But it's a good book that creates more questions than it answers. This one will probably stimulate some more careful thinking in the area of where seeking to be more considerate of others is going to create better results as well as better sleep.
Sharp, New Millennium Look at Emotional Intelligence as a Quantifiable Value in Corporate America.......2007-04-16
With the tidal wave of publicity for Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and the spotlight it has given to the green movement, it seems like a ripe time to take stock of companies who are incorporating more social responsibility into their charters. Co-authors Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David B. Wolfe make a compelling case for how such thinking is not only a much-needed injection of humanism into private enterprise in this country but also the impetus for long-term success at a time when people are seeking greater meaning in their lives. Wolfe, the only non-academic of the three, ventures the furthest in delineating what he considers the art of empathy and the power of bringing soulfulness to the workplace. Such seeming intangibles have been repeatedly dismissed by those unwilling to recognize the human equation at the base of such operations.
Wolfe's bottom line is that soft skills translate into hard numbers, and he feels the days of well-known autocratic CEOs like Disney's Michael Eisner and Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina are numbered if not over. The book's coy title actually refers to the model firms - Whole Foods, Harley-Davidson, Trader Joe's, Costco, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Patagonia, IKEA and New Balance among them - who have aligned principles of emotional intelligence with shareholder value in ways that induce more loyalty among the most valued employees. The data gathered by the co-authors suggests that firms which encourage emotional intelligence are more likely to have workers who benefit from feedback and achieve more for themselves and their companies over time. Emotional intelligence manifests itself in several ways, whether it is more modest executive salaries, open-door policies, better employee benefits, better training or a stronger focus on the customer experience. Moreover, the co-authors place high value on environmentally friendly practices and social consciousness as part of a company's vision.
The emphasis on emotional intelligence represents a major paradigm shift and one that has been working in tandem with globalization in recent years. It has given birth to the stakeholder relationship management business model (SRM), which supersedes the well-established customer relationship model with its primary focus on products and profits. Reflecting a much broader vision, the SRM is more dependent on coordinating systems which help keep healthy the company's economic ecosystem, which is the basis of its growth, development and economic health. The ensuing loyalty among employees gives rise to what the co-authors term "share of heart". It's an elusive concept but one mastered by a new breed of CEOs who manage to inspire with their idealism even when short-term profitability looks bleak. Sisodia, Sheth and Wolfe provide intriguing portraits of these leaders and the unique cultures they have managed to develop over time while still delivering on their bottom lines. If anything, this eminently readable book is a testament that Machiavellian tenets need not guide companies at the expense of the people who maintain them.
Book Description
Are you looking for the perfect tool to guide you in today's fast paced business world? In STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: COMPETITIVENESS AND GLOBALIZATION you will discover a unique model that blends both new and old ideas resulting in a cutting edge, accurate and relevant text. Specific examples, models, and figures emphasize important points and make the text easy to understand.
Customer Reviews:
Good content; small font, fair illustrations.......2007-09-20
If you are looking for a graduate level introduction and explanation of strategic management concepts, this is a solid choice. If you expect nice illustrations for texts at this price point - and a readable font for those of us who can't handle small print - look elsewhere. Graduate textbook are expensive because we are a captive audience, and this book is lacking some of the nicer mechanical tools that other graduate texts have at its price range.
The material is laid out well, there aren't superfluous stories, and the progression is logical. I am likely to keep this book after the class is finished.
Review.......2007-03-10
the condition is so good but it takes quite long to be in my hand
A necessary evil - horrible writing.......2006-10-07
This book was a necessary evil for a capstone MBA class.
It contains information that could be useful to someone that hasn't looked at MBA texts before, but in my case I feel like "well duh! I already know this!"
To make things worse, there are factual errors in the book that make it frustrating to read.
Furthermore (having read all of the book) the writing and grammar is awful! Didn't anyone proof read this book?
Overall, I would say that this is an OK book so far as theory is concerned - but it was rushed to go into production which brings its redeeming qualities down.
Book Description
This book makes an authoritative and practical introduction to organizational behavior. It contains leading-edge coverage of topics and issues combined with a wealth of learning tools that help readers experience Organizational Behavior and guide them to becoming better managers.
Chapter topics discuss individual differences: personality, ability, and job performance; work values, attitudes, moods, and emotions; perception, attribution, and the management of diversity; learning and creativity at work; pay, careers, and changing employment relationships; managing stress and work-life linkages; leadership; power, politics, conflict, and negotiation; communication flows and information technology; organizational culture and ethical behavior; and organizational change and development .
For business professionals preparing for a career in management.
Customer Reviews:
Workplace success..........2007-03-29
This book has all sorts of information that will help any group of people working together get along better because of a greater understanding of different kinds of people.
not for MBA students.......2006-03-16
This book was required for an MBA class. It is more suited for undergraduates. It does not encourage deeper thinking or analysis appropriate for the graduate level.
The book is strong in theoretical understanding but weak in management applications. It is nice to be able to list the names of motivation theories, for example, but the authors seem uanble to provide criteria one might want to consider for policy decisions. I wonder if this book is by and for academics who have no real life work experience but need to publish or perish.
End of chapter supplementary articles are only from the New York Times. Although the book's introductory material lets us know how wonderful this is, a greater variety of source material would enhance the overall effectiveness. After all, the book does speak of diversity.
To its credit, the book is reasonably readable and does not overwhelm us with too much esoteric academic speak.
Great book. Must have it, if you are studying Org. Behavior.......2005-03-14
A colorful introductory textbook on organizational behavior that integrates concepts, theories, and research findings to examine individuals in organizations, groups and organizational processes, and inter-group relations and the organizational context. Case studies illuminate concepts and provide managerial implications. There is a diversity of heuristic features, some integrated into the text and some at the end of each chapter or part.
Great book. Must have it, if you are studying Organizational Behaviors (OB).
Also, this book is well known to many of top ranked universities in Graduate Programs (MBA) and No. of copies this books have been sold are in few hundred thousands !!! (@ 380,000 copies) justifies it's strength and quality of knowledge as well.
Book Description
Not just another book on the theory of strategic planning, here are dozens of recipes for creative group activities to facilitate strategic planning in any organization. Designed for use by consultants, facilitators, and management team leaders, step-by-step instructions guide you through exercises for gaining employee and management participation, gathering feedback from management about the current state of the organization, creating an organized mission, vison and values statement, and planning so that the vision becomes reality. Ready-to-use reproducible materials and handouts are also included.
Customer Reviews:
Too simplistic. .......2006-11-10
Even popular textbooks in strategic management (Wheelen and Hunger, Davis, etc.), which are oriented toward more thoughtful study of the subject, do a better job presenting a sound applied process in strategic planning. Don't waste your money.
Unique.......2005-09-21
Thee is little written for facilitators and this is a complete summary and approach to the topic with all the tools. I just wish there had been more stories of how each of the tools worked.
Invaluable tools for Organizational Planning.......2003-10-17
I have had the opportunity to use the designs in this book over the past year. The designs or "strategic activities" are creative and guarnateed to advance the planning process for a wide range of organizations. The instructions have just the right amount of detail to adaquately prepare the facilitator. There is tremendous felxibility with each acitivity to accomodate longer or shorter amounts of time. The designs are
crip, imaginative, thoughtful, rooted in practice. Its a book I refer to again and again. Its been an invaluable tool to my work.
Intelligent and Interesting.......2001-08-23
impressive, interesting and different ideas .I like the down to earth , inclusive quality of this book. Thing are explained well and frameworks are provided, so that you can conduct these activities with confidence.I highly recommend it.
Planning First - Learning Always.......2001-08-13
If you have ever been involved in a strategic planning effort that fell short of expectations then this book is for you. In plain language the authors lay out a planning framework with supporting involvement practices to gain organizational buy-in. They provide explanations and case study examples to show the connections between "what needs to be done and how to do it." A chapter titled "The Toolbox" covers the rational and procedures for involvement mechanisms that include "Nominal Group Process to generate ideas, Affinity Diagrams & Mindmaping to organize complex issues and Collapsing Consensus & Las Vegas Voting to help in problem solving & decision-making." There are valuable discussions on organizing the planning effort and post-planning followup / accountability. This volume supports any organizational effort to set goals, improve quality or enhance effectiveness in resource management through collaborative processes.
Book Description
An industry leader speaks out against boring, ineffective, costly e-learning and provides practical guidelines for creation of powerful, e-learning-based performance solutions.
e-Learning is emerging rapidly in schools, businesses, and at home. Millions are being invested in this new, widely available technology purported as the solution to learning challenges. Dr. Michael Allen, commonly considered the father of modern interactive learning, raises concerns about misuses of the technology, missed opportunities, and money wasted on boring, ineffective e-learning. The book offers specific, pragmatic, common-sense approaches to guide the development of successful technology-assisted learning. A free CD-ROM is packed with sample applications. Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning enables business executives to become discerning e-learning investors and instructional designers to create meaningful performance solutions.
Customer Reviews:
Practical guide to eLearning.......2007-01-15
I purchased this book as I was beginning to design an eLearning curriculum for my company. The book was a great jumpstart to helping me structure the program, consider ways to involve the learners in eLearning, and remember to find ways to make the course material memorable. I found the accompanying online and CD-based demos to be good stimulators, too. Although I won't be using an authoring tool like the one Michael Allen invented, it was easy to take and apply several of Allen's ideas to my project.
Emphasizing the essentials.......2003-11-28
This book takes e-learning to its core mandate, that of engaging and involving the learners, so that they learn the key skills and knowledge required.
An excellent and easy read, with lots of good examples and non-examples, nicely compared side by side.
Must have for new designers.......2003-05-01
This book is a must have for the aspiring e-Learning developer. It reviews enough theory to make the point and directs the reader quickly through the logic and science of good e-Learning design.
This book directly applies to your work!.......2003-03-04
Dr. Allen is a champion of learner-centric design - and has written a refreshingly reader-centric book about the topic. He understands that learning is an "internal, personal, and ultimately individual act." His words reveal his passions and opinions in such an authentic manner that you can quickly understand his perspective, and extract points of meaning that can directly apply to your work. As a producer and designer of interactive media, I continually find his insights an inspiration.
Guidance from the Master.......2003-01-28
This book is subtitled, "Building Interactive, Fun and Effective Learning Programs for Any Company" and I think that says it all. I've spoken on the topic of where's the fun in eLearning and know that most of what I've seen is "deadly boring."
I have known Mike Allen since I worked for Authorware in the 1980's. One of the things I always regretted was not working in the MN office, as he, along with the rest of the Authorware team, conducted critiques of the work in progress being developed for customers. The few I did attend were always insightful and thought provoking. Along with being pretty scary if your work was on the agenda, because you might have to listen to bad along with good feedback. Mike Allen is a kind person, but not one to mince words when it comes to what makes up good and bad eLearning. I've also had the opportunity to attend several lectures by Mike on eLearning.
This book shares his insight on what makes good elearning, particularly from the viewpoints of motivation and interactivity. I am starting a new project with a lot of possible impact and reading his book has helped me immensely. Also, it contains several little history lessons on eLearning and Authorware that I really enjoyed. Lots of examples of good projects are discussed and included on a CD-ROM that unfortunately is not included in the book, but available for free from his website. If you are really interested in learning more on what makes good eLearning, I would definitely order it soon.
Book Description
Misaligned companies, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don't respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get -and keep -all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time.
Managers must now keep their people centered in the midst of change, deemphasize hierarchy, and distribute leadership by distributing authority, information, knowledge, and customer data throughout their organization. Alignment is a response to the new business reality where customer requirements are in flux, where competitive forces are turbulent, and where the bond of loyalty between an organization and its people has been weakened. The old linear approach to management has given way to one of simultaneity -to alignment.
As pioneers of the alignment concept, the authors have developed this unique approach based on their work with leading companies throughout the world. The Power of Alignment is packed with war stories and the firsthand perspectives of industry leaders. You'll learn how world-class organizations, including Federal Express, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, Citizens Utilities, AirTouch, and UNUM achieved extraordinary business results. Now, through the authors' expertise, you'll see how alignment can work for your organization.
In essence, alignment links the five key elements of an organization -people, process, customers, business strategies, and, of course, leadership -to obtain breakthrough results, chief among them, sustained growth and profit, loyal customers, and a high-performing work force. The Power of Alignment:
* Offers a clear framework for aligning and linking the crucial elements that build and sustain a company's success
* Provides self-assessment tools as well as benchmarking measures for evaluating an organization's critical competencies
* Enables managers to create a work force where each employee can relate his or her activities to the goals and strategic objectives of the company
* Helps a company determine when and where it is out of alignment, and gives descriptions of such common company pathologies as "The Phantom Limb Syndrome," "Strategy Interruptus," and "Dead Man Walking"
* Prescribes specific steps for getting an organization back on track toward a single, shared vision of its goals
Essential reading for all managers and executives, The Power of Alignment offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance.
"This book is savvy, detailed, timely, and clearly written. I highly recommend it for any leader facing the challenges posed by global business today." - Dana Mead Chairman and CEO, Tenneco Former Chairman National Association of Manufacturers
"It's not only the stars that have to be in alignment to reach your destination, it's all the internal processes, rewards, and drivers. Read The Power of Alignment, and while you may not unlock the secrets of the universe, you will overcome the barriers to corporate success." - William L. Boyan President and COO John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.
"This important book goes beyond TQM and reengineering by creating a new approach called Alignment. The authors show that great companies manage to link strategy and people and integrate customer needs with continuous improvement processes." - Peter Augustsson President and Group Chief Executive AB SKF.
"The Power of Alignment gets to the heart of a critical element of organizational leadership, namely focus. Every leader who reads it will undoubtedly do some serious soul-searching about the consistency of corporate vision, goals, management systems, and incentive mechanisms." - Louis E. Lataif Dean Boston University School of Management.
Customer Reviews:
As significant today as it was when first published.......2007-08-26
After reviewing several books on Strategic Execution, I was continuously left with the feeling that the authors had ommitted a key ingredient. This book has convinced me that that key ingredient was "Alignment".
This book was published 10 years ago (OK, I am embarrassed that I have only just got around to reading it) but it is as significant today as it was when it was first published. Probably more so considering the rapid state of change that most companies are faced with today.
It is a simple read, and the concepts are easy to follow. What I enjoyed most about the book is that the suggestions are practical and you can take them and implement them immediately within an organization.
I noticed that one of the readers who has reviewed the book said that the book was required reading for his MBA course. 10 years on, I still think it should be required reading for any business executive.
This Is a Great Resource!.......2007-07-10
I'm always looking for visual ways of understanding critical elements of strategy. The Power of Alignment offers a very helpful way of thinking about four important ingredients in keeping the main thing, the main thing. Vertical alignment, the relationship between your strategy and the people on your team, "energizes...provides direction, and offers opportunity for involvement." Horizontal alignment refers to the connection between your processes and customers. Taken together the two measures provide some great insight into the development of genuine alignment.
One of the most interesting elements of the book is a 16 question diagnostic tool that is designed to provide a graphic view of your organization's alignment. Very helpful!
Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !.......2006-05-03
Great book! The basic premise is that once a business has a raison d'etre, or a 'main thing', that profits are maximized by the alignment of four key business areas: Strategy, Processes, People, and Customers. Built on this premise are actionalbe ways to build a self-aligning organization. I got the sense of discovering truth while I read this book. Leadership isn't really about power, it is about responsibility. This book shows a manager at any level how to align his area to the overall strategy of the company and to the end products of the company. It shows how processes should be designed and what factors should be used to reward, recognize and evaluate employees. Great food for thought and realistic to implement.
Five Stars
Powerful Organizational Focus.......2003-05-28
Quite simply, this book was one of the best business management and leadership books I have ever read. It was well-written and expertly balanced management and leadership concepts with real-world examples of effectively aligned organizations, such as Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. This book should be read and discussed by leaders and managers at all levels, especially by mid- to senior-level executives.
In brief, alignment deals with the relationships among the people, processes, strategy, and customers of an organization relative to that organization's purpose, or what the authors called "the main thing." Alignment is both a noun, a state of being, and a verb, a set of actions. Vertical alignment connects organizational strategy with the people responsible for transforming that strategy into meaningful work. Horizontal alignment deals with understanding your customers' wants and then creating processes to deliver what your customers want, when and how they want it. Effective leadership nurtures the organizational culture that is built around and upon "the main thing," and it is this culture and leadership combination that drives and sustains self-aligning organizations in turbulent times.
The authors' analogy of landing a plane helped me to visualize the dynamics involved with organizational alignment. To land a plane, a pilot must adjust and react to multiple simultaneous factors and conditions (i.e. air speed, altitude, angle of approach, wind speed and direction, etc.) and then understand how a change in one will affect the others. Likewise, to align an organization, a leader must adjust and react to feedback about his people, processes, strategy, and customers, and then understand how a change in one will affect the others.
The authors clearly and thoroughly explained the alignment factors and conditions throughout the book. They followed their explanations with incisive questions for readers to ask about themselves and their organizations to assess their degree of alignment. Those questions were definitely a highlight of the book for they really helped to stimulate my thinking and should help inspire organizational progress to alignment. Another highlight was the appendices that contained examples of actual tools and products used and created by some of the aligned organizations studied by the authors.
The inside back cover jacket sums up why I give the book my highest recommendation: "Essential reading for all managers and executives, "The Power of Alignment" offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance."
Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked.......2001-07-13
I found this book easy reading, concise, and presented it's basic premise well with specific examples and good suggestions for creation and implementation.
Working as a Director in Managed Care for several pharmaceutical companies, it creates a focus for any organization and a roadmap for the future(physician, health plan, pharmaceutical company) to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls that have already been experienced in an attempt to align with the ever changing healthcare landscape.
For those who do account management, it provides a construct and roadmap to use to optimize alignment with internal customers and maximize resources to create value and return with the external customers (....and their customers.) As the authors point, alignment is a continuing process, not a single event in time. Many companies become quickly aligned with the past, and misaligned with the present & future, and can not sustain the competitive edge because they forget this basic premise that the authors reinforce.
The concepts are basic and fundamental, but usually overlooked and forgotten in the day to day business of rapidly growing companies and changing environments.
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Books Index
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Type Talk at Work (Revised): How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job
Operations Management & Student CD Package (8th Edition)
Organizational Behavior (12th Edition)
Human Resource Management (10th Edition)
Intermediate Accounting
