Book Description

Train self-directed teams in just 23 high-impact sessions. With Team Training: From Startup to High Performance, any trainer can transform a traditional hierarchical department or work group into a confident, productive, fully self-directed work team. Designed for teams at any stage of development-from beginning to intermediate to advanced-Carl Harshman and Steve Phillips' 23 self-contained skill-building training modules deliver an easy-to-use lesson plan, trainer's notes, and pop-out reproducible handouts. Each module can be conducted in just 1 to 3 hours and packs all the materials and activity suggestion you need to teach team skills, spark lively group interaction, and assess ongoing team progress and performance. You also get instructions for adapting each module to fit even the tightest schedules. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Most Comprehensive Team Training Book on the Market
This book is easily the most comprehensive of its type on the market. The paperback price is a bargain when considering the volume of instructive text and hands-on exercises that can be done with teams at all stages. Don't pass this one up! ... Read more

Book Description

Now translated into 11 languages! This reader-friendly, icon-rich series is must reading for all managers at every level

All managers, whether brand new to their positions or well established in the corporate heirarchy, can use a little "brushing up" now and then. The skills-based Briefcase Books series is filled with ideas and strategies to help managers become more capable, efficient, effective, and valuable to their corporations.

A workplace environment should be upbeat and inspire superior employee commitment, morale, and performance. Building a High Morale Workplace provides dozens of techniques and examples for making any workplace a community, instead of a corporation. It shows managers how to help employees foster a genuine bond with an employer, turn around a negative workplace, create and sustain a positive attitude, and more.

Reviews (4)

Outstanding!
Anne Bruce has her thumb on the heartbeat of human nature. Her latest book "Building A High Morale Workplace" transcends corporate walls and infiltrates any business environment that demands human interaction, which in today's society is all of them.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants an instant surge of energy and posses the desire to implement techniques that will engage and inspire your team.

Thank you Anne Bruce, you have helped me to see the limitless opportunity, for the first time all over again!

A must read for all modern managers!!
Anne Bruce is a great author who has written a book that has a message that is both easy to digest and also easy to apply to the modern workplace. Her style is smooth and all of her chapters build towards helping the reader understand the importance of improving morale in the workplace. Her examples are interesting, her teachings meaningful and her conclusions insightful. Morale building made easy .... what a great thought. I heartily recommend this well-written book to all Managers!!

Building A High Morale Workplace
Anne Bruce's "Building A High Morale Workplace" is a must read for anyone truly interested in making their work environment a happy and productive place. Her use of the Management experiences of others together with specific steps for implementing morale building procedures will prove to be an invaluable resource.

Essential to Management Success
This book flows great. I've read all of Anne's books and, just as I am with her others, I'm very impressed with this one. It flows great. I really feel like, as the author, Anne is sitting across the table from me talking me through each step. It's practical, real-world (just like all her work)and completely relevant for any manager who is committed to making "high morale a high priority". ... Read more

Book Description

Completely revised and updated version of a classic resource. This new edition of Jean Kummerow's ground-breaking book is an invaluable career planning guide for human resource professionals, employers, and counselors. It offers a compendium of the most current thinking and practice from experts on the impact of technology and the new demographics on the changing workplace, new approaches to career and life planning, work-life balance, values clarification, multicultural career counseling, and new applications of the Strong Interest Inventory and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instruments.

Each chapter provides examples and exercises to use with clients in developing success strategies for the new millennium. New to this edition are an exploration of six cutting-edge business trends that drive change in the workplace, information about the characteristics that will define the workforce in 2010, practical strategies for overcoming common career dilemmas, an innovative framework that weaves work and life into a meaningful whole, a creative model that helps determine life and workplace values, tactics for integrating personal and work life that will improve overall life quality, and more. ... Read more

Book Description

Learning to respond effectively to the increasingly diverse business environment! We all confront and respond to various forms of diversity every day. The ability to recognize and respond to diversity of all kinds is a skill needed for success in and around business organizations today. This book, now available from Waveland Press, focuses on the challenge of how individuals and organizations can address and adapt to diversity effectively, efficiently and productively. Although no text can raise and address every potential manifestation of diversity, this casebook provides a tool kit of perspectives and critical thinking skills that help develop the individual and organizational abilities needed to reap the benefits of diversity. It also offers a series of case examples wherein the reader can begin to practice the application of these perspectives and skills. Finally, it offers an approach to self-assessment regarding one's own individual leadership motivations and readiness around the topic of diversity. The habits of critical thought and respectful openness that readers learn from these readings and cases will prove useful--even critical--for success, not only in an increasingly diverse business environment but also in an increasingly complex and diverse world. ... Read more

Book Description

Laurie Beth Jones has given hundreds of thousands of business readers insight into how the ideas of Jesus can be used to enhance performance. One of the most critical work areas for anyone, whether a manager or a CEO, a teacher or a pastor, is cooperative teamwork. Leaders today face their greatest challenges not only in defining strategies and getting updated information but also in getting diverse human beings to pull together without falling apart.

Jesus can be a role model for team leaders everywhere. When Jesus called out to his future disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he transformed them from people who worked for themselves to people who were part of a larger team. Jesus was constantly exhorting his people to “gather in my name” and “go out two by two” and always think and pray “as one.”Jesus’ final prayer was “that they might be one, Father, even as you and I are one,” which is ultimately about union and communion, common values and purpose—all of which form the bedrock of an inspired team.

Teach Your Team to Fish offers dozens of stories from the Bible showing how Jesus managed his team of disciples and other followers, with suggestions for how to apply these lessons to real-world teambuilding and management problems. It offers guidance and inspiration on:

* how to excite your team in order to motivate them;
* how to ground them so they’ll be realistic about what can be achieved;
* how to transform them into a truly well-functioning team;
* and how to release them into the world to improve other teams elsewhere.

Along the way, the book gives examples of companies in which teams work well together and offers lessons that can help team leaders everywhere sustain themselves and achieve their common goals. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

unbelievable
I am French and for us it is unbelievable how in the US religion and management could be mixed. This book is a good example. It is nice to read it even if some chapters are a bit strange : "He (Jesus) understood mergers and acquisitions" using as an example "a sower went out to sow ...".

Teach Your Team to Fish
This book is a wonderful tool for focusing on the importance of your relationship with the people in your team or your employees. It gives a simple, easy to read, but important message on working with people using the example of Jesus and his disciples. I highly recommend it to anyone who manages/supervises people including children! Well written and well worth the read. ... Read more

Book Description

What are the secrets of successful teams? Why do some teams achieve remarkable success while others fail or are consigned to mediocrity? To find the answers, Carl E. Larson and Frank M. J. LaFasto conducted a three-year study of teams and team achievement. Interviewing a wide range of teams, including the space shuttle Challenger investigation team, executive management teams and a championship football team, Larson and LaFasto discovered a surprising consistency in the characteristics of effective teams.

In Teamwork, they explore the eight properties of successful teams: a clear, elevating goal; a results-driven structure; competent team members; unified commitment; collaborative climate; standards of excellence; external support and recognition; and principled leadership. A final chapter examines the priority of the steps that lead to the building of a high performance team. The authors strive to make the concepts concrete, coupling solid theory with straightforward, practical advice on how to apply it and with lively, fascinating anecdotes.

The volume will appeal to practitioners, scholars, and advanced students in the areas of organization studies and management, as well as interpersonal communication.

"We believe it is an important book that will be very useful to the sport psychology community. Its brief and readable nature makes it an ideal supplementary text for courses in the social psychology of sport or sport-related group dynamics. It could also be used in research methods courses to provide insight into qualitative data collection procedures. In addition, coaches and mental skills consultants will find much valuable information here about the evaluation and enhancement of team functioning. Finally, researchers will be intrigued by Larson and LaFasto's eight-category framework and their brief description of a rating-scale instrument designed to assess these dimensions of team effectiveness. Given this diversity of potential uses, we urge our colleagues to examine Teamwork for themselves."
--The Sport Psychologist

"(A) superb effort conducted by the authors. . . . A must read."
--HR Planning Newsletter

"Teamwork attempts an ambitious goal in a small number of pages and succeeds quite well. . . . The authors have useful and interesting things to say--things that fit well with what other studies and authors have concluded and with what the teams they studied experienced and concluded. A prime audience for this book would be managers and team members with a modest 'academic bent' who want guidance on how to make their teams work more effectively and who are willing to listen to the reasons why the authors make their suggestions and how they reach their conclusions. Students and academics who are looking for a wise and balanced attempt to capture what we seem to be learning about what works in groups should also find this refreshingly short volume valuable."
--Journal of Management

"Larson and LaFasto provide a brief, efficient, and well-focused checklist of principles for managing group processes. The authors report on the results of a relatively systematic, 3-year program on in-depth interviews with participants from 'successful teams'--e.g., a Mount Everest expedition; DeBakey-Cooley cardiac surgery teams; a Notre Dame championship football team; several business executive and project management teams; Presidential cabinets; and disaster response teams--to come up with some '. . . distinguishing features of effectively functioning teams. . . .' Practicing managers should have no difficulty identifying with anecdotes described in this book. A list of characteristics parallels the chapter outlines of this good organizational behavior textbook written from a management process perspective. . . . It is hard to imagine a more efficient way to capture the fundamentals than the way Larson and LaFasto have done it. Newly appointed supervisors without a formal organizational behavior and management process course--and any practicing manager who could use a quick brushup--will find this guidebook useful."
--Human Resource Planning

"Teamwork [is] one of the best and most concise handbooks on team management around. No one interested in teamwork should miss reading this guide."
--The Learning Edge ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Rational Approach to Teamwork
There's an enormous amount of reading material on teams and teamwork and this book is one of the best.Its highly rational approach condenses studies of high performing teams.The authors found eight common characteristics and explain in enough detail why they are important.They include excerpts from the leaders and teams they have studied.They also state that the two most common reasons for team failure are politics and personal agendas.They include a quote from Duke Drake: "The minute the politicians take over and start worrying about what's in it for me, you're dead in the water."

Teams are the only way to address our increasingly interrelated and complex problems.In practice teamwork is rare and the reason may be that many managers advance due to their political ability.I doubt that upper managers will ever be able to truly give up the skills that brought them there.

A enjoyable and useful book
These authors studied all different sorts of teams (everything from a Mount Everest expedition and a Notre Dame championship football teams to the group that invented Chicken McNuggets) in order to determine what they had in common. The book is highly readable and describes eight common principles that could be implemented to improve the function of any team. It is also full of interesting comments and stories from the study. I highly recommend the book for any team member (not only managers) since the book also clearly describes how the individal can influence the success of the entire team.

Top-shelf book on teams. A foundation text.
Larson and LaFasto put their outstanding research into easy-to-understand language. The book is foundation reading for executives and team members who want to understand the key variables that spell success for teams. Andit's an easy-reading 138 pages presented so anyone (5th grade readinglevel!) can understand their findings. I know the authors, and have theutmost respect for their scientific methodology and experience. We use thematching team/ leadership assessment and training program to help clientorganizations plan, build, and fix their teams. Really an excellent reader,and a foundation of our consulting practice. ... Read more

Book Description

Leadership based on faith in God makes for good works, fulfilled workers, and healthy organizations. In this important guide, respected leaders from diverse organizations show how faithfulness and leadership can not only comfortably coincide but successfully combine. They offer real-world examples of how authentic faithfulness supports an organization's mission, informs core leadership values, provides wisdom for thriving in a chaotic environment, teaches us to share power, and moves us to mentor the next generation of faithful leaders.

Sponsored by the De Pree Leadership Center at Fuller Theological Seminary, Faith in Leadership skillfully merges the hands-on experiences of leaders from broadly varied fields with current research on workplace dynamics. Leaders looking for wisdom on how to live out their faith at work will find Faith in Leadership a pragmatic and inspiring guide. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Highly recommend
I do a lot of teaching in the area of leadership - this will be a classic - in my opinion. Robert Banks and the many other contributors, come from a wide range of backgrounds and professions. This book was refreshing - in that the writers actually wrote some new and refreshing thoughts. They have truely written outside the box. ... Read more

Book Description

The 20 Keys system does more than just bring together twenty ofthe world's top manufacturing improvement approaches - it integratesthese individual methods into a closely interrelated system forrevolutionizing every aspect of your manufacturing organization. Thisrevised edition of Kobayashi's bestseller amplifies the synergisticpower of raising the levels of all these critical areas simultaneously.The new edition presents upgraded criteria for the five-level scoringsystem in most of the 20 Keys, supporting your progress toward becomingnot only best in your industry but best in the world. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

this is the world class journey!
This is probably the finest book of the world class journey ever written, not in theory, but the things we have to do to keep on the journey. Prof Kobayashi brings to light the 20 different skills in a broad perspective that any organization can use effectively to make the journey possible. To truly understand the subtle secrets you will eventually read this book 20 times. You will be so inspired by the graphics you will go to Japan to find the deep rooted meanings of the content, as the processes behind them (2o keys) are a culture in their own right! Enjoy your personal world class journey by starting with yourself!!!

Straight forward approach to increased productivity
This is must reading for all production personnel interested in understanding how to obtain more throughtput from existing resources. The twenty steps are proven techniques and you do not need an advanced degree or significant training to fully implement these methods for reducing costs of inventory, maintenance, loss time searching for tools or components. Should be on every consultants desk and is must reading for all line managers. Principles can be applied to all operating groups not just production organizations. You will not be disappointed, but surprised at the simplicity and the quick results ... Read more

Book Description

Peter Drucker, renowned business author and consultant, and Jack Welch, the most respected CEO in the United States today, have both stated that productivity is the number one issue facing corporations. Best-selling author and trainer Jack Zenger agrees, and shows that productivity gains can result only if people work smarter, not longer. That can only happen where management creates a work environment that supports and motivates the creativity and innovation their employees have to offer. The problems? 1. Productivity is far below where it could and should be. 2. The average executive believes their organization is functioning at about 60% of potential. 3. Only a handful of companies have any organized effort to address productivity improvement. Zenger's conclusion? People are the key. Firms that employ knowledge and service workers are able to borrow the same money, share many of the same technologies and have access to the same pools of raw materials and supplies as their competitors. How then can any company outdistance the competition in productivity improvement? The only way to distinguish yourself from the competition and move ahead of the pack is to utilize the natural resource you already have, the critical resource which most companies all too often ignore: People! Using straightforward language and examples culled from 40 years of helping companies to improve productivity, Zenger uncovers the human side of the productivity equation and offers concrete suggestions and 22 specific steps to creating a new era of workplace productivity and profitability. ... Read more

Book Description

Geared toward management, this book explores the benefits of a well-planned organizational wellness program. Case studies and exercises outline the components of an effective health program and its often unappreciated contribution to business success. ... Read more

Book Description

This useful resource provides proven methods for preventing and managing violence in the workplace-helping companies in the development of a sound violence-prevention plan. Managers and employees will learn how to recognize signs and indicators of potential violence, how to deal with explosive situations, and what steps to take after an eruption has occurred. Case examples illustrate these problems, and new laws and principles are examined. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The human side of workplace violence
Baron's book gives the reader a comprehensive review of the human side of workplace violence in an easy-reading format. The first few chapters review a variety of national incidents and how the events affected victims, friends, relatives, co-workers, and the organizations where the violent incidents took place. Perhaps the most helpful part of Baron's book is his inclusion of Maslow's hierarchy which helps the reader to understand why some people behave in threatening or violent ways. The second half of the book covers prevention, hiring practices, training, and how to change employee behaviors to prevent violence. This is a great book to keep in your reference library or to use as a quick refresher when faced with an employee who shows signs of potential violence or uncivil behavior. I highly suggest reading the book if you are involved with drafting a workplace violence policy. ... Read more

Book Description

Alternative workstyles can be a way to attract, retain, and motivate talented employees

"Enlightening, enjoyable, and extremely practical . . . offers real clarity about what is wrong with the way most companies work, plus exact directions on how to fix each and every office foolishness. Do what Froggatt says and watch your employees productivity rise."--Scott Shuster, BusinessWeek

Corporate and individual resistance to new ways of working are often imbedded within a company's culture--and can stifle change and hinder productivity. Organized around eight simple yet critical principles of the new workplace, Work Naked challenges long-held beliefs about the appropriate time, place, look, and feel of productivity in the knowledge era, showing how a wealth of hidden potential can be released by giving employees the freedom to work how, when, and where they want. Cindy Froggatt suggests workplace options that can help balance work and personal life, and helps managers address the needs of the many knowledge workers who require a greater degree of autonomy to perform, create, and innovate. She presents numerous examples of companies of different sizes and types that have instituted telework or alternative programs--and clearly explains the benefits and pitfalls of implementing them.

Cindy Froggatt (New York, NY) is Principal of Froggatt Consulting, whose clients include Compaq, Mercedes-Benz, Capital One, and Nova Corporation. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Let Go! Create a New Kind of Workplace
Let go. That's the message to corporate leaders who have decades of reinforcement that their job is to control the people who work for them. There's a new game in town-a new way of operating that releases creativity, boosts productivity, and drives more profit to the bottom line.

This new approach involves stripping away the old ways of thinking about managing. It means removing policies that inhibit employees in their self-driven initiatives to do truly amazing things. The new approach suggests that people can work from anywhere without the traditional trappings to achieve results far beyond current reality. In a phrase, the new approach allows people to work naked, without constraints. Froggatt, a consultant specializing in aligning workplace strategies with business plans, describes the process as "shedding the layers" of control, overwork, conformity, hierarchy, poor communication, geography, and unproductive work environments to release the bonds.

While explaining the problems, Froggatt presents the principles that can empower a leadership team to change the way their company does business. Eight simple principles: initiative, trust, joy, individuality, equality, dialogue, connectivity, and workplace options. Some leaders will read this book and stick it on a shelf to gather dust. Others will really "get" the message and will transform their organizations. With the content of this book, and the way it is presented, transformation will not be that difficult . . . for the enlightened leaders. Unfortunately, we have far too few leaders who fit into that category. Hopefully this book will win a few more converts.

Do not expect policies, contracts, procedures, systems, and all that sort of garbage in these pages. No, this book is about people and principles. The pages are rich with concrete examples that will be an inspiration to readers who are inclined to adhere to the concept of working naked. Checklists, bullet-point lists, charts, diagrams, and plenty of chapter subheads make this book superbly readable. Adding to the value of "Work Naked" is an astonishingly detailed 13-page index and a index-like list of the companies profiled in the book. Over ten pages of chapter notes await you at the end of the book and a concise summary awaits you at the end of each chapter.

I read this book with a high degree of interest, from my perspective as co-author of "Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People." Our book talks about the coming severe labor shortage and how many companies are headed for extinction. "Work Naked" supplies the treasure map for employers who want to avoid extinction and thrive instead.
Highly recommended!

WORK FLEXIBILITY
The virtual office/organizations have been a concept that has received a lot of attention in the last decade but has had a hard time surfacing as a viable option. According to the author, the reason for this being businesses and management insist on using the same management principles in a changing environment. This leads to frustration and failure of an idea that can be fruitful to so many.

Work Naked simply implies that as individuals, your employees have different personalities and different work methods and to be a successful manager you must take the differences and make them work for you. This can include allowing your employees to work different hours, flexible shifts and from home or a combination of all of these options. To achieve success Froggatt proposes eight principles that must be addressed.

1.Initiative-Overcoming the fear of change and becoming change agents.
2.Trust-Achieving confidence in the management-employee relationship.
3.Joy-Creating a work environment that is enjoyable in atmosphere and attitude.
4.Individuality-Creating a culture of autonomy creativity versus conformity.
5.Equality-Flattening the hierarchy so cooperation and teamwork can flourish.
6.Dialogue-Providing an honest communication forum to inspire and inform.
7.Connectivity-Optimize technological advantages, including employee locale.
8.Workplace Options-Provide comfort /creative setting for all work locations.

I found this book to be a very pokerfaced voice for change. Each principal demands respect from all levels of management and staff.

The eight principles taught in the book can be useful to any work environment, even if virtual workplaces are not incorporated. The most important theme in the book is flexibility. The principles are based in a human resources frame as the goal is employee empowerment. However, with this empowerment or lack thereof can bring success or failure to the businesses.

Most organizations have traditionally been based in a brick and mortar setting where the organization as a structure is valued above all. I see the organizations of tomorrow to be more information centric or knowledge based. Before reading this book, I had not given careful consideration to the implications of this statement. Now I can see that if we wanted to, most service related organization could venture into the virtual workplace if proper facilities like phone, Internet and computers available.

After reading this book I actually made a few informal interviews with colleagues and asked them if they honesty needed to be at work for forty or more hours a week. Most said they spent their time working on proposals and documents on their computers, answering e-mail reference questions and other work that did not require being physically present. I then took it a step farther and asked if they would be open to a FLEXIBLE schedule in which they worked 8 hours shifts on the desk but only worked 2 OR 3 days physically at office with the rest being at home. After a few strange looks and careful consideration most staff said that it would help them be with their kids more, schedule doctor appointments and avoid the commute.

As Work Naked shows, you can accomplish wonders if you provide the initiative, the training and the supports to your staff. Work Naked is not steeped in theory. It is not a book that scholars will debate for years to come, but it will provide interesting conversation. For each principle listed there are case studies of real company situations to show an example of why the principle is important. At the end of the book there are resources listed to help companies get more information on making the switch. Cynthia Foggart believes in taking the bull by the horns and getting the job done. The only fault I have with this is a fairly negative attitude to the workplace environment as a whole. There are some bonuses to corporate culture and there are some individuals that are at their best in that environment. Their needs should not be shunned. Also, the book does not delve into any of the new issues that might come up in a virtual work environment. Managers need to find another book to help them resolve those issues. In a nutshell the book is good read but a lot of cons of a virtual organization could have been presented...

A compendium of virtual work advice, a little one-sided
Do you work naked? If you're one of the millions of people who work away from the corporate office much of the time you might. Or you might follow a strict routine of showering and dressing first thing. As Cynthia Froggatt argues in detail, non-traditional working practices vary tremendously - but eight principles can help employees and managers alike shape those practices for improved satisfaction *and* effectiveness. Making the change from traditional, regimented working practices to "virtual workplace" practices can be difficult but the rewards can be great. Froggatt's principles cover the issues thoroughly.

To ensure that working away from the office (whether at home, a coffee shop or library, a client's office, or elsewhere) increases productivity without causing anxiety on either side, this book recommends these guidelines:
Initiative: Overcoming the fear of change and becoming change agents - Froggatt provides a checklist for uncovering obstacles to peak performance in the virtual workplace.
Trust: Achieving confidence in the management-employee relationship - this requires doing away with the layers of outdated performance measures. A real concern is the "input bias" according to which managers evaluate workers more highly based on what they see rather than on what is actually produced.
Joy: Creating a work environment that is enjoyable in atmosphere and attitude. Even if your company is not considering allowing or encouraging virtual work, the points discussed under this principle could help improve your workforce's motivation and commitment.
Individuality - Creating a culture of autonomy creativity versus conformity. Froggatt outlines three types of solo workstyle, effectively demolishing the idea that virtual work equals working in a home office.
Equality - Flattening the hierarchy so cooperation and teamwork can flourish. Perhaps the principle least specifically tied to virtual work, this one promotes the removal of all forms of hierarchy which, ironically, may be less influential for those who aren't often in the office to experience them.
Dialogue - Providing an honest communication forum to inspire and inform. Even more than for regular workplaces, virtual work relies on open, honest communication.
Connectivity - Optimize technological advantages, including employee locale. This principle is all about equipping your virtual workforce to enable people to take full, productive advantage of increased flexibility.

Workplace Options - Provide comfort /creative setting for all work locations. Here, Froggatt goes some way to redressing the emphasis on virtual work by stating that both the physical infrastructure of workplaces and the technological infrastructure of online work are crucial to the emerging environment of virtual work. Workplaces of the future are being shaped by six trends, argues Froggatt: Access will become more important than ownership; People will commute less but travel more; Individual choice takes precedence over management control; No more captive audience at "the office"; More attention to workplaces in the home; Blurring of leisure and work.

Drawing on companies such as Cisco Systems, Autodesk, Verifone, The Promar Group, and SAS Institute, Froggatt paints a diverse picture of the ways that companies can help balance work and personal life while enabling knowledge workers with differing work styles to become more productive. The illustrations of each principle help to make clear how you might go about implementing the abstractions. The downside - for some readers - is an absence of real theoretical underpinnings and little attention to the validity of studies cited to support the author's contentions.

For example, on p.40, a Nortel employee survey is used to show higher employee satisfaction of teleworkers as compared to the overall Nortel population. We are given no reason to believe that this is a fair or useful comparison. Perhaps the types of workers made virtual were more satisfied to begin with - a before and after survey would be more revealing. Readers may also find that in the author's eagerness to establish the viability and attractiveness of virtual work, the real challenges of virtual work may sometimes have been assumed away too quickly. On the whole, however, Work Naked provides plenty of ideas for those interested in exploring new working styles for 21st century knowledge workers.

Insightful!
Cynthia C. Froggatt tackles the pros and cons (mostly pros) of having your employees work at a location away from the office, particularly in their homes. She includes plenty of successful examples, an eight-step blueprint for making it work, and addresses the usual corporate reservations about the whole topic. You'll find a refreshing dash of wit on every page, which one would expect from an author whose book title is, Work Naked. We [...] recommend this book to anyone interested in mechanics of the virtual company.

To maximize the power of virtual workshop
Virtual workshop could bring lots of benefits to the company. However, many companies failed to run the virtual workplace well.
This book tells us there are eight essential principles for peak performance in the virtual workplace.

With the concise wording and clear structure, this book is easy to follow and understand. Every chapter has a brief summary and responsibilities for both leaders and employees that makes the book more practical. Moreover, this book also provides plenty of real examples.

As virtual workplace is essential to future business development, this book can help to maximize the power of virtual workplace. ... Read more

Book Description

Managing People Across Cultures maps out the value of people issues in the organizations of today. It challenges us to ask key questions such as ‘How did Human Resource Management (HRM) come to be and what genuine need is there for it? and ‘What should the future direction of HRM be? Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner spell out their vision for what HRM must do to stay relevant to businesses today. Their view is that people management must embrace the values of entrepreneurship i.e. agility, flexibility and innovation to ensure its continued effectiveness. The authors also argue that workplaces have to become customized to grow and learn as its employees push the boundaries of learning and discovery. Functional barriers also need to be torn down. You will discover that the rightful place for HRM is at the fountainhead of any business; the place where ideas are first generated and mobilized for action. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Another Debt Owed Trompenaars By Managers
Managers of diverse workforces in today's globalizing context will find great value and new ideas in this work.Trompenaars provides models that help one understand cultural differences and their likely implications on how people can be managed effectively.Of particular use to those responsible for managing people in organizations with employees having different national/ethnic origins this book talks about the impact of values and beliefs on what is viewed as fair and appropriate relative to processes like selection, development, performance management and rewards management.

A Good Read!
While human resource management (HRM) departments are a critical part of the modern corporation, they are often considered detached from the daily workings of their own employees. In a multinational modern corporation, these problems are exacerbated when other issues distract HRM professionals. Authors Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner inadvertently explain why many corporate employees consider HRM departments irrelevant. Meandering and without focus, their book rarely signals just where it is going. While it is part of a cross-cultural series, this book's stated intent is to make HRM a stronger part of corporate management through the ways it recruits, trains and rewards staff members. The authors cite interesting facts and studies as they discuss various facets of human resource management, including change, motivation, recruitment, assessment tools, managing teams, organizational learning, leadership development and diversity, all with some attention to cross-cultural issues. Although this book falls short of hitting its stated goal of placing HRM at the center of the modern corporation, we appreciate its ambition and the scope of its coverage.

An Informed, Enlightened, and Powerful Work
Trompenaars, Fons and Charles Hampden-Turner Managing People Across Cultures (Culture for Business) Capstone Publishing Ltd. London: 2004. 208pp (paperback)

For years the value of human resource management has been discussed, debated, and often denied. All too often those espousing the cause of hr management have proffered self defeating positions focusing on the inherent goodness of their activities whilst those in opposition were all too ready to agree with them. The emphasis far too often was on panacean fads that never stood the test of time and less on those issues that motivate, measure human resource development in a meaningful way.

Now Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner have taken on the challenge and provide the reader with an informed and enlightened approach to the very real value of hr management. And in doing so they convince us that human resource management is a genuine profession that pervades the entire corporation and that it is an essential discipline for leaders and leadership.

In this work they characterize hr management as in part a philosophy of protest against dehumanizing technology and bureaucracy. Recognizing that the logic of values and of culture is inherently paradoxical, the authors apply their dilemma approach to reconcile the differences between the opposing view points. If we posit that the values associated with technology and organization are not the only values that drive an enterprise, then we can see that the values of hr management may be needed to qualify the usually dominant technological values. It is the authors' contention that we need not to defeat the technical values from which major innovations are continually derived, but rather to integrate them with the hr values. They suggest that the need is to be more differentiated, more integrated, more non-directive in order to discover a clearer direction, and to be more individualisticto encourage strong groups to support each member, and to be more task-oriented to abet people development around these tasks.

Their vision for the 21st Century includes returning to the values of entrepreneurship in order to compete with the non-stop innovation, where success seems to go to the agile and inventive and where the huge behemoths are vulnerable as never before.

They see the future of hr management as confronting the dilemmas of creativity and destruction, of human resources and physical resources, and of change and continuity. They see human resource departments as the leaders in organizations who can embed human concerns as the technological ideas are first generated and mobilized into action. It is hr management that can explain and reconcile human values and resources with the technological values and resources to created the organization's values, modus operandi, and reason for being.

In ten thought provoking chapters, the authors examine all aspects of human resource management. In chapter one, they look at corporate cultures and the need for leaders and change agents to lead and change cultures so that they best do the work of the organization through motivation, inspiration, reward, and information. Chapter two addresses recruitment, selection, and assessment. It provide some keen observations about extant instruments and how they can be qualified by complimentary measures to create broader syntheses to enhance these processes. The succeeding two chapters look at the power of teams and how to build an effective learning organization.

Chapter six focuses on leadership development across cultures. They state that leaders must increasingly reconcile an ever-widening spectrum of diversities that include: different stages of economic cycles, different national cultures, different corporate cultures, different team roles, different functions, status levels, learning styles, disciplines, and personalities.

The following chapters take aim at how to diagnose the presence of dilemmas (even when they are being denied), provides some powerful insights as to the way people habitually think, and looks at the four cultures models that impact the effectiveness of assessment centers.

The final chapter deals with varieties of culture shock and looks at the visceral and emotional costs of crossing cultures and meeting strangers. The authors offer a simulation designed to aid participants in enhancing their emotional capabilities to deal with new dilemmas.

This is a ground-breaking work which offers new insights and provides new thinking about the field of human resource management. While it certainly should be read by human resource managers, it should also be at the top of the reading lists of corporate leaders.

(...) ... Read more

Book Description

Plan and design alternative work environments with ease. More and more businesses are looking to redesign or re-engineer their existing workspaces to boost employee productivity and reduce, or contain, their corporate real estate holdings. New Workplaces for New Workstyles, by Marilyn Zelinsky, arms you with the instant expertise you need to grab your share of these fast-growing, lucrative interior design opportunities. It walks you step-by-step through every aspect of creating alternative work environments (AWEs)--from selling the concept of AWE to senior management of investing in the right technology and equipment to planning, designing and managing alternative offices. You get case studies of 27 major companies--including IBM, AT&T and Pacific Bell--that have implemented or are implementing AWEs. These real-world examples, floor plans, sample designs and how-to photos are a goldmine of ideas and inspiration for selecting the best AWE strategy for your needs...setting up onsite offices...equipping mobile and home offices...understanding corporate-culture issues like productivity, territoriality and employee interaction...dealing with traditional and new lasws and policies...and much more. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great resource about the office of the future.
My firm needed information about designing a new workplace and an architect recommended we read this book. Now, we are thinking about hoteling because this book helped us to understand what it was all about. It was easy to understand and easy to read--there are tons of statistics, too. Great read. ... Read more

Book Description

So, you've empowered your teams to make the decisions that lead to success. But how do you measure their progress and keep them accountable? This book outlines a field-tested measurement system that can be customized to fit any team. It's a system that involves every team member as it factors in customer concerns, organizational strategy, and other big-picture issues critical to success. Case studies of teams that have used this approach--including the winners of Xerox's coveted X-Award--illustrate how the system actually works. And the automated measurement system on the free CD-ROM helps you design your own system with confidence. ... Read more