Book Description

Inside the Minds: Leading Labor Lawyers is the most authoritative book ever written on the art and science of labor law, written by an unprecedented collection of employment and labor lawyers from some of the leading law firms of the world-including Chairs/Group Coordinators from Perkins Coie, Thelen Reid & Priest, Schiff Hardin & Waite, Winston & Strawn, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, Morrison & Foerster, Butzel Long & Gray Plant Mooty. These industry visionaries reveal the secrets to employment contracts, hiring and firing, non-competes, infringement, litigation, privacy, arbitration, Internet and technology related issues, sexual harassment, client psychology and other important issues affecting the future of labor and employment law. Also covered are specific, proven legal strategies and methodologies practiced by these leading attorneys that have led to their success. An unprecedented look inside the minds of the world’s best labor lawyers makes for critical reading for every labor/employment lawyer, CEO, human resources professional, entrepreneur, law school student and anyone interested in labor law on a personal or professional level. Other Inside the Minds legal books include Inside the Minds: Leading Deal Makers, Inside the Minds: Leading Litigators, Inside the Minds Internet Lawyers and Inside the Minds: Leading Intellectual Property Lawyers.

Praise for Inside the Minds:

"An informative insider's perspective..." - Gary Klotz, Labor Chair, Butzel Long

"A must read..." - Raymond Wheeler, Labor Chair, Morrison & Foerster ... Read more

Book Description

This book is an easy to read guide for non-union workers who are trying to form a union at their workplace. It is filled with personal insights from the author and concrete tips on how to be a successful committee member. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Its a Job , not a jail.
This book offers a refreshing view of dealing with a workplace bully. You are not alone. This book provides valuable tips on how to make it until you are able to leave. Going to work should not be considered the same thing as spending the weekend in jail. Help is here. Check this book out.

I wish I had read this 10 years ago
A valuable lesson in the workplace dynamic. If you ever observed a co-worker and realized it's not what you do but how you do it - this book is for you. The author instructs you how to learn and become that bullet proof co-worker while keeping your self respect. ... Read more

Book Description

Even job loss has a silver lining

A truly wonderful book! Through stories, myths and metaphors, Mary Lynn Pulley examines the factors which help people develop more meaning in their work and their lives. This book is not only for those going through career transitions, but for all of us who want to be more resilient in today's work world.
-- Betsy A. Collard, Career Action Center

Right-sizing. Reengineering. Organizational restructuring. No matter the corporate euphemism in which it's couched, the loss of a job remains one of the most devastating events a person can encounter. But some are finding it to be a blessing in disguise. In Losing Your Job, Reclaiming Your Soul, Mary Lynn Pulley presents a positive, practical and empowering new model of career resilience for everyone who has lost, fears losing, or is thinking of leaving his or her job. Here are the results of dozens of interviews withhigh-performing professionals who bounced back from the trauma of involuntary job loss. Their stories provide powerful, real-world lessons in flexibility, determination and fulfillment. It 's a book that puts the prospect of job loss in meaningful perspective, and gives us insight into how to turn one of life's most catastrophic experiences into a wellspring of personal and professional reawakening.

... Read more

Reviews (5)

A truly Inspirational Book - Read it!
If you have lost your job involuntarily, think you may be on the bubble or are just questioning your whole approach and understanding of the work-a-day world, you should read this book! I lost my job in August of 2002 after returning from a very successful 3-year assignment in London. I was devastated, how could I be treated this way. I thought if you showed up and did a great job, you were in for life. Boy was I wrong! I came across this book recommended by an author of a paperback called The Lay-Off Survival Guide.

I won't say this book changed my life (I am not sure a book can really do that) but it certainly changed the way I think about work and my own skills - forever! I realized that there are lots of people out there struggling with the same issues and lots of people going through their daily routines and feeling unfulfilled. I also realized that I had the power to change that about my life.

I find Mrs. Pulley's balance of personal interviews and research as well as reference work of other authors, psychologists, and philosophers to lend credibility, believability and inspiration to this book.

When someone asks you, "so, who are you?" and your answer starts with "I'm a manager of... or I work for..." then YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!

I have now left big corporate America and am working in a 3-person start-up software company. I don't think I could ever go back to the other life. Thank you Mary Lynn Pulley for helping me transform!

Building Personal Resilience
Ms. Pulley has written a very useful treatise on resilience in the context of the workplace. She very succintly brings out the feelings and emotions that a person who has lost his/her job involuntarily feels and experiences. Her ideas and thoughts based on her interviews with people who have gone through the "trough" would make an invaluable contribution to those who are on their path to recovery and more importantly success on their terms. Though the book is written based on the American experience, I am of the opinion that it is applicable anywhere in the world. For those who live under the threat of likely loss of their job involuntarily, this book would be useful in understanding the feelings that you may be encountering.This book could even be a road-map to move-on and re-define yourself, discover a new dimension of success and of course, get on with re-building and living a more meaningful life in which you will find satisfaction and happiness in.

Outstanding self-help book for career transitions
I picked up this book with some skepticism after losing a job, but found that I could not put it down! And after finishing it, I went out and got a temp job in ONE DAY which I still have -- and have been asked to stay on. It is excellent as practical as well as philosophical support for anyone seeking to improve his or her resilience in a crisis. Instead of despair Pulley and Deal offer hope.

I liked the REAL LIFE stories in this book !
There are not many books that I stay up until 2:00am reading, but this is one of them. I was laid of, from a merger/aquisition, after working for the "company" for 10 years. I felt betrayed, I had no loyalty, and I was depressed ! Finding my resilance and takeing the "lessons" from each of the chapters got me through a tough time in my life. The bibliography was accurate and easy to follow. I even learned that "Pandora's Box did not release "HOPE"" from all the evils in the in famous Pandoras' box. One last not I also bought audio cassette of Sara Hickman's "Necessary Angels" when I had no income... not a wise decision you might say ?....wrong Ed Mc Mann....This was one of the best purchases I made when I needed a lift in my sprirts....what am I doing today.... I have started a new home based business, from my skills and past experiences. I may go back to "work" if the right "offer" come to me. I have also gotten involved in a small business group at my church....(sprituality).... I would rate this book right up there with WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE for people who have had an "involuntary job loss". I have also read William Bridges books on transitions which is also referenced in this book !

Timely, positive, and very helpful
In the past few years I've had a series of what I considered negative career experiences. I started out many years ago to be a teacher, but (due to an impossible job market) made a lateral move into a business career in which I'm using the same skills. But I kept on teaching part-time because I felt that was what I "should" be doing. Then I had a series of Classes From Hell that left me psychologically bruised and burned out, and finally, feeling utterly defeated, I quit teaching. A short time later, after years of working as an independent contractor, I took a "permanent" job that turned out to be a serious mistake: it was demanding but narrow in scope, so I was exhausted and bored at the same time; I did a mediocre job and eventually was laid off. I picked up Pulley's book just when I was in my worst "I'm a failure at everything" depressed state. It helped me realize that, on some level, I knew better all along: I went into teaching because of family expectations, and although I'm moderately good at it I was always uncomfortable as a teacher. Likewise, I felt I shouldn't turn down a permanent job because it was "secure" (the Depression-era mentality of my parents!), and, although it was patently wrong for me, I was afraid to quit for the same reason. The collapse of both jobs caused me to question all these assumptions. And Pulley's book helped me to realize that this FREED me to consider what I really wanted to do and what was most important to me in life. A very helpful book for anyone who has been laid off, or who feels he/she might be. ... Read more

Book Description

The highly acclaimed account of one renowned company's labor struggles in its rise to global power. Globalization is the lead story of the new century, but its roots reach back nearly one hundred years, to major corporations' quest for stable, inexpensive, and pliant sources of labor. Before the largest companies moved beyond national boundaries, they crossed state lines, abandoning the industrial centers of the Eastern Seaboard for impoverished rural communities in the Midwest and South. In their wake they left the decaying urban landscapes and unemployment rates that became hallmarks of late-twentieth-century America. This is the story that Jefferson Cowie, in "a stunningly important work of historical imagination and rediscovery" (Nelson Lichtenstein), tells through the lens of a single American corporation, RCA. Capital Moves takes us through the interconnected histories of Camden, New Jersey; Bloomington, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; and Juárez, Mexico—four cities radically transformed by America's leading manufacturer of records and radio sets. In a sweeping narrative of economic upheaval and class conflict, Cowie weaves together the rich detail of local history with the national—and ultimately international—story of economic and social change. 22 black-and-white photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

An Original and Interesting Book!
The other reviewers rightly commend this original, interesting and highly readable book. As this book shows, RCA's readiness to shift factories to areas of cheaper and more tractable labor sowed the seeds of decline for America's consumer electronics industry long before the Japanese onslaught started in the 1960s. Couple this with a series of critical management mistakes, product development failures and hundreds of millions of mis-spent dollars, and you begin to understand why RCA sought out GE as a buyer in 1985. By the mid-1980s RCA management backed the company into a very tight box and it was either voluntarily sell the company or wait for a possible hostile takeover. "Capital Moves" illustrates the grim capitalist logic underlying the processes of globalization -- in RCA's case on a regional and later an international scale.

Related books are Margaret Graham's "RCA and the VideoDisc," Robert Sobel's "RCA," and Alfred Chandler's "The Electronic Century." Although each of these has a diffent purpose and scope, they are all good books about RCA. Jefferson Cowie's "Capital Moves" perfectly complements them and fills a gap in understanding why some American industries "vanished" in a generation. It is a sad story that didn't have to be.

Capital mobility trumps local worker power
"Capital Moves" is both a geographical history of the Radio Corp or America (RCA) from its inception in Camden, NJ in 1929 through its several relocations of factories to various regions of the US and beyond and a work of sociology as it examines the nature of the various local communities and the workforces both before and after the arrival of RCA. RCA, like many industrial concerns in the so-called Rust Belt, has always been concerned with operating in locales with favorable labor relations. It was the community characteristics of having a large pool of unemployed workers with limited wage expectations and no history of industrial activism that impelled RCA to move the production of its consumer products, mostly radios and televisions, from Camden in the 1940s to Bloomington, IN, and ultimately to Juarez, Mexico beginning in the 1970s. But the mass production regimes that were established had the unintended effect of significantly altering the social environments into which they moved.

Certainly anti-unionism triggered some of the plant closings that began in the 1970s in the Rust Belt, but RCA actually tolerated the compliant unionism that they recognized in Bloomington and then in Juarez. It was the very nature of the production process instituted by RCA that triggered the worker discontent that they so ardently sought to avoid. The speedup and deskilling under scientific management, the petty authoritarianism, the ignoring of work rules and job classifications, and gender inequities - all sparked resentment and resistance; but did result in some alleviation of the complaints. But a key point is that the ability of a corporation to invest or disinvest literally globally simply transcends the ability of a locally rooted workforce to counter corporate practices, a point amply demonstrated by RCA.

The author is wont to discuss the broader issue of worker solidarity especially across borders, as in the Mexican border. But it is acknowledged that interpersonal relationships on which worker solidarity is built, not to mention local customs or even language, do not translate well internationally. While the author is most assuredly on track to criticize simplistic protectionism to counter run-away factories, there is no commentary on the feasibility of political solutions that are grounded in working class solidarity. The political knowledge and activity of the various workforces encountered is not discussed. The fragmented pockets of resistance that may be found in local communities regarding corporate policies is simply no match for the ideological consistency and political influence of the capitalist class. Without a broad-based worker politics strong legislation to require corporations to absorb the costs to communities of shutdowns and downsizings and to require enforced labor and environmental standards to be reflected in the cost of imported products will not be attained.

The book is most significant in demonstrating that the cross-border moves to Mexico by RCA were little different from their earlier trans-regional moves. In addition, it was pointed out that NAFTA was only a continuation of Mexico's Border Industrialization Plan of the 1960s where a border zone was constructed that permitted the free import of goods for use in products for immediate export - a plan that RCA exploited. The limitation of place-based worker power is well noted. Yet it is the political sophistication of the workforces explored that would have been of most interest to this reader. It will take political power to counter capital mobility.

RCA Corp. from a Labor/Management Perspective
This book discusses RCA from a different perspective than the book "RCA" by Robert Sobel, instead concentrating on labor-management interactions. RCA started out in Camden, New Jersey, but as labor got more organized the company relocated it's operations to reduce labor costs, first to Bloomington, Indiana, and later to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso. Of particular interest to CED VideoDisc enthusiasts will be the chapters on Bloomington, as that was the location of CED Player manufacturing. RCA announced on March 5, 1984 that VideoDisc player manufacturing was moving to Mexico, but a month later on April 4th the RCA Board of Directors voted to phase out player production completely. The book also discusses the post-RCA era in Bloomington and how conditions deteriorated, particularly under GE and to a lesser degree under Thomson, until electronic manufacturing finally ceased there in 1998.

His Master's Voice: A critical look at RCA
Cornell University's Jefferson Cowie has penned a critical look at the business and labor history of RCA. In this work, Cowie traces the communications giant's business and labor history from the late 20's in Camden, N.J. to Bloomington, Indiana, to Memphis,Tennessee to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Combining interviews with displaced workers with statistical information, the author effectively explains the playing out of a consistent corporate strategy in the company's migration in search of low wages and compliant workers.

Particularly moving is Cowie's examination of the closing of the Bloominton, Indiana factory.Both managers and line workers are given voice in recounting the traumatic experience of plant closing and its subsequent impact on the community.

This significant work should be read by members of any community trying to come to grips with the issues of NAFTA, plant closings, and corporate responsibilty. Cowie has produced a substantial and readable book. ... Read more

Book Description

Improvements in healthcare and quality of life in recent years have led to a marked aging of the world's population, especially in well-developed regions. In the near future, this problem will spread to developing countries. The growing need to promote the health and function of aging workers not only presents new challenges, but also provides exciting new opportunities. The book examines methods for diagnosing and evaluating work ability/employability in response to the changing capacity of employment.The book derives from a Conference on Aging and Work, held in Japan in September 2001. It will be of particular interest to professionals and students in the fields of occupational health, ergonomics, mechanical engineering, work physiology and industrial psychology. ... Read more

Book Description

In this exploration of new possibilities for the reduction of workplace violence and occupational homicide within a variety of work environments, Kelleher examines the crimes of the lethal employee or ex-employee and develops a profile of characteristics and behaviors often associated with workplace violence or murder. This profile, in turn, can be used to recognize potential violence before it occurs, allowing employers to devise early and effective intervention strategies. The author develops the profile of the potentially lethal employee through behavioral science models and an analysis of case histories of incidents of occupational homicide. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good to learn how the man profile us
This is a must have for ex-cons...

I fully admit I am a very violent man.I was convisted for killing one man and attempting to kill the life of two other people.I have also served time for battery, once severly beating an ex-boss.I use to have trouble getting jobs after getting out, partly because I was and really still am a hothead.But also I use to reveal too much of myself and my habits unwittingly.But thanks to this book I now can cover my tracks pretty well and come acress as a very stable, "normal" employee.My current boss doesn't know my history and thinks I am such a great guy.Little does she know what I want to do to her and her company.But all in good time...

A dark and compelling read . . .
This is a companion book to "New Arenas for Violence" and a fascinating journey into the mind and motivations of homicidal employees. If you enjoying profiling, you'll love this book ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Case Study in the Golden Age of PA
First published in 1960, The Forest Ranger is an impressive study of the United States Forest Service. In the book, Kaufman (1960/1967) case studies the behavior of district rangers in the Forest Service and endeavors for an answer to the question of how policies formulated by policy executives are realized into integrated action by a service whose field personnel operate under varied conditions. "Even in agencies with simple, routine responsibilities, welding the behavior of field personnel into integral patterns is often a trying experience" (p. 25). In an agency which is as much dispersed and heterogeneous as the Forest Service, is it possible to secure an integrated and coherent policy implementation across a great number of the districts? If you believe it is impossible, I strongly recommend you to have a look at The Forest Ranger by Herbert Kaufman.

The readers who are familiar with Herbert Simon should remember his masterpiece "Administrative Behavior" in which the author at "theoretical level" demonstrated what takes for the leaders of administrative agencies to direct, manage, and run largely staffed and complex organizations. Simon (1947/1997) spent his intellectual energy for an inquiry into the decision-making process, and knitted his theory around it by developing an impressive understanding that helped the readers to sense that "integrated policy action" depends on the degree that the leaders can control the "environment" of decision-making so that every individual employee in the organization adjusts his/her decisions to common objectives fashioned by policy makers. Organization design, implicitly, stood out as prerequisite for integrated policy action, with "organization design" serving to bring decision premises and necessary data to the attention and use of decision-makers. Herbert Kaufman (1960/1967), in The Forest Ranger, demonstrates vividly how once a "theory" becomes a reality in the case of the United States Forest Service.

I would not want to summarize the case study with the fear that I am likely to discolor a vivid masterpiece. Suffice to say that at present times in which orthodox public administration theory is being transformed by a new body of knowledge and skills, this case study should present (sometimes poignantly) the assumptions, ideals, weaknesses and strengths of orthodox public administration in its "golden age" that has reached a final stage in our contemporary times.

This classic book is organized into seven major chapters. The first chapter gives a summary of research design, data collection and analysis procedures, and the plan of the book. The second chapter makes the reader familiar with the size and complexity of the Forest Service with accompanying challenges to integrated policy action. The third chapter elucidates the challenges to unity that emanate from internal communication problems, the potential for field officers to be captured by local populations, personal preferences of field officers, and the like. In the fourth chapter, Kaufman (1960/1967) gives detail to the procedural devices used by the service leaders in order to "preform" decisions of individual employees (controlling the environment of decision). The fifth chapter shows how the Forest Service executives detect and discourage deviation from official policies. The sixth chapter explains the means by which the Forest Service leaders develop will and capacity in their employees to conform with the policy expectations. The seventh chapter is a conclusion with final remarks on the success level of policies in the Forest Service and ethical-moral implications.

If you are not comfortable with abstract theoretical constructs and need more concrete examples, skip The Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard (1938/1968), Administrative Behavior by Herbert Simon (1947/1997), Organizations in Action by James Thompson (1967) or Leadership in Administration by Philip Selznick (1957/1984), and read Herbert Kaufman. Once you read The Forest Ranger can you return to these masterpieces and I believe you are more likely then to digest their theories and understandings.

If you are not very interested in public administration theory, The Forest Ranger is worth reading even due to its excellence as a case study that would help the readers in designing their own case studies for research purposes.

Overall, I highly recommend this classic to the readers. ... Read more

Book Description

Declining participation in labor unions, the movement toward a service-based economy, and increased globalization have cast doubt on the extent to which welfare states can continue to stem inequality in market economies over the long-term. Does the new economy render existing models of social assistance obsolete? Do traditional welfare states hamper economic and employment growth, thereby worsening the plight of the poor? Lane Kenworthy offers a rigorous empirical analysis of these questions in "Egalitarian Capitalism."The book examines 16 industrialized countries in North America, Western Europe, and Scandinavia—each with different approaches to assisting the poor—to see how successful each has been in developing its economy and curbing inequality over the past twenty years.

Kenworthy finds that inequality grew in almost all of these countries, from the most progressive to the least. Using simple but powerful statistical tests, he assesses the theory that inequality is necessary to improve economic growth and reduce poverty. He finds no necessary trade-off between equality and economic growth but discovers some evidence that high minimum wages dampen employment growth in private sector services. Kenworthy suggests that without greater private sector employment, public supports may be unable to adequately sustain living standards for the poor. An equitable growth strategy necessitates a balance of policy options: Creating jobs is aided by loose employment regulation, low payroll taxes, and, in some cases, lower real wages for workers at the bottom of the income spectrum. However, high employment is also facilitated by a system that "makes work pay" with earnings subsidies, workplace flexibilities, financial support for those who are between jobs or unable to work, and universal health and child care coverage. Kenworthy suggests that these strategies, though generally presented as mutually exclusive, could be effectively combined to create a robust, fair economy.

"Egalitarian Capitalism"addresses fundamental questions of national policy with rigorous scholarship and a clarity that makes it accessible to any reader interested in the alleged trade-off between social equity and market efficiency. The book analyzes the viability of traditional welfare regimes and offers sustainable options that can promote egalitarian societies without hampering economic progress. ... Read more

Book Description

The promise of upward mobility – the notion that everyone has the chance to get ahead – is one of this country's most cherished ideals, a hallmark of the American Dream. But in today's volatile labor market, the tradition of upward mobility for all may be a thing of the past. In a competitive world of deregulated markets and demanding shareholders, many firms that once offered the opportunity for advancement to workers have remade themselves as leaner enterprises with more flexible work forces. Divergent Paths examines the prospects for upward mobility of workers in this changed economic landscape. Based on an innovative comparison of the fortunes of two generations of young, white men over the course of their careers, Divergent Paths documents the divide between the upwardly mobile and the growing numbers of workers caught in the low-wage trap.

The first generation entered the labor market in the late 1960s, a time of prosperity and stability in the U.S. labor market, while the second generation started work in the early 1980s, just as the new labor market was being born amid recession, deregulation, and the weakening of organized labor. Tracking both sets of workers over time, the authors show that the new labor market is more volatile and less forgiving than the labor market of the 1960s and 1970s. Jobs are less stable, and the penalties for failing to find a steady employer are more severe for most workers. At the top of the job pyramid, the "new nomads" – highly credentialed, well-connected workers – regard each short-term project as a springboard to a better-paying position, while at the bottom, a growing number of retail workers, data entry clerks, and telemarketers, are consigned to a succession of low-paying, dead-end jobs.

While many commentators dismiss public anxieties about job insecurity as overblown, Divergent Paths carefully documents hidden trends in today's job market which confirm many of the public's fears. Despite the celebrated job market of recent years, the authors show that the old labor market of the 1960s and 1970s propelled more workers up the earnings ladder than does today's labor market. Divergent Paths concludes with a discussion of policy strategies, such as regional partnerships linking corporate, union, government, and community resources, which may help repair the career paths that once made upward mobility a realistic ambition for all American workers.

Annette Bernhardt is Senior Research Associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Martina Morris is the Blumstein-Jordan Professor of Sociology and Statistics at the University of Washington, Seattle. Mark S. Handcock is Professor of Statistics and Sociology in the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle. Marc A. Scott is Assistant Professor of Educational Statistics at the School of Education, New York University. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume collects the voices of the critics, the defenders, the revolutionaries, and especially the workers who have testified to the value of work and the organization of labor throughout history. The book addresses a wide range of labor themes and includes brief profiles of prominent labor leaders, archival photographs, drawings, and contemporary cartoons. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Excellent historical insight
This book is more than just interesting quotes. I gained much more insight into the history of the American labor movement. People's words can be very effective in giving later generations a sense of what really happened. This book offers much to think about. I was struck by the contrasts of courage and pain, strength and cynicism that were evoked by the quotations of real people.

Excellent historical insight
This book is more than just interesting quotes. I gained much more insight into the history of the American labor movement. People's words can be very effective in giving later generations a sense of what really happened. This book offers much to think about. I was struck by the contrasts of courage and pain, strength and cynicism that were evoked by the quotations of real people.

An excellent full-spectrum labor quote reference.
This is a labor quotation sourcebook and provides an intriguing survey of issues of work and labor drawn from the experiences of the American labor movement. Writers and speakers will find this packed with quotes organized by topic, from civil rights, economics, politics and the law to the corporate world and unemployment. An excellent reference.

inspirational
This book is a wonderful source of inspirational quotations. Through the words of plain folks and great thinkers, you are continually reminded of the spirit of hope and the advancement of the state of working people. The first chapter, This Working Life, has quotes beginning with the Bible and continuing with voices throughout history and from all over the world. The other 16 chapters are more prominently by Americans and about the labor movement. There is a lot more here than quotations. There are short biographies of labor leaders. Photographs and cartoons illustrate issues like unemployment, global competition, and working conditions. The book is a great reminder of how far the average worker has come in the last 100 years, how the fight for a decent living never ends, and how these issues effect all of us. Union members will find the resource directories helpful in finding many more information sources. Overall, a very well thought out book that's captivating and a good resource.

learn a lot
This book delivers a lot more than a collection of quotations about work and the labor movement. Quotations are divided into 17 chapters that cover work issues in everything from Politics and Union Organizing to professional Sports.There's 19th century drawings, photographs and current cartoons that address the issues covered by the quotations. Visually, the book looks like a labor of love--each page is outlined with quotation graphics, and drawings and photos are handled well. To summarize, this book is a great source for quotations; they're easy to track down through 3 different indexes. But what is surprizing is all the history that's presented through the quotations, citations, author comments, and biographies of labor leaders. It's great fun and a very rewarding book. I savored it a few pages at a time. ... Read more

Book Description

You lost your job six months ago. You've e-mailed 90 resumes. You've scoured the job boards and the help wanted ads. You've called recruiters, old bosses, former coworkers . . . but nothing. You're scared. You're beginning to think there are no jobs out there. But there ARE jobs. And you can get one of them-if you're willing to try the job search technique that most people are too timid to try.

If you're one of the 9 million Americans looking for a job, you don't want to go 12 to 24 months without a job offer (as many do). The trick is to tap into the hidden job market-where 90 percent of the jobs really are!

Get Hired Fast! shows you how to use a direct calling strategy that will generate at least three interviews in three weeks. It gives you a 15-day Action Plan, complete with charts, scripts, and other tools that will enable you to use the direct-calling technique like a professional.

Get Hired Fast! shows you:

Amazon.com

When there were no opportunities for women in the sciences, it was assumed they had no aptitude for the work. Even today, our tendency is to explain the gender gap by pointing out cognitive differences between men and women, overlooking the powerful societal pressures that guide young people into--and away from--certain careers. Convinced that "women must know more than how to use technology; they must know how to design and create it," Jane Margolis, a social scientist, and Allan Fisher, a computer scientist and college dean, devised a four-year study (involving some 230 interviews) at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. They found that the seven percent of female undergraduates at the college started out with as much excitement and talent as their male counterparts, but often wilted early on, perceiving that male students had come to college far better prepared than they had. "The study of computer science education can be seen as a microcosm of how a realm of power can be claimed by one group of people," the authors argue, "relegating others to outsiders." Happily, thanks to their efforts, female enrollment is up at Carnegie Mellon, and more women are remaining in the field. The racial divide in computer science is as pronounced as the gender gap, however, and would benefit from studies like the one described in Unlocking the Clubhouse. Surely the door can be pried open for blacks and Hispanics as well. --Regina Marler ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Impressive Results & an Excellent Source of Ideas
I have referred many people to this book as a first class
evaluation of gender differences in technical education
presented along with concrete and practical suggestions on
how to improve. After more than 20 years in the
computer industry, it is a pleasure to read a book that
presents so well the challenges that most young women face
when starting in Engineering.

Illuminating and Inspiring
I found this book both illuminating and inspiring. Based on extensive qualitative research, the authors suggest numerous reasons for the fairly low proportion of women computer science students. They propose some strategies for balancing the numbers and describe the remarkable success of those strategies at Carnegie Mellon University. This book led me to change my own teaching practices in ways that should benefit all of my students, male or female.

Is this really necessary?
The book is an example of research addressing the general question: "Why oh why are other people not passing their lives in a way that I, the researcher, deem appropriate?" There may be a book-length explanation to that, but then again, maybe they just don't feel like it.

Explaining the Lack of Women in Computer Science Majors
This is an important book for everyone concerned about the causes and consequences of the nation's failure to attract undergraduate women into computer science. Margolis and Fishers' well-structured, longitudinal study is the first to explore multiple dimensions of this issue in careful detail, and their findings counter causal myths (e.g., about the "natural" distribution of interest and aptitude) that can inhibit or
misdirect remedial efforts. Some roots of the recruitment problem lie in the inequities of pre-college access to computer experience; some (as other research has shown) reflect the gendered character of IT industry products that target children and young people. As a result, few of those female students who possess strong mathematical, linguistic, or logical thinking skills enter college with sufficient disciplinary knowledge and experience to entertain computer science as a major. They may also have limited information about the range of careers open to CS graduates.

As the study also documents, women who do enter CS majors (approximately 15% of this student population) are apt to be discouraged by the misogyny of the peer culture (which varies from, but is related to, that documented in other science majors). They are often strongly distanced from the geek persona that they (wrongly) perceive to be a requirement for success. The emergence of CS as a discipline that defines itself in conceptual, theoretical, and technical terms, and somewhat avoids functional application or customer-programmer negotiation, also reduces the appeal of the major to those women who are primarily interested in what they can do with computers. This group looks elsewhere (e.g., cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction institutes) in order to pursue their interest in computing with a more human focus.

As Margolis and Fishers' evidence also shows, elements in the traditional socialization of girls leave US women students at greater risk--either than their male peers or than international women students--of quitting CS classes, or the major, despite adequate or good academic performances. Experiencing insufficient personal encouragement from faculty and active discouragement from some male peers, perfectly competent women begin to doubt that they belong in the major, lose confidence, and leave. Foreign women were found to be less deterred either by these elements in the CS culture, or by their low entering levels of CS experience.

The authors discuss the relative importance of these causal factors and describe the interventions developed at their study site (Carnegie Mellon University) to address each of them. They also discuss the serious global consequences of failure to address gender disparity in IT as a discipline and as an industry, namely, a constant bias in product
development that both misses and mistakes customer needs, and perpetuation of a cycle in which half of the world's talent is diverted from this central field of human endeavor.

If you want to make a difference in this field, first read this book.

The definitive book on the subject!
This engaging book describes some of the best research I've seen in the 30 years I've worked in the area of increasing the participation of girls and women in math, science and technology. Now folks, it's past time to put what we know into action! Read the book and get inspired. ... Read more

Book Description

The dramatic effects of downsizing, mergers, and reengineering have created a climate of fear in the workplace, fears that generally go unacknowledged. The Alchemy of Fear teaches us how to accept our emotions in order to become empowered and to take back our power over these fears. Our emotions are rich with information which could make our organizations run effectively, while freeing creativity, energy, and joy into our workplaces.

The Alchemy of Fear is a handbook for action. Drawn from the author's extensive experience, it examines workplace fear, what emotional competence looks like at work, how we handle fears at work, and the love and energy that result when we do these things. Nothing improves a group's effectiveness or their spirit more quickly than changing the relationship members have with fear.

Kay Gilley brings nearly 30 years experience working in general and human resource management to her current work as a leadership and organizational development consultant, specializing in guiding the development of leaders and what she calls "intentional organizations."

· Increased effectiveness by learning to work with fear
· Empowerment through regaining the power of love
· Emotional competence in the workplace ... Read more

Book Description

Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers focuses on controversial issues in current Holocaust scholarship. How did Nazi Jewish policy evolve during the first years of the war? When did the Nazi regime cross the historic watershed from population expulsion and decimation ("ethnic cleansing") to total and systematic extermination? How did Nazi authorities attempt to reconcile policies of expulsion and extermination with the wartime urge to exploit Jewish labor? How were Jewish workers impacted? What role did local authorities play in shaping Nazi policy? What more can we learn about the mindset and behavior of the local perpetrators? Using new evidence, this book attempts to shed light on these important questions.Christopher R. Browning is the Frank Porter Graham Professor of History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is the author of The Path to Genocide (Cambridge University Press 1992) and Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, which received the Jewish National Book Award. ... Read more

Book Description

The twelve essays in this volume propose new directions in the analysis of class. John R. Hall argues that recent historical and intellectual developments require reworking basic assumptions about classes and their dynamics. The contributors effectively abandon the notion of a transcendent class struggle. They seek instead to understand the historically contingent ways in which economic interests are pursued under institutionally, socially, and culturally structured circumstances.

In his introduction, Hall proposes a neo-Weberian venue intended to bring the most promising contemporary approaches to class analysis into productive exchange with one another. Some of the chapters that follow rework how classes are conceptualized. Others offer historical and sociological reflections on questions of class identity. A third cluster focuses on the politics of class mobilizations and social movements in contexts of national and global economic change.

Contributors RICHARD BIERNACKI, University of California, San Diego WILLIAM BRUSTEIN, University of Minnesota MICHAEL DONNELLY, University of New Hampshire JOHN R. HALL, University of California, Davis J. CRAIG JENKINS, Ohio State University PATRICK JOYCE, University of Manchester MICHELE LAMONT, Princeton University KEVIN LEICHT, University of Iowa SONYA O. ROSE, University of Michigan JAN C. C. RUPP, Amsterdam School for Social Science Research MARGARET SOMERS, University of Michigan GEORGE STEINMETZ, University of Chicago DALE TOMICH, SUNY Binghamton JOHN WALTON, University of California, Davis ERIK OLIN WRIGHT, University of Wisconsin ... Read more

Book Description

Americans today often associate scientific and technological change with progress and personal well-being. Yet underneath our confident assumptions lie serious questions. In Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs? Amy Sue Bix locates the origins of this confusion in the Great Depression, when the social and economic crisis forced many Americans to re-examine ideas about science, technology, and progress. Growing fear of "technological unemployment"—the idea that increasing mechanization displaced human workers—prompted widespread discussion about the meaning of progress in the new Machine Age. In response, promoters of technology mounted a powerful public relations campaign: in advertising, writings, speeches, and World Fair exhibits, company leaders and prominent scientists and engineers insisted that mechanization ultimately would ensure American happiness and national success.

Emphasizing the cultural context of the debate, Bix concentrates on public perceptions of work and technological change: the debate over mechanization turned on ideology, on the way various observers in the 1930s interpreted the relationship between technology and American progress. Although similar concerns arose in other countries, Bix highlights what was unique about the American response. In her concluding chapters and epilogue, Bix shows how the issue changed during World War II and in postwar America and brings the debate forward to show its relevance to modern readers. ... Read more