Book Description
"The Human Side of Organizations" delivers complete, up-to-date, practical information on how people behave in organizations presented in a readable, easy to understand form. The vital information can be used to understand managers, peers or workers. If you work, you need this information to thrive and survive.
FOCUS BOXES/Reality Checks - Bring the work world as it really is into every chapter./Question of Ethics - Presents ethical questions related to the particular chapters' material./A Global Glance - A look at an international aspect of a chapters' concepts./FYI - A new focus box for the 9e./Presents useful hints readers can apply in their daily lives.
Anyone who wishes to better understand managers, peers, or workers can benefit from this book as it covers the vital skills needed to survive and thrive in an organization.
Customer Reviews:
Good Service.......2007-02-24
Received Book in about 2 weeks after purchase. Book was in excellent condition. Good Service.
Exceeded Expectations.......2005-09-30
My textbook came sooner than expected and it was in great condition! The savings were unbelievable and I actually recommended using this seller to everyone in my class.
Book Description
From the most trusted voice on transition, a revised edition of the classic practical guide to dealing with the human side of organizational change.
The business world is a place of constant change, with stories of corporate mergers, layoffs, bankruptcy, and restructuring hitting the news every day. Yet as veteran consultant William Bridges maintains, the situational changes are not as difficult for companies to make as the psychological transitions. In the best-selling Managing Transitions, Bridges provides a clear understanding of what change does to employees and what employees in transition can do to an organization.
Directed at managers and employees in today's corporations, Bridges shows how to minimize the distress and disruptions caused by change. Managing Transitions addresses the fact that it is people who have to carry out the change. When the book was originally published a decade ago, Bridges was the first to provide any real sense of the emotional impact of change and what can be done to keep it from disrupting the entire organization. With new information and commentary on layoffs, corporate suspicion, and the increasing tumult in the business world, Managing Transitions remains the definitive guide to dealing with change.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book.......2007-10-17
Change and transition are an important issue in our professional lives, going trough the book allowed me to realize the diferent stages and process involved and there for be in a better position the next challenge.
the use of examples en refrences is very well managed, language is easy
High rating for a textbook, but it deserves it........2007-08-11
I have had several textbooks in Management between an Undergraduate, Graduate and Business itself. This was no different in that I expected the same old stuff, but was very pleasantly surprised at the authors candor about our perceptions of business practices. It didn't mince words on several tactics used by management and explained why so much doesn't work. It got my attention and I continued my reading with far more interest. There really isn't anything more complimentary I can say than I intend to sell all other books to new students, excect this one which I will hang on to and reference.
great results from this book.......2007-07-06
This is a wonderful book. If you deal with people who need to change how they do their work you must read this book.
great, short, valuable.......2007-07-04
This is a great book for all people who deal with people that are dealing with change. I have found this book useful when being a change agent for a company, or just for management in my own company. Part of the value of this book is it describes the emotional aspect of change. People are not always (usually) logical. Emotions play a large part. Knowing how to deal with the emotional aspect of change is essential. This book gives you great insights in this area.
Managing Transitions by William Bridges.......2007-05-13
This book is great! I was/am dealing with some pretty significant transitions -- the sudden death of my 21 year-old daughter, and a major division re-org at an S&P 500 company. Several months earlier, my VP had mentioned the book and suggested that all of his direct reports to read it. I did and it really hit home.
The author does an excellent job of describing the emotional and organizational impact of change and the mechanics of the process we use to get through it. We use the same basic process to deal with all change -- personal and professional -- and it has been very helpful to understand how it works. There is also a section in the book about the life cycle of an organization and that was illuminating. The book provided some tools to help me make critical decisions.
I bought six copies of the book and have given them out to friends and co-workers.
Book Description
The classic bestseller on performance management is updated to reflect changes in today's working environment. When an employer needs to know how to gain maximum performance from employees, renowned behavioral psychologist--Aubrey Daniels is the man to consult. What has made Daniels the man with the answers? His ability to apply scientifically based behavioral stimuli to the workplace while making it fun at the same time.
Now Daniels updates his ground-breaking book with the latest and best motivational methods, perfected at such companies as Xerox, 3M, and Kodak. All-new material shows how to: create effective recognition and rewards systems in line with today's employees want; Stimulate innovations and creativity in new and exciting ways; overcome problems associated with poorly educated workers; motivate young employees from the minute they join the workforce.
Download Description
Bringing Out the Best in People, New & Updated Edition, provides the latest and best motivational methods currently in use at such major companies as Xerox, 3M, and Kodak.
Customer Reviews:
Science of positive reinforcement.......2007-08-01
Aubrey Daniels offers an insightful look at the behavioral school of management, and its key tools: positive, and negative reinforcement. The book covers how to link rewards to behaviors you want to reinforce, when to deliver them, and how to design systems to support them. While not without its flaws, the book is well written and offers plenty of practical advice - if you're an aspiring manager, or a seasoned veteran, 'Bringing Out the Best in People' is a solid investment of your time.
Clarity, results, contribution.......2007-07-04
This is an essential text for anyone who manages people. Daniels is clearly 'for' creating a workplace that taps the innate desire to contribute and against one run by fear. I've seen nearly 35 years of organizational life, as employee, manager and consultant. That's a lot of fads, slogans and philosophies. This book is the real deal.
When people are managed using these clear, rigorous, objective principles, stress and interpersonal barriers decrease, work exceeds expectations. I also recommend Dr. Marshall Rosenberg's "Nonviolent Communication".
Based on a flawed worldview.......2007-04-02
I started reading the book as a part of my personal development with the company that I work for. The book is founded in behaviorism, and does not stray from the concepts associated with this worldview. My issue with it is that I believe that people are more than a reaction to the things that happen to us. We have unique personalities, and they consist of more than the conditioning that they are subjected to. This psychology takes away the idea of free-will and choice, and eliminates personal responsibility. When it comes to managing people, I believe that these are important elements to tap into. This behaviorist approach to management may look good on the surface, and make logical sense, but is flawed by its nature, and cannot have any long lasting impact.
Good book but not as good as her other book.......2006-03-02
This book is a fine book if you are looking for the typical book written for lazy minds. The material is good, the presentation is great. However, there is a lack of references and detail that someone really interested in the material will desire. If you like pop-culture books get this one. If you want a terrific book that appeals to your brain then get the authors other book, "Performance Management." It is exceptional.
Must Have Book for all Managers, Parents & Pet Owners.......2006-01-14
I have used Bringing Out the Best in People throughout Latin America and here in the States for several years. When I have control of a client project, this book is required reading. I get groans at first from supervisors and managers, but it is amazing what happens after they read it. They come back and immediately start talking about NICs, PICs, etc. It is fun but keeps me on my toes from that point forward as they watch my every move!
Although Daniels talks of motivating and brining out top performance from individuals within organizations, the concepts definitely applies and should be used in personal/family relationships as well. The concepts even hold true as I train my dog and two macaws as uncertain/certain, future consequences do not work for them! The beauty is that this book makes you stop and think.
Book Description
Senge's best-selling The Fifth Discipline led Business Week to dub him the "new guru" of the corporate world; here he offers executives a step-by-step guide to building "learning organizations" of their own.
Customer Reviews:
Tools for creating a Learning Culture.......2006-09-11
Peter M Serge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
To quote the first few paragraphs at beginning of book:
Among the tribes of northen Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, "I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, "I am here." The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It's as if, when you see me bring me into existence.
This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which from Zulu, literally translates as: "A person is a person because of other people."
"I bow in honor and reverence that place within you where to the Universe resides, when you are in that place within you, and I am in that place within me, there is One." ~namaste
The five disciplines are at the CORE of a Learning Organization
1) Personal Mastery: expand your personal capacity and ability
2) Mental Models: see how our internal pictures of the world shape action and decision
3) Shared Vision: group commitment
4) Team Learning: group ability is greater than the sum of individual talents
5) System Thinking:
"When we try to bring about change in our societies, we are treated first with indifference, then with ridicule, then with abuse and then with oppression. And finally, the greatest challenge is thrown at us: We are treated with respect. This is the most dangerous stage." --A. T. Ariyaratne (Speech made at International Community Leadership Summit, Winrock, Arkansas, March 1983. This quote paraphrases and expands upon a well-known statement made by Mahatma Gandhi in his book Satyagraha in South Africa, 1982, 1979, Canon, Me.: Greenleaf books)
"An [organization] is not a machine but a living organism." --Ikujiro Nonaka /****
Fundamentals of epistemology: what is knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and what constitutes learning.
understanding is achieved after internalization.
Without experience, we cannot truly understand.
Internalization: transformation from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves.
Innovation is a process to capture, create, leverage, and retain knowledge.
What is your belief? A belief about images of the world - you may call it a mental model - is a very subjective thing
information is the flow of a message, while knowledge is created by accumulating information. Thus, information is a necessary medium or material for eliciting and constructing knowledge.
The second difference is that information is something passive. When we switch on a TV set, information comes regardless of my commitment. But knowledge comes from my belief, so it's more proactive.
And the organizational knowledge or intellectual infrastructure of an organization encourages its individual members to develop new knowledge through new experiences.
This dynamic process is the key to organizational knowledge creation - that is, socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge), combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge) [...].
[...]
Three Guiding Ideas
1) The Whole. When you are pointing a finger at the problems, notice how many fingers are pointing back at you. If you fixed the symptoms and ignore the root causes, the problems have not gone away. Another way to look at this is treat the person, not the disease. Of course treat the disease if the patient is dying, but know that the patient will get sick again because the "root causes" are stil there.
2) Community. The self is "a point of view." "The essence of being a person is being in a relationship [with] other people." You will not believe this, but each person before you is there for a reason. The reason this person is there at this moment is for you to learn something about yourself. If you ignore the person, do not ignore or forget the lesson.
3) Language. The map is not the territory. We cannot contain every bit of information that comes to us in the world, so we have to create a "map of the territory" and then refer to the map for our information. By changing a person's map, we change their reality. Language is the map, not the reality.
enlightening concepts about leadership.......2005-10-26
It seems to me that The Fifth Discipline (the previous publication of the series) is more attacting to me. The second book can be more precise and concise in content. Generally speaking I still like these two books as a foreign reader.
The Fifth Discipline.......2003-02-08
This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.
The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.
Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.
This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.
A follow up to the legend.......2003-01-27
The Fieldbook attempts at making the esoteric concepts of the fifth discipline more down to earth and contains a treasure trove of strategies, tools, methods and explanations on how to make the learning organization into a reality.
Thus people who have read The fifth discipline will gain the most from this book. It's a must read for people who want to make their organizations transition into a 'learning organization'
A second dose of Inspiration..........2002-02-09
Senge's second serving of the Learning Organization is filled with practical tips and real-life examples from companies and organizations that have embraced the teachings of the Learning Organization successfully.
The Book is a collaboration of several writers who do a superb job of unraveling the web that is the learning organization. At times, it may seem to the reader that the book is a labyrinth of disjointed concepts and ideas. However, if you have read `The Fifth Discipline' you will find no problems following the concepts introduced. In fact, you will even understand why the writers have chosen to introduce them in that fashion. If you have not read "The Fifth Discipline', do not despair, it will take a little longer to get `the whole picture'.
The Book is divided into 8 main sections:
1) Getting Started addresses the basic concepts and ideas of the Learning Organization.
2) Systems Thinking (the fifth discipline) - Many people have argued that Senge should have delegated the fifth discipline until the end, however, without Systems Thinking, your vision is disjointed and incomplete.
3) Personal Mastery covers the area of individual development and learning. The chapters here are among the most valuable in the area of self-growth and self-improvement.
4) Mental Models - These are the pictures that you have in your head which represent reality.
5) Shared Vision - You've seen the whole picture, you've developed and you understand how you see the world. Now you need to find a common cause with the rest of the people in your organization, something that you all work for.
6) Team Learning - As you work with other people in teams or groups, you need to pass the stuff that you have learnt and the wisdom you've acquired to others. At this stage, the learning is no longer that of the individual, but the group.
7) Arenas of Practice - (Self explanatory)
8) Frontiers - Where do we go from here.
If you are interested in development, learning, growth, leadership, gaining a competitive edge whether at an organizational or personal level, then this book is for you. In fact, I'd venture to say that this is book is for everyone.
Amazon.com
The key to building a superior company, an increasing number of observers now agree, is the ongoing ability to recruit and retain superior personnel. In Topgrading, industrial psychologist and global consultant Bradford Smart expands upon this idea by examining in great detail exactly how today's premier organizations have assembled such top-level employees, and then showing precisely how others can do it, too. "Simply put, topgrading is the practice of packing the team with A players and clearing out the C players," Smart writes. "'A players' is defined as the top 10 percent of talent available at all salary levels--best of class. With this radical definition, you are not a topgrader until your team consists of all A players. Period." Essentially a best-practices manual for developing this outstanding personnel pool, the book is based on more than 4,000 interviews and case studies conducted by Smart at major corporations like General Electric as well as fast-growing high-tech companies and small family-owned firms. He further bolsters its effectiveness by including his extensive "Chronological In-Depth Structured Interview Guide," along with other assessment tools and hands-on strategies for assembling an ideal work team. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
Great companies don't just depend on strategies—they depend on people. The more great people on your team, the more successful your organization will be. But that's easier said than done. Statistically, half of all employment decisions result in a mishire: The wrong person winds up in the wrong job. But companies that have followed Bradford Smart's advice in Topgrading have boosted their successful hiring rate to 90 percent or better, giving them an unbeatable competitive advantage.
Now Smart has fully revised his 1999 management classic to reintroduce the topgrading concept, which works for companies large and small in any industry. The author spells out his practical approach to finding and managing A-level talent—as well as coaching B players to turn them into A players. He provides intriguing case studies drawn from more than four thousand in-depth interviews.
As Smart writes in his introduction, “All organizations, all businesses live or die mostly on their talent, and any manager who fails to topgrade is nuts, or a C player. . . . Those who, way deep down, would sooner see an organization die than nudge an incompetent person out of a job should not read this book... Topgrading is for A players and all those aspiring to be A players.”
Customer Reviews:
disappointed.......2007-10-17
I was under the impression that this was a paperback version of the book but instead it was a summary of the book. It gave a lot of generalities but was not specific at all. If you are looking for a "Cliff's Notes" version then this book will probably serve the purpose. If you want specifics, then you need to buy the hard cover book.
Stop looking for magic bullets.......2007-06-08
While Brad Smart offers some good advice for the hiring manager, we must keep in mind that the purpose of TogGrading is to make money for, uh, Brad Smart. It is every hiring manager's responsibility to select the best candidate for a position. Some instinctively do a good job at this, while others are simply clueless. Dr. Smart presents his methodology with a zen-like religious furvor. He insists that if everyone in the organization adopts his methodology and becomes a zealot, the organization will become wildly successful. Isn't pretty to think so. My company jumped on the TogGrading bandwagon three years ago, because we had high turnover in a two departments. Now our hiring process is adruous, time-consuming and expensive. The results? Those managers who had low turnover rates still have low turnover rates. Those who had high turnover rates still have high turnover rates. The bottom line: TopGrading doesn't work any better than any other of the various magic bullet methods hawked to managers over the years. There is no one-size-fits-all methodology for selecting top performers. If your company is failing at attracting and retaining "A players" you'd do better to carefully examine your corporate culture than to jump on the latest fad method. If one manager excels at hiring and retaining good employees, allow him to mentor the managers who don't. This is cheaper and far more effective than turning your HR process upside down and hoping for a miracle cure.
Be objective with your experiences.......2007-03-15
I have been through interview processes with multi-billion dollar firms that were surprisingly casual and not as "hard-hitting" as I would expect. From observing others and recognizing my own experiences and shortcomings, you can tell who are "C" and "A" players. This does not make the "C" player a bad person. Michael Jordan was a "C" in minor league baseball.
Just because someone is a CEO of a Fortune 500 company does not make that same person infalliable. Sometimes CEOs do things that make us scratch our heads, and subsequent events prove us right. (William McCormack at CMS Energy being one.)
Other CEOs bring great growth and enhanced shareholder value. They are worth the big bucks. How much would you pay to someone who increased your company's value by $1 billion?
I was so impressed with this book that I have begun to implement these principles into my suppliers for our company's procurement chain. I'm constructing my own "CIDS" interview, and will seek to have "A" suppliers, removing the "C"s.
The anecdote in the book says it best. A firm will invest a lot of time, effort and energy in buying a $500,000 piece of equipment. But hiring an employee whose impact on the firm can be millions of dollars? "Ah, he interviewed well, so we'll hire him."
Kick the tires during the interview phase. Talk to others for "scuttlebutt". Invest the time up front for big pay-offs later.
Read This Book Today.......2007-03-15
There are many books on the market focused on interviewing techniques and talent selection. Topgrading is the best in this category and I have read many of them. The reason why it is the best is that it takes the reader past "what to do" and teaches them "how to do it". If you are someone like me, looking for a way to hire and coach A players right now, this is the book for you.
It really works!!!.......2007-03-06
Not only have I read both releases of this book, but my colleagues and I have been practicing Topgrading at my company for some time now. By using Dr. Smart's process, we have had significant success in hiring A players and have reaped the rewards of having these high powered recruits on our staff. This is a "must read" for those leaders that want to significantly improve the quality of their workforce.
Book Description
Lussier differs from the leading competition by adopting an applications/skill building approach, a growth area in the Human Relations market. This approach suits professors who want to incorporate more activities and exercises into the classroom. Lussier's market share (over the past few editions) has grown because more schools have adopted the activities-based style. Instructor's want students to apply concepts and develop skills that can be used in their daily and professional lives.
Customer Reviews:
Guideline for managers.......2007-05-23
This is really a good book that all managers should read. Basic things that are mentioned that is not practiced in the real world. Life would be better if they follow or at least try to change their mgmt style.
Great HR resource.......2007-03-11
The book is a great resource for HR professionals and those just starting their career. Everyone could learn from the material on management and career success.
Informational.......2006-11-06
This book lays out many personality styles, leadership styles, and positions that you will address when dealing with other people. It is very informational and helpful. I highly recommend this as a learning or guidence resource.
The Human Condition of Relations.......2005-09-25
I felt this book was a good resource. It presented so many leadership styles and situations to utilize them in. If anyone else is looking for a book that will help prepare them for new age management, this is one to keep.
Book Description
Heneman and Judge’s Staffing, 5th Edition, is based on a comprehensive staffing model. Components of the model include staffing models and strategy, staffing support systems (legal compliance, planning, job analysis and rewards), core staffing systems (recruitment, selection, employment), and staffing system and retention management. Up-to-date research and business practices are the hallmarks of this market leading text. In-depth applications (cases and exercises) at the end of chapters provide students with skill-building and practice in key staffing activities and decision-making. A comprehensive running case involving a fictitious retailing organization provides even greater opportunity for in-depth analysis and skill building. Students also have the opportunity to address ethical issues at the end of each chapter.
Customer Reviews:
Student opinion.......2007-04-19
I am currently reading this book for a class. The class consensus is that is has useful information but it is written in a research manner vs. a teaching/learning manner. This makes it an extremely dry and boring read much of the time. The chapter on measurements was excrutiating to read and retain. It is definately written with larger corporations in mind. As useful as the information in this book is, it is written in a manner that is not as conducive to student learning in my opinion. I think that this book could be much better than it is.
Staffing Organizations.......2007-02-13
This is a required book that I had to purchase for one of my HR classes. In fact the name of the class was Staffing Organizations. The book is very easy to read and has alot of useful information. Great for recruiters.
Great Concept but Outdated.......2004-10-08
This is the book I've assigned to graduate HR Management students studying staffing. It does the job, but needs more than just a cosmetic overhaul - which is what happened between the former edition and this one.
Staffing remains the most strategically influential activity HR professionals can perform, and yet this book says so little about:
o Organizational strategy
o Web-based recruitment
o Internet-based interviewing and screening technique
o Interactive engines for applying for jobs, e.g., Wal-Mart
Its min-case studies are OK, but, again, so outdated.
Make this book as good as it used to be, Dr. Heneman!!
An in-depth exploration of the Staffing function.......2004-01-29
I personally loved this book. Its content is enriched with a wealth of professional and practical theory about corporate staffing strategies and systems. The Staffing Organizations Model that shapes the structure of this text is considered a profound, intergrated, and coherent framework for the dynamic realm of staffing. The model's flow is logical, commencing from legal compliance and job analysis and concluding with employee retention management. The book helped me develop a sound conceptual map of what Staffing is, what it includes, and how its sub-systems interrelate. I recommend this book to all people who are interested or work in the Staffing field.
A Solid Human Resources Recruitment and Staffing Guide.......2003-11-24
As a human resources professional and a graduate student at Troy State University, I found this text to be very insightful in all aspects of researching, designing, planning, and implementing various internal and external staffing strategies, policies, procedures, and practices. This text is definitely an invaluable reference book that should be a part of any human resources professional's library.
Book Description
Managing people and their behavior in organizations is one of the most challenging tasks anyone could face. Gibson's Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Processes, Twelfth Edition, presents theories, research results, and applications that focus on managing organizational behavior in small, large, and global organizations. It is organized and presented in a sequence based on behavior, structure, and processes. Each part is presented as a self-contained unit and can therefore be presented in whatever sequence instructors prefer. Organizations is easily adaptable to individual preferences. This edition emphasizes that the most successful managers in the global economy will be those who can anticipate, adapt, and manage change.
Customer Reviews:
Recycling outdated material and deceptive.......2007-05-07
I am using this as a textbook for an MBA course and it is not lightly that I give this strong opinion. After having read/studied nearly the complete book I find that in its 12th edition this book:
1. Recycles itself with nearly no update of the material and text. E.g. "Recent studies found...." and the reference is from 1995. MANY times the text states that something is brand new or latest or recent etc. and the reference is like the Fortune Magazine from 1990. This is unprofessional and deceptive and serves both, students and teaches, badly. The authors are just harvesting $$$ on merits that are pasted.
2. If you use Wikipedia once in a while you know that they label articles sometimes as containing "weasel words: are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources, lending them the force of authority without letting the reader decide whether the source of the opinion is reliable." Example: "Scientists say...". "Managers often do ..." "It is common that..."
This textbook is peppered with such expressions.
3. The presentation and the writing style is utterly unimaginative and inadequate for this day and age. Those authors haven't thought anyone anything real in a long time. A book that expensive should be held accountable to current standards.
4. The author are incapable of synthesising the material in something the student can take with him/her. In fact they regularly complain themselves that all the theories and models they just wrote about are actually highly invalidated and critizised by other research that itself has trouble coming up with anything tangible. The result is a dead see of the unusable. If at least the presentation had something valuable but it is cumbersome and boring.
5. Some of the case studies are likely written by the Brother Grimm or Scott Adams. Often they relate insufficiently to the text or are so unreal or crippled that it is agonizing to have to even read them, let alone handle them in homework.
My recommendation is that if you have a choice, you better look around for something that will actually add value to your studies. I had no choice as
it is the textbook for this course, but I will urge my uni to move forward. This textbook is a backset.
Boring read.......2006-11-09
Maybe it was the professor and not the book. It could have been more concise and energenic.
Book Description
This excellent paperback provides a brief, yet comprehensive tour of the scientific and practical highlights of organizational behavior (OB). It gets right to the point by focusing on essential concepts and practices that those in business really need to know. It allows readers to understand and appreciate the essentials of OB as a practical and scientific field by providing a good balance between research/theory and practical applications for the concepts presented.
A long list of cutting-edge topics are covered in this easy-to-understand, conversationally-written book. It includes integrated coverage of Internet/Web-based organizational behavior concepts with special treatment of e-commerce, and includes practical tips and suggestions telling readers how to apply OB in their own jobs. Coverage includes: individual behavior, group behavior, and organizational processes.
A especially handy reference for practicing managers and executives in corporate training programs.
Book Description
Human Resource Champions issues a challenge to HR professionals: define the value you create and institute measures for your performance, or face the inevitable outsourcing of your function. Ulrich identifies four distinct roles that human resources staff must assume-strategic player, administrative expert, employee champion, and change agent. He provides hands-on tools that show HR professionals how they can operate in all four areas simultaneously and offers specific recommendations for partnering with line managers to deliver value and make their organizations more competitive.
Customer Reviews:
Outlining a future for HR.......2006-04-13
Author Dave Ulrich reflects an awareness that many professionals keenly feel: in these highly competitive times, they must either evolve or stagnate. His book tells human resource (HR) leaders how to assume more vital, strategic roles within their organizations. He makes a convincing argument that successful companies must elevate HR to the role of a strategic partner, to enable it to implement programs that support an organization's goals. Whether reading any book can put you in the forefront of hands-on transformation remains to be seen, but this volume certainly offers plenty of real-world case studies to back up its premise that HR professionals must step into a new, vital strategic role. Each company and each HR department is so different, however, that it may be challenging to apply some of these broad themes to specific situations. That said, the themes themselves ring true, although the book is now more of a classic than the innovative think piece it was when new. We recommend it especially to HR professionals as a comprehensive look at why you must conquer so much territory to keep your organization competitive.
Building a competitive organization with Ulrich.......2005-10-06
Ulrich has marked a new theory on human resources management system. According to him, company's HR manager has strategic position and more than just "a head of employee division". HR manager, said Ulrich, at least has four key positions in building a competitive organization: as (1) strategic partner, (2) administrative expert, (3) change agent, and (4) human resource champion. Ket's learn more strategic steps with this Number One Management Guru!
Read if you are a businessman - shape up your HR department.......2005-08-07
HR Champions was the first mainstream book that looked at HR as more than just an administrative department. Regrettably, in the eight years since it's publication, few companies have truly taken heed. Many HR "professionals" (sic) quote Ulrich's work but few practice it.
This is a well written book crisp, devoid of too many clichés, practical, comprehensive. Forget those useless university HR text books, this one should form the base of your knowledge of the function. But make sure you keep up with the latest trends.
It's a classic.......2004-10-07
When Fortune Magazine published "Taking on the Last Bureaucracy" in 1996, a gauntlet was thrown down for the HR community. Thomas Stewart, Fortune columnist, indicted the professional Human Resources community on many fronts. The most damning was, though, that HR added nothing to the achievement of strategic organizational purpose.
This book was the best response to that challenge, and it was a great start. I've assigned this book to my HR management graduate students since 1998, and have not regretted it.
Yes, it is somewhat outdated now, but should be read for its role in reshaping the very definition of HR work. Sorry to say that its companion volume, "Delivering Results," is now out of print, but it can still be obtained.
A recommendation: read this book along with "The HR Scorecard." They work together almost seamlessly.
basically good, but no longer cutting edge.......2004-02-21
I read this book back in grad school (degree in HR). While it was current then, the concepts are no longer cutting edge/benchmark HR. This is a well-written book and is helpful for the HR novice to gain an understanding of the evolution of HR as a profession. However, for those who already work in an organization where HR is not only at the table, but setting the strategic direction hand in hand with the CEO as a valued member of the leadership team, this book could use a few more chapters. In the last 5 years many companies have moved past the "recognizing HR as a player" stage and are firmly in a space where there is a set expectation of HR - to help set the stategic direction for obtaining their revenue and market growth targets. It is in these areas that I would like to see the next ground breaking insights from Ulrich.
Books:
- Introduction to Communication Research
- Islamic Finance: The Regulatory Challenge (Wiley Finance)
- Legacies: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction
- Linking Emotional Intelligence And Performance At Work: Current Research Evidence With Individuals and Groups
- Listening: The Forgotten Skill: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides)
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
- Managers as Facilitators: A Practical Guide to Getting the Work Done in a Changing Workplace
- Marketing Across Cultures (4th Edition)
- Mentor Manager, Mentor Parent: How to Develop Responsible People and Build Successful Relationships at Work and at Home
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life
- Shattering the German Night: The Story of the White Rose
- Economics Today: The Micro View plus MyEconLab Student Access Kit
- Handbook of Computational Economics, Volume 2: Agent-Based Computational Economics
- Korean Business Etiquette: The Cultural Values And Attitudes That Make Up The Korean Business Person
- Phil Gordon's Poker Box Set: Phil Gordon's Little Black Book, Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, Phil
- Killer Content: Strategies for Web Content and E-Commerce
- Doing Business in the New Latin America: A Guide to Cultures, Practices, and Opportunities
- Money for Life Success Planner: The 12-Week Companion to Achieve Financial Fitness
- How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man: Small Fruits
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Guide to Managerial Communication (7th Edition) (Guide to Series in Business Communication)
Brief English Handbook, The (8th Edition)
Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum (2nd Edition)
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (8th Edition)
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, Brief Edition (2nd Edition)
