Customer Reviews:
Children from Australia to Zimbabwe: A Photographic Journey Around the World.......2007-01-15
I use this book in my grade 4 classroom. The pictures and writing help my United State's students better understand the world around them. This book is a favorite in my classroom.
Put this in your car.......2005-11-13
Stunning photographs, concise maps, and simple text that introduces the basics of a culture, a country, and a way of life make this book great "back seat" reading. Kids shouldn't be watching tv in the car anyway. Books like this will make the ride more enjoyable and enriching. It also would be a great addition to a pediatrician's waiting room, or a dentist.
Book Description
Master the basics of organizational communication with STRATEGIC ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION with InfoTrac®! Readable and direct, this communication text integrates organization psychology, organizational sociology, and organizational communication to provide you with a comprehensive overview. Multiple case studies from non-U.S. organizations create a global focus with a strong cultural perspective. The book-specific website makes studying easy by providing sample essay questions and tutorial quizzes.
Book Description
Culture, Leadership, and Organizations reports the results of a ten-year research program, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program. GLOBE is a long-term program designed to conceptualize, operationalize, test, and validate a cross-level integrated theory of the relationship between culture and societal, organizational, and leadership effectiveness. A team of 160 scholars worked together since 1994 to study societal culture, organizational culture, and attributes of effective leadership in 62 cultures.
Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies reports the findings of the first two phases of GLOBE. The book is primarily based on the results of the survey of over 17,000 middle managers in three industries: banking, food processing, and telecommunications, as well as archival measures of country economic prosperity and the physical and psychological well-being of the cultures studied.
GLOBE has several distinguishing features. First, it is truly a cross-cultural research program. The constructs were defined, conceptualized, and operationalized by the multicultural team of researchers. Second, the industries were selected through a polling of the country investigators, and the instruments were designed with the full participation of the researchers representing the different cultures. Finally, the data in each country were collected by investigators who were either natives of the cultures studied or had extensive knowledge and experience in that culture.
A unique feature of this book is that while it is an edited book and many experts have written the different chapters, unlike other edited books, it is a fully integrated, seamless, and cohesive book covering the many aspects of the theory underpinning the GLOBE.
Customer Reviews:
Culture, Leadership and organizations: The Globe Study of 62 societies.......2007-01-18
Though this book is rather expensive, it is worth the price. It gives a very good overview of both societal and organizational cultures in the 62 countries described. It helps understanding the challenges of multicultural teams. In combination with books written by Trompenaars and Hofstede a good insight can be developed in the backgrounds of behaviour and attitude of people in organizations with a multi cultural composition.
Worth it. Even thought it is a hefty price.......2005-07-19
This book will displace Hofstede's seminal work on culture because it provides the most up do date survey data on cultural values of countries. It is also a very useful leadership reference book. A bit on the expensive side, but then you are buying the Rolls Royce of culture books. To supplement this book regarding leadership in general a couple of leadership reference books would be useful (e.g., "Handbook of Leadership" by Bernard Bass--very complete, or more compact versions like "Leadership in Organizations" by Yukl or "The nature of Leadership" by Antonakis).
Book Description
Large Group Interventions are methods used to gather a whole system together to discuss and take action on the target agenda. That agenda varies from future plans, products, and services, to redesigning work, to discussion of troubling issues and problems. The Handbook of Large Group Methods takes the next step in demonstrating through a series of cases how Large Group Methods are currently being used to address twenty-first-century challenges in organizations and communities today, including:
- Working with widely dispersed organizations, and the problem of involvement and participation
- Working with organizations facing a serious business crisis
- Working with organizations in polarized and politicized environments
- Working in community settings with diverse interest groups
- Working at the global level and adapting these methods for cross-cultural use
- Embedding and sustaining new patterns of working together in organizations and communities
Customer Reviews:
The Handbook of Large Group Methods.......2007-09-12
Trust Alban and Bunker to use their social science prowess and rich professional experiences to create an eminently pragmatic handbook for leaders of systems change. To their credit, the entire construction of the book also employs the very principles espoused by the contributors: inclusion of stakeholders, engagement of multiple perspectives, search for common ground, transparency, and appreciation for diversity. After soliciting cases from around the world, the authors organized them into helpful categories of interventions around "six challenges for the 21st century" and added their views on the issues created by those challenges. These chapter inputs are perfect executive summaries for clients who are mired in these dilemmas daily and are looking for solutions and they will help introduce the large group engagement methods the consultant is offering. Also invaluable is the authors' matrix of each case that delineates the organizational sector, the situation addressed, and the methods used--truly makes the text handy.
Although the book stands on its own merits for the sophisticated organization consultant, reading their previous Large Group Interventions (Jossey Bass, 1997) would give the appropriate context for the creative adaptations of the original methods that their latest book so well describes. The Handbook has not only added new methods (Appreciative Inquiry Summit, World Café and AmericaSpeaks) but, more importantly, it describes combinations of traditional methods along with new twists which are thoroughly described. Appropriately, there is a greater reliance on engagement principles for a change process instead of previously prescribed recipes for events in their prior book.
The consultant contributors have been generous with details, for the most part, so that seasoned organization development consultants will feel comfortable employing these tested methods of engagement. On the other hand, there also could also be a warning sticker that reads: "Don't Try This Alone in your Ballroom!" because much of the success comes with years of experience working with diverse groups and learning what doesn't work. Partnering with such experts is the wisest way to dive into whole system change.
As a trainer of large group principles, I particularly appreciated the enhancement tools this handbook describes--Polarity Mapping (B. Johnson), Gestalt therapy, coaching theory, using professional actors for storytelling, graphic facilitation and more. I look forward to the 2017 iteration Bunker and Alban offer to keep us on our toes!
Elizabeth K. Olson
Preferred Futures, Inc.
Carlotta Tyler, OD Consultant and Executive Coach.......2007-03-18
This Handbook is a valuable, broad scope look at public and private sector systems currently engaged in change iniatitives around the world. Relatively free of jargon and untried theories, these field-tested case studies will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers from organization leaders and HR professionals to business school students. I came away with some important new ideas for my work and avoided a few pitfalls after reading the book.
An excellent combination of practice, theory and new ideas.......2007-02-03
Through the many cases presented, Barbara and Billie were able to present to the reader how the different Large Group Methods actually can be applied, and, specially, how they form part of a larger roadmap for systemic change. Interesting also how all cases have a reflections session, which is very usefull in giving actual or to-be practitioners concrete tips for implementation.
The combination of cases with theory about the methods and innovative ideas (for example, on the use of Technologies and Graphic facilitation)resulted in a superior learning experience and complements very well their first book ("Large Group Interventions: Engaging the Whole System for Rapid Change").
Last but not least, I was happy to note how there was a shift in attention from method to challenges that organizations or communities are facing - so a focus on impact and change. A book worth reading for those that are facing or will face large scale changes.
Substantive and Provocative.......2007-01-16
In the complex, interconnected, global environment that most organizations work in daily, it is no longer possible for a few people "at the top" of the organization to have all the knowledge, expertise, and perspective needed for its success. At NovaLearning, we have used large group methods with colleges and universities for about fifteen years. I have constantly seen how institutions become better -- more focused, more strategic, but also more humane -- as they incorporate ideas and insight from across the system into their operation. When Bunker and Alban's earlier book was published, I was delighted because it captured well the range of large group approaches that had developed by 1996. This new handbook goes much further.
These are substantive case studies exceptionally well framed by Bunker and Alban's insight and experience. The diverse case study authors are generous in sharing at a level of specificity that makes real learning from their experiences possible. Each chapter is organized around the presenting challenge, the context and methodology (and why chosen), a detailed description of what actually happened, and perhaps most importantly, a set of reflections and insights that give the reader the chance to share in the authors' learning. I also found valuable the examples of how the innovative use of communication technologies can provide new opportunities as well as sometimes create unexpected limitations. I strongly recommend The Handbook of Large Group Methods to consultants who use or want to use large group methods. Individual chapters will also be important and provocative for corporate, academic, social, and political leaders and change agents.
How These Methods Actually Work In Practice.......2007-01-08
The strength of this book lies in the fact that it not only provides methodologies and resources for creating change in organizations in the 21st century; but also identifies how these methodologies actually work in practice.
A series of case studies ranges from addressing business issues at American Airlines and the BBC to managing change in organizations in Mexico and Indonesia. The reader is taken on a journey by those individuals who were responsible for implementing large group methodologies in their respective organizations.
By reading about these success stories and the methodologies they employ, you will be able to develop a plan for you own organization that will ensure a higher level of success that would otherwise be possible.
Walter Willigan, President, Willigan Consulting LLC
Book Description
For more than a century and a half, the most-powerful national governments have created institutions of multilateral governance that promise to make a more inclusive world, a world serving women, working people, the colonized, the 'backward,' the destitute and the despised. This book is a study of that promise and the real impact of this world government.
Global Institutions, Marginalization, and Development discusses what systems of global institutions have done, and what they have not done, to keep their promise to the truly disadvantaged. It examines whether the system will serve the world's least advantaged, or marginalize them further.
The future will largely be determined by the understanding of the global political economy developed by the world's most powerful people-corporate leaders and government officials in the strongest states. Their worldviews, in turn, will be influenced both by the political action and the ideas of social movements and by the views of those who study the global political economy. Whether it is the 'economists and political philosophers' or the social movements of the disadvantaged that are most likely to influence the world's lawmakers and the processes by which they will complete the next generation of multilateral institutions are the central topic of this book.
Key content includes:
· World Organizations and Human Needs
· Liberal Internationalism
· Social Movements and Liberal World Orders
· Political Consequences of the New Inequality
· Leadership and Global Governance for the information age
· Marginalization and the Privileged
This book is important reading for anyone with an interest in international political economy, global governance, development and the politics of north & south.
Book Description
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to groups serving Native American children.
Customer Reviews:
A must for every elementary library.......2006-01-21
A good survey of native kids' lives, activities that emphasizes their ongoing cultural contributions to life in the multicultural climate of today's America. Great color photos, text at about third grade level, this ought to shatter stereotypes right and left. Glossary, resource guide included.
Excellent photos break stereotypes, teach about diversity.......2005-12-04
As the authors explain in their preface, the goal of this book is to break stereotypes about Native Americans -- and it does this very well. All too often we think of Native Americans only in terms of powwows and costumes, and then only the "war bonnets" or beaded buckskin dresses of the Plains tribes. Some of the children in this book are wearing native dress (in many different styles) for traditional occasions, but they also wear modern clothes for everyday activities like sports, hiking, fun on the playground, etc.
In the Forward by folksinger Buffy St. Marie (whose music first raised my awareness of Native issues back in the 1970s), she correctly points out that every child belongs to at least one culture, but that children are not ONLY their cultures. "Even kids from the most traditional Native backgrounds have much in common with other children," she writes. "They have families, they grow and change every day, they love and work and play."
There are over 500 Native tribes in the United States, each of which has its own language and customs. This book covers 25 tribes representative of the various geographical areas, from Maine to Hawaii, with a map showing their locations. There's also a section on urban communities. (Which city has the largest Native population? New York!)
The authors describe their photo essay as "a book of few words and many pictures." The bright, colorful photos are indeed fabulous, and the "few words" are well-chosen. Each tribe gets a two-page spread, with child-friendly facts about history and daily activities that range from sports (Lacrosse is originally a Native game) to harvesting clams, making maple syrup, riding horses or carving totem poles. Sidebars give the total population of each group, its geogrphical location(s), and names of some famous people. Throught the bookj, the focus is always on things that children do, with lessons about about diversity, respect, tolerance, ecology, and other issues gently woven in and not at all preachy. I myself learned a lot myself from reading this book, and the photo on page 11 finally cleared up the mystery about an odd old tool I found on my hobby farm -- it's a "comb" for harvesting cranberries!
There is also a teacher's activity and resource guide (sold separately) that goes with this book. The Guide has biographies of contemporary members of various Native groups, with suggested investigative activities focusing on that person's accomplishments and/or expertise. For example, the page on Lori Aviso Alvord, the first Navajo woman surgeon, has a discussion of traditional forms of holistic healing, and suggestions for investigating different healing approaches used in the world today. Taken together, the activities in the Guide cover the whole gamut of contributions that Native Americans have made in all areas of society and life.
The authors are currently working on another diversity book about children's ceremonies around the world. (In fact, that's how I learned about this book. Author Yvonne Dennis queried me for details about a traditional hair-cutting ceremony for Hasidic boys. I was very impressed that she actively sought to include Jewish children, because so many diversity projects do not see Jews as a culture.) The goal of their new book will be to help children relate to each other through learning about the ways that children are special in each culture. I look forward to reading it when it comes out.
One of the best multicultural educational book I've seen!!.......2005-03-03
As a teacher I have always been interested in exploring the diverse history of Native Americans with my students but have been unable to locate a book that is both educational and fun...until now. Children of Native America today is a book that engages young people while showing them how Native American children are as diverse and heterogeneous as any other group. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in teaching young students about Native Americans.
Careful attention to what life is really like.......2003-06-10
The collaborative effort of Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Arlene Hirschfelder, Children Of Native America Today introduces young readers to the lives and cultures of Native Americans all across the nation. Ranging from the Ojibway and Cherokee peoples, to the Pueblo and native Hawaiians, Children Of Native America Today is enhanced with color photographs illustrating an outstanding survey which broadly touches upon a variety of different Native American tribes and cultures -- rather than going for an in-depth on any particular one. Careful attention to what life is really like, and emphasizing the importance of not allowing stereotypes to cloud one's judgement, make Children Of Native America Today a highly recommended addition to school and community library Native American Studies collections for young readers.
Customer Reviews:
A wonderfully written and illustrated text. A visual feast........1999-09-02
Extraordinary Girls exposes you to the wonderful world of girls by introducing the reader to a variety of young women who are doing extraordinary things all over the world. A great book for any girl. Also, this would be a great supplementary book for use in a social studies class, or any class dealing with diversity and world studies.
Girls CAN!.......1999-08-22
Girls Can! Girls Do! If you have a daughter, have friends with daughters, or volunteer to help with girls' organizations, get this book and ask them to take a look. Before you know it, they'll have read it from cover to cover. With a smile. "Extraordinary Girls" is . . . extraordinary. It is inspiring. It shows girls how their peers around the world have set goals for themselves, then have achieved or exceeded those goals -- how they have made their mark on the people around them.
Parents, friends, counselors -- and girls -- should read this book.
j. lewis
Book Description
Based on over five years of research, Inside Al Qaeda provides the definitive story behind the rise of this small, mysterious group to the notorious organization making headlines today.
Customer Reviews:
Good Overview .......2007-10-04
Rohan Gunaratna scrutinizes this worldwide terrorist organization and its theater of operations country by country. He examines Al Qaeda's reach, strategic and tactical threat, mind-set, and messianic culture. There are some suggestions of ways given on ways that the international community could counter this movement. The book is written based on five years or interviews, research, and travel.
Informative with one major omission.........2007-08-22
Where's KSM?
The book overlooks Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the uncle of Ramzi Yousef. There's no mention of his emergence into global terrorism, his efforts with Yousef in the Philippines (Project Bojinka, 1995) and his masterminding of the 9/11 attacks.
Perhaps the revised version includes him?
I had a class with Rohan Gunaratna..........2007-07-28
Of course we had to read this book for the class, but for those of you who doubt his knowledge, let me just say this. There is no, and I mean no American who has the knowledge about Al Qaeda as Dr. Gunaratna has. That is why he was a debriefer for the CIA, he questioned Bin Laden's pilot, and also the former head of Al Qeada's Anthrax program, yes they had an Anthrax program. This book isnt writen by some guy listening to others, this is writen by a guy who was living it. I advise all of you, who want to know the truth about Al Qeada, and how they are no longer a group but a movement, to read this book like a bible. And of course, if your as lucky as I as to have him as a teacher, take any class he teaches, not only is he informitave, he is funny and witty as well...
A basic description of current events.......2007-05-11
I read this book in the summer of 2003. At the time it was probably the first book I read on the Al Qaeda and violent Islamic fundamentalism. I was initially impressed with the references, even though they interrupted the flow of the book and made it read more like a textbook. Since then every other book on the Al Qaeda and/or violent modern day jihadists has been more informative, both in the areas of description and in thought provoking conjecture and predictions.
an OK read M.A.......2007-02-21
Inside Al Qaeda was one of the best books about Al Qaeda and the new threat of terrorism that I have ever read. Seeing, as it is the only book on Al Qaeda I have ever read. Gunaratna's writing showed me the vastness of terrorism, how it has reached others throughout the world, how I never knew about this kind of terrorism earlier in my life. The book is very detailed in facts and the chapters are quite complex like, but still understandable in some ways. I would recommend reading this book to learn about this new threat of terrorism and or if you want to learn more about Al Qaeda.
Book Description
Managing Organizations in a Global Economy addresses the wide-ranging contemporary issues and challenges that confront modern management of enterprises in the global economy. It provides the stimulus for critical debates and practical applications by the academic and professional business communities. In recognition of the growing importance of cultural diversity in most modern organizations around the world, in terms of clientele, human resources, and ownership, this text provides the latest conceptual tools and practical applications on the aspects of cross-cultural management. While the text is rich in theory, it also contains real-life examples based on the latest research with implications for managerial functions and strategies. The 15 chapters examine many of management?s most vital topics including globalization, worldviews, managerial communication, organizational culture, leadership, motivation, negotiation, conflict, and ethics while also emphasizing the cross-cultural dimensions important in managerial success.
Book Description
Includes essays by Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug and other noted scientists and scholars
The modern environmental movement began with the publication of three seminal works, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, and the Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth. These books' dismal visions of a poisoned, over-populated, resource-depleted world spiraling down toward environmental collapse are today's conventional wisdom. And every year we hear about new "conclusive" reports from special interest groups claiming that our atmosphere's temperatures are soaring, our air and water are more polluted, our cities are more crowded, and our global food supply is more precarious than ever before. However, according to a number of leading scientists from around the world, members of the environmental movement are guilty of twisting—sometimes manufacturing—the facts in an effort to frighten people into joining their cause.
In this eye-opening book, some of the most respected researchers in the country explode the myths behind much of the doom and gloom of today's environmental movement. You will discover how the hysteria about global warming, overpopulation, mass extinctions, imminent famines, biotechnology, energy shortages, and more are grounded not in reason but in false science and a fear of progress. When placed beside the overwhelming facts, some of the most pervasive eco-myths crumble, including:
Myth:
Antarctica is melting due to global warming—threatening to raise ocean levels
Fact:
Antarctica has been cooling—and its glaciers thickening—for the past 30 years
Myth:
The global population is growing faster than our ability to produce food
Fact:
Global fertility rates are falling dramatically, and with advanced technology, farmers are producing more food using fewer resources than ever before
Myth:
Solar- and wind-powered generators are a renewable, efficient, and less intrusive alternative to gas-, oil-, and coal-burning generators
Fact:
Global fossil fuel supplies are in no near-term danger of being depleted, and a single 555-megawatt natural gas power plant produces more electricity than 13,000 windmills
Myth:
Modern pesticides and fertilizers are increasing the rates of cancer in humans
Fact:
No study has ever shown that anyone has developed cancer from the legal application of pesticides, and environmental pollution accounts for at most 2 percent of all cancer cases versus 30 percent caused by tobacco use
And many more
Ultimately, this book shows that uniting much of the environmental movement is an agenda that is not so much anti-pollution as it is anti-human. Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths lays out the true state of the planet, which, as you'll discover, is more healthy, vibrant, and clean than ideologically motivated environmentalists want you to believe.
Customer Reviews:
October 23, 2007 in San Diego.......2007-10-24
As I write this review, I'm watching TV coverage of a fire -- 13 fires actually -- that has destroyed already more than 1000 homes in Southern California, killed at least two and severely burned dozens more, and destroyed well over 100,000 acres of landscape. The fire has been fueled and spread by Santa Ana winds of up to 100 miles per hour. The whole event is precisely what the environmentalists and climatologists, demonized by this fraudulent book, would predict and have predicted. I very bitterly hope the authors live in Malibu.
Wake up, ideologues! Don't burn your copies of Ayn Rand and Ann Coulter; that would merely add to the carbon load, which by the way has just been measured by Australian climatologists as HIGHER than expected right now, at the same time that the ability of the ocean to dissolve and keep CO2 in solution is testing LOWER than expected. There is no eco-myth. There is only self-serving petro-fraud and libertarian tomfoolery. At this point, denying the probable consequences of rapid anthropogenic climate change is an act of social irresponsibility verging on a crime against humanity, especially the humanity fo our children.
Great source of facts to understand global warming issue.......2007-07-22
This is an esssential book to uncover the facts behind the validity of the Global warming concerns and possible impact of humans on this possible effect. It is an essential if you care about the facts.
This is not a book for those who embrace the religion of Secular Humanism, as they will not want to encounter any facts that might conflict with their pre-determined religious beliefs.
If you want your concerns and sacrifices to be aligned with any sort of fact and reality, you must read this to round out your education, and off-set the distortions of a media that have decided, with no scientific knowledge, that this religion is true and must be defended against all facts.
Read it and decide for yourself, if you can think independently.
Discredited by its own Editor.......2007-07-17
The book's editor, Ronald Bailey, came out on Sept 22, 2006 in ReasonOnline to explain that the global warming conclusions in his own book are false. According to Mr. Bailey:
"In 2002 came Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths (Prima Publishing). The global warming contributor was University of Alabama at Huntsville climatologist John Christy.... In August 2005, Science magazine published [findings] that Christy and Spencer had failed to take proper account of satellite drift, which produced a spurious cooling trend to their dataset....
"On the day that the studies were released I wrote a column for Reason in which I declared that my skepticism of man-made global warming was at an end."
Rather than debunking eco-myths, this book perpetuates them. Ouch.
Thanks for guaranteeing that this is a GREAT book!!!.......2007-06-12
Marek Zalewski, L. Barker, Linda Wilson, Green Guy, Fox in a Bo Regis P. Digiacomo "Engineer", heavy-duty reader "SRK", "snowfox89", and others who never read the book, and know less than nothing about the subject matter, THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! From the bottom of my heart, I THANK YOU, for encouraging me to buy this excellent book, through your name calling, ignorance, and spite.
A job well done!!
Honest Discussion.......2007-06-01
Since I cannot respond to all the reviewers pretending to be "climatologists" or engineers using the same tired intimidation techniques of anyone who questions global warming is a shill for the oil co.s or desperate and trasparent arguments from authority, I will respond here.
Shell and BP (rechristened "Beyond Petroleum") are among the biggest contributors to global warming activism! It gives them an edge over unrepentent companies like Exxon for one! Environmentalism is now a huge industry itself, $4 biliion a year in the US and $8 billion yearly world wide. Moreover this industrial Gorilla is not beholden to things that "evil corporations" are, like accountability and tranparency.
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- Complete Metalsmith, Professional Edition
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- Creating: A practical guide to the creative process and how to use it to create anything - a work of art, a relationship, a career or a better life.
- Currency Derivatives: Pricing Theory, Exotic Options, and Hedging Applications (Wiley Series in Financial Engineering)
- Data Abstraction and Problem Solving with C++: Walls and Mirrors (4th Edition)
- Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
- Discover Wellness: How Staying Healthy Can Make You Rich
- Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Books Index
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