Book Description
An Easy To Read Introduction To The Theory Of Change Management That Focuses On What Works. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Primer.......2007-09-13
For those that are just beginning their quest of appreciative inquiry - this is a great primer. Good text to share with employees prior to the beginning of a organization orientation.
Raises an interesting idea.......2007-05-12
This book was a required text for one of my graduate school classes. The refreshing thing about it is that it's a quick read and very easy to understand. Hammond raises the very interesting idea that instead of looking at problems from a "how do we remedy our weaknesses" standpoint, she offers that we should capitalize on our strengths. We should figure out what we do well, and then work through our strengths to improve our performance and organizational environment. That's really as far as you need to go with this book. Hammond's explanation of her theory is extremely common sense. If you're still unsure how her theory could be applied in or impact the workplace, perhaps you should read this book. Otherwise, you could probably just use your imagination.
Straight to the point.......2006-03-20
I bought this book on a recommendation of a lecturer at a recent conference. He said that this was the first book to buy if one wants to learn about AI. He was right. The author is straight to the point. The material is easy to digest. The examples are applicable. Because of this book, I can immediately put AI to use in developing better teams and groups.
Quantifiable Appreciation.......2006-02-21
Recently, I attended a monthly meeting for professional coaches where the speaker made a presentation on Appreciative Inquiry. He passed around many books on the subject as he continued his talk. I was impressed enough with Sue Hammond's Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry to go right home and order it. I am not usually one who cares for national bestsellers, but in this case... I can see why. It is a valuable tool for any coach, mentor or anyone in life who seeks a better, clearer understanding of how to appreciate life, work, people, everything really. Learning to appreciate makes a quantifiable difference in your life and times.
Hammond writes with an easy style, touching on most aspects of positive thinking and behaviors that can and will make a difference immediately in whatever you do and how you work with family, friends, co-workers.
The focus is on "what is working?" not what is the problem. To me, it's a much better place to start, automatically gives us a leg-up to feel good about something that is already positive.
Highly recommended!
Thank you Sue Hammond.
Pie Dumas - Author & Life Coach
Helps Create Possibilities.......2005-09-10
I use this book in my coaching business. The book is a great source of usable information that can be easily understood. Hammond includes tips that can help shift one's thinking in a positive way. If we could all operate in the manner she describes we would be better leaders (at any level).
Book Description
While heated arguments between practitioners of qualitative and quantitative research have begun to test the very integrity of the social sciences, Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba have produced a farsighted and timely book that promises to sharpen and strengthen a wide range of research performed in this field. These leading scholars, each representing diverse academic traditions, have developed a unified approach to valid descriptive and causal inference in qualitative research, where numerical measurement is either impossible or undesirable. Their book demonstrates that the same logic of inference underlies both good quantitative and good qualitative research designs, and their approach applies equally to each.
Providing precepts intended to stimulate and discipline thought, the authors explore issues related to framing research questions, measuring the accuracy of data and uncertainty of empirical inferences, discovering causal effects, and generally improving qualitative research. Among the specific topics they address are interpretation and inference, comparative case studies, constructing causal theories, dependent and explanatory variables, the limits of random selection, selection bias, and errors in measurement. Mathematical notation is occasionally used to clarify concepts, but no prior knowledge of mathematics or statistics is assumed. The unified logic of inference that this book explicates will be enormously useful to qualitative researchers of all traditions and substantive fields.
Download Description
While heated arguments between practitioners of qualitative and quantitative research have begun to test the very integrity of the social sciences, Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba have produced a farsighted and timely book that promises to sharpen and strengthen a wide range of research performed in this field. These leading scholars, each representing diverse academic traditions, have developed a unified approach to valid descriptive and causal inference in qualitative research, where numerical measurement is either impossible or undesirable. Their book demonstrates that the same logic of inference underlies both good quantitative and good qualitative research designs, and their approach applies equally to each. Providing precepts intended to stimulate and discipline thought, the authors explore issues related to framing research questions, measuring the accuracy of data and uncertainty of empirical inferences, discovering causal effects, and generally improving qualitative research. Among the specific topics they address are interpretation and inference, comparative case studies, constructing causal theories, dependent and explanatory variables, the limits of random selection, selection bias, and errors in measurement. Mathematical notation is occasionally used to clarify concepts, but no prior knowledge of mathematics or statistics is assumed. The unified logic of inference that this book explicates will be enormously useful to qualitative researchers of all traditions and substantive fields.
Customer Reviews:
Qualitative quality.......2007-09-03
A lot of the other reviews give great insight into what this book is and isn't.
I simply want to say that this book is excellent as a guide to what an optimal qualitative reasearch design should be, if it is to be as valid and reliable as possible. Qualitative research seems like a "haven" for researchers that want to follow their "heart" or "feelings", and this book contends unscientific research in a way that surely offends many of these researchers. Not that feelings should be excluded, it's just that the design must be more than a subjective view presented as research, and this book will help, even if you don't agree with everything they say.
All the advantages and disadvantages of statistical reasoning applied to qualitative political science.......2006-01-29
This book takes the basic logic of statistical inference and applies it to qualitative research design in political science. As several reviewers note, it is not a book on statistics, nor indeed does it pretend to be. However, it extends the logic of statistical research design into nonquantitative research.
That much it does very well. By thinking about how to test hypotheses and how to increase variation in a qualitative research design, it has been very influential. Most important, it has sparked extensive criticism, modifying and delineating its claims.
The book has some amusing flaws. Most of the examples come from the authors' colleagues and graduate students at Harvard, which suggests either that good research is not done by people without that connection or that the authors don't read anything written by people who don't have an office down the hall. The two non-quantitative coauthors have both done extensive qualitative research that demonstrably violates the advice given here--both before and after this book. This is evidence that the advice is hard to follow, that they have not read the book, or that good scholars take other factors into consideration when designing research.
The last hypothesis is in fact the right one. There are many factors that go into good research design, and positivistic hypothesis testing provides only a few. Even many of the examples they give are less appropriate than appears at first glance, addressing evidence that goes well beyond what this book's advice would be.
In short, don't rely on this as a bible. Don't believe its claims that all good research must meet these standards. Still, it's a good handbook for what it seeks to accomplish.
This not a stats book.......2005-10-17
This is a response to reviewers who think this is a stat book. This book is not meant to serve as a stats textbook (if you want one there are plenty of good ones written by statisticians and econometricians). This book is designed to serve as a guide to research design in social science in terms of developing a question, following systematic research procedures and measurement while using qualitative research methods. In that regard it does not do a great job as they are stuck up with applying simplistic statistical techniques (predominantly regression analysis)to qualitative methodology. As a result the work ends up appearing weak to both the statistically inclined (including myself) and those who use predominantly qualitative methods. Arguably the biggest problems with this work is in their treatment of constant dependent variable designs. This arises from their notion of a "causal effect" that is quite different from what qualitative researchers might see as causality. In statistical terms their notion is correct but when we move towards a qualitative interpretation of the same the concept becomes problematic primarily because it is difficult to discern the appropriate differentation between values of the dependent variable in qualitative work.
Nonetheless, this book should be treated on its own terms for attempting to synthesize quantiative and qualitative research methods. This book started a controversy that continues till this day and did a great job in forcing people to actually think more deeply about their research design and methods.
If you want to study statistics or econometrics forget this book (choose what you want to know about....regression analysis, time-series models, bayesian models....your choice). If you want to study qualitative research well read this book but then read Brady and Collier 2002 and George and Bennett 2004. George and Bennett's work is arguably the best book on research design I have ever read.
Absolute Dross.......2005-09-29
Please spare yourself the pointless meanderings through what should be simple statistical techniques and buy a real statistics book.
KKV.......2005-09-25
KKV is the book behind the excellent paper by Gerardo L. Munck entitled Canons of Research Design in Qualitative Analysis [Studies in Comparative Literature, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Fall 1998), p. 18-45].
The book has the details although it is harder to read than Munck's excellent paper. This is a must read for all doing Qualitative Research.
Book Description
While there are many other books on research methods, Research in Organizations differs from them in applying these methods to the study of organizations, supported by numerous case studies illustrating each process. A comprehensive beginner's research text, the book covers the foundations and methods relevant to doing research in organizations, as well as the identification of research questions and the ethical conduct of research. Research in Organizations offers a holistic perspective of the subject that embraces quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methodology research procedures. Written by two experts in the field who have authored over 300 articles and books on this subject, the book has won the endorsement of the Academy of Human Resources Development.
Customer Reviews:
OUTSTANDING INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS!.......2005-11-19
A well organized, well written, in-depth introductory graduate-level text on methods for analyzing and understanding organization. A sampling of topics covered is:
- qualitative research;
- experimental designs;
- survey research methods;
- factor analysis;
- meta-analysis;
- case study methods;
- action research;
- mixed methods research;
- research resources.
This book is extremely rich in content. Very highly recommended!
Average customer rating:
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Foundations for Inquiry: Choices and Trade-Offs in the Organizational Sciences
Craig Lundberg , and
Cheri Young
Manufacturer: Stanford Business Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Organizational Behavior
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ASIN: 0804741530
Release Date: 2005-07-26 |
Book Description
Foundations for Inquiry, a philosophy of social science book, is both a primer and a resource for anyone interested in social and behavioral research. As a "reader" with excerpts from classic and soon-to-be classic writings on research in the organizational sciences, the book shows the myriad choices facing researchers—including assumptions they make about ways of creating knowledge, beliefs and values they hold regarding reality, and philosophical and managerial allegiances they form. This book will give readers the information they need to select among these choices, appreciate the tradeoffs involved, and understand how they affect the ways in which data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted, and in which "truth" is ultimately created.
Most books about research address the "how to" of inquiry rather than the "why." Foundations for Inquiry enlightens readers about the variety of philosophical assumptions regarding inquiry and organizational phenomena, demonstrates how these assumptions shape subsequent choices about theories, and shows how theoretical and philosophical choices consequently shape and guide the research process. Awareness of these choices and tradeoffs enables readers to be more discriminating consumers of, and adept contributors to, research-based knowledge.
Book Description
Originally published by Duke University Press in 1966, this volume inquires into the problem of science as a social system. The continuing process of improving our knowledge which we call "science" appears to be both highly individualistic and highly coordinated. This book explains how this process works. It describes the roles of education, scientific publication, Nobel prizes, and research grants in this process. Co-published with the Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University.
Book Description
Presenting a new theory of power, a new practice of management and a new theory of social science, this volume contradicts the following received wisdoms: that `all power corrupts'; that all organizational structure constrains; and that social science is `purer' the more it is divorced from action.
Torbert presents a conceptualization of power that generates productivity, justice and inquiry; develops a theory of `liberating structure' through which organizations can generate continual quality improvement; and introduces a new paradigm of engaged social science - `action inquiry'.
Average customer rating:
- Some minor questions regarding the above review
- Bertrand Russell was never a Rationalist
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Economic Methodology: An Inquiry
Sheila C. Dow
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0198776128 |
Book Description
Economic Methodology: An Inquiry presents a clear and accessible introduction to the methodology of economics. An essential introduction to the subject for those who would like to pursue the more specialist literature, explaining both the role of methodology in assisting economists to address fundamental issues and also the different approaches to methodology that are on offer. The book begins with a discussion of the nature and scope of economics as a discipline and of the issues currently facing it. Dow then goes on to introduce some of the central theoretical and empirical issues in economics and demonstrates the need for methodological awareness in approaching these issues. This is followed by a brief account of the methodological ideas that have influenced economics over the last two centuries and a detailed chapter on current methodological ideas, showing how they are discussed today in the field of economic methodology and how these ideas are related to current practice in economics. The book concludes with a discussion of what economics can reasonably be expected to do and what possible future directions the subject might take. Written in a clear and accessible style with suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, this book will be the ideal starting point for all those wanting an introduction to the methodology of economics, both as it has developed in the past and as it now stands.
Customer Reviews:
Some minor questions regarding the above review.......2005-03-26
If Bertrand Russell was never a rationalist, why did he write a note entitled 'Why I am a rationalist'?
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/russell7.htm
Why is there a well-known text by Jim Herrick entitled: 'Bertrand Russell: the passionate Rationalist'?
Perhaps there has been some misunderstanding among Russell scholars, and Michael E. Brady is poised to correct it. However until then, such conflicts with the prevailing literature lead one to question the tenor of his review.
I found Dow's book rather thought-provoking.
Bertrand Russell was never a Rationalist.......2004-07-21
This book deserves 0 stars.It is written by an economist who is ,at best,philosophically,logically and epistemologically illiterate.Dow(D)essentially believes in the old 19th century division of philosophers into two distinct camps.One camp is called (British)Empiricism.It is based on the work of Locke,Berkeley and Hume.The other camp is called (French)Rationalism.It is based on the work of Leibniz,Descrates and Spinoza.This camp should not be confused with the 18th century "rationalism" of Voltaire and Rousseau who were followers of Hume .D spends pp.78-115 and pp.126-145 on a discussion of the 19th century empiricism versus rationalism debate.The reader is told that rationalism is based on deductivism and empiricism is based on inductivism(p.147).D commits a severe error repeatedly when she makes the following nonsensical claim about Bertrand Russell:"...the rationalist philosopher,Bertrand Russell..."on p.21 of her book.She next talks about "...Bertrand Russell,the arch rationalist..."(p.154) and"...Russell's rationalism..."(p.154).D is confused,to say the least.Russell was a Platonist with respect to the existence of mathematical and logical entities.Thus,mathematics and logic is indispensable to science and these entities have an existence independent of the human mind.Galileo's statement that"mathematics is the language of nature"has a Platonic element built into it.However ,this type of mathematical Platonism is a far cry from being a rationalist or an arch rationalist.Russell himself is quite blunt in his final assessment of rationalism,made in the last book he wrote in 1959,titled "My Philosophical Development":"The method of Cartesian doubt,which appealed to me when I was young and may still serve as a tool in the work of logical dissection,no longer seems to me to have fundamental validity...I have come to accept the facts of sense,and the broad truth of science as things which the philosopher should take as data,since...it has a higher degree of probability than anything likely to be achieved in philosophical speculation."(1959,p.153)It should come as no surprise that Russell accepts Keynes's A Treatise on Probability view that induction is the best approach for the discovery of new scientific knowledge,even if only highly probable(1959,pp.142-153).In summary,a young ,inexperienced reader, without significant philosophical training,will absorb the huge number of errors that occur frequently throughout this book,thereby stunting his own philosophical development.Outside of J M Keynes's A Treatise on Probability and his father's earlier book,the interested book buyer is advised to skip any book on philosophy and methodology written by economists.There are just too many errors of omission and commission.The one exception is the recent (2001)book by H.Keuzenkamp,which requires a great deal of mathematical and statistical training.
Book Description
This manual is for development program managers and project leaders who wish to incorporate an indigenous knowledge element into their work. It offers a continuous spectrum of approaches and tools, from those useful to persons seeking a quick and limited IK component, to those interested in a more long-term and thorough IK investigation.
The guidelines acknowledge that the design and management of IK-informed projects involve making decisions about many closely interrelated issues. They take cost, time and scope of objectives as the principal design issues. The methodology also deals with issues of team functioning that critically inform project success. The guidelines make reference to project cycle management in the context of natural resources indigenous knowledge research, and present options for reducing conflicts and more effectively including the views of primary stakeholders.
The book draws on key texts that relate to research and participation in development, and interdisciplinary work. It also draws heavily on the authors' experience of projects. Novel topics are covered, such as computer-aided analysis of qualitative data and the use of cross-cultural research staff. The methodology is grounded in anthropological and development research, and attempts to be critically aware of contemporary reflective practice.
Whatever your interest in indigenous knowledge you will find this book a fascinating and insightful handbook.
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Transport, Trade and Economic Growth - Coupled or Decoupled?: An Inquiry into Relationships between Transport, Trade and Economic Growth and into User ... Policy (Mobilitätsverhalten in der Freizeit)
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Development & Growth
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ASIN: 3540682961 |
Book Description
Over the past decade, the transport industry has become an increasingly popular scapegoat for polluting the environment with emissions and noise. Therefore, additional transport infrastructure investments, especially in road transport, are becoming more and more contentious. Conversely, the advocates of free trade stress the importance of transport to enhance economic growth and subsequently the standards of living. Thus, political decision makers and business people alike are facing the challenge of reconciling these conflicting ideas. Though being one of the most prominent topics in public discussion, hard facts are still rare.
In order to analyze the question from a different perspective, this book sets out to combine different approaches from economics as well as business administration to stimulate scientific discourse and to support decision-makers in their efforts to ameliorate the situation.
The first part of this book contributes to the empirics of the relationship between transport and economic growth, or more specifically, whether "decoupling" of transport and economic growth appears possible. For this purpose previously unavailable regional data for Italy and Germany were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that transport makes an important contribution to economic growth.
Therefore, the second part of this book goes into more detail. Given the economic importance of transport and the resistance against the expansion of the transport infrastructure, it is essential to make efficient use of the already existing transportation network. For this purpose the author investigates which characteristics of transport are perceived as most important by decision makers, applying an adaptive conjoint analysis. The results show that transport quality in terms of timeliness, reliability, etc. seems to be at least as important as the monetary transport costs.
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Unmeasured Information and the Methodology of Social Scientific Inquiry
Donald W. Katzner
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover
Microeconomics
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ASIN: 0792373367 |
Book Description
The purpose of this book is to demonstrate that it is possible to do meaningful, significant, and sophisticated analysis in social science when the variables under consideration are, given present knowledge, incapable of measurement. No effort to `measure' the unmeasurable is attempted. Rather, techniques for model building, such as the construction of simultaneous and periodic relation systems that do not require the existence of measures are explored. In addition to presenting a methodology enabling the investigator to deal with the unmeasured, many examples are provided that illustrate how those methods may actually be used.
In addition, the book addresses the following: Where has the overwhelming focus on the quantitative (often to the exclusion of the unmeasurable or qualitative) in social science in particular, and in modern societies in general, come from? How can the use of the formalizations of model building, both in the presence and absence of measurement, be justified in social science? What are the dangers of using proxy variables in general in the construction of models, and what are the dangers of treating variables that are only ordinally gauged as if they were cardinally or intervally measured? Finally, when only ordinal calibrations of some variables are available, what analytical methods may legitimately be employed to deal with them?
Books:
- Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
- Understanding Business
- Value-at-Risk: Theory and Practice
- Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America (Institutional Structures of Feeling)
- Wealth and Poverty (Ics Series in Self-Governance)
- When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
- Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills And Talent
- A Game as Old as Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption (BK Currents)
- Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette
- Adopting After Infertility
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