Tucked into the files of Iowa State University's Cooperative Extension Service is a small, innocuous looking pamphlet with the title Lenders: Working through the Farmer-Lender Crisis. Cooperative Extension Service intended this publication to improve bankers' empathy and communication skills, especially when facing farmers showing "Suicide Warning Signs." After all, they were working with individuals experiencing extreme economic distress, and each banker needed to learn to "be a good listener." What was important, too, was what was left unsaid. Iowa State published this pamphlet in April of 1986. Just four months earlier, farmer Dale Burr of Lone Tree, Iowa, had killed his wife, and then walked into the Hills Bank and Trust company and shot a banker to death in the lobby before taking shots at neighbors, killing one of them, and then killing himself. The unwritten subtext of this little pamphlet was "beware." If bankers failed to adapt to changing circumstances, the next desperate farmer might be shooting.This was Iowa in the 1980s. The state was at the epicenter of a nationwide agricultural collapse unmatched since the Great Depression. In When a Dream Dies, Pamela Riney-Kehrberg examines the lives of ordinary Iowa farmers during this period, as the Midwest experienced the worst of the crisis. While farms failed and banks foreclosed, rural and small-town Iowans watched and suffered, struggling to find effective ways to cope with the crisis. If families and communities were to endure, they would have to think about themselves, their farms, and their futures in new ways. For many Iowan families, this meant restructuring their lives or moving away from agriculture completely. This book helps to explain how this disaster changed children, families, communities, and the development of the nation's heartland in the late twentieth century. Agricultural crises are not just events that affect farms. When a Dream Dies explores the Farm Crisis of the 1980s from the perspective of the two-thirds of the state's agricultural population seriously affected by a farm debt crisis that rapidly spiraled out of their control. Riney-Kehrberg treats the Farm Crisis as a family event while examining the impact of the crisis on mental health and food insecurity and discussing the long-term implications of the crisis for the shape and function of agriculture.

In malls across the United States, clothing retail workers navigate low wages and unpredictable schedules. Despite these problems, they devote time and money to mirror the sleek mannequins stylishly adorned with the latest merchandise. Bringing workers' voices to the fore, sociologists Joya Misra and Kyla Walters demonstrate how employers reproduce gendered and racist "beauty" standards by regulating workers' size and look. Interactions with customers, coworkers, and managers further reinforce racial hierarchies. New surveillance technologies also lead to ineffective corporate decision-making based on flawed data. By focusing on the interaction of race, gender, and surveillance, Walking Mannequins sheds important new light on the dynamics of retail work in the twenty-first century.

The birth of philosophical thought across the ancient world brought with it a keen interest in the study of leadership - reflections on who should lead and on how to create the best leadership structures became central to the debates of most prominent ancient philosophers. Philosophy and Leadership offers a panorama of the main philosophies, both ancient and modern, which form the basis of contemporary leadership theories. This book will draw on many philosophical positions to offer a critique of the most important nodes of modern leadership studies – such as ethics, purpose, meaning and legacy. It will include probing questions and theoretical as well practical exercises aimed at reinforcing the points discussed in each chapter, as well as examples from history, literature, films and music. This book will be invaluable reading for scholars on undergraduate and postgraduate leadership courses, as well as those studying philosophy, leadership ethics and business ethics, and responsible leadership.

A robust manufacturing sector is a necessity and a sufficient condition for any country's human and economic development as it creates employment and alleviates poverty. During this Fourth Industrial Revolution era, there is an urgent need in Africa to optimally utilize the existing resources to support manufacturing or else risk allowing the continent to fall behind in the industrial economy. Innovative strategies are needed that can unlock Africa's manufacturing potential by exploring key areas that may help Africa mature and launch modernized economies that will benefit the developed world's industrial economy. The Handbook of Research on Nurturing Industrial Economy for Africa's Development examines various innovations necessary for Africa's economic development including drivers of the manufacturing economy such as education, agriculture, human capital, science and technological innovations, language, politics, and business environments. The book explores strategies to increase Africa's economic diversity, complexity, productivity, and ultimately competitiveness, and for the continent to realize its manufacturing/industrial potential. Further, chapters focus on African countries' industrial economies in the African context and facilitating the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union's Agenda 2063. This book is a valuable reference tool for government officials, economists, industrialists, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the industrial economic development of Africa.

How Behavioral Economics Influences Management Decision-Making: A New Paradigm critically reexamines the management function in 21st century workplaces. The book seeks to examine and explain the real-world behaviors of employees and acknowledge the human nature that binds us all together and how to appeal to these characteristics in order to help organizations prosper. It explores well-observed but rarely understood features of employee cognition and irrationality, challenging the dominant discourse and offering an alternative to gain greater competitive advantage in today's complex markets. It also provides an effective new framework on the best ways to develop relevant management skills as they pertain to hiring, performance management, change management, employee engagement, and goal setting. As the knowledge economy continues to grow, the social bonds within companies will prove to be a key differentiation to deliver on the next big idea. Developing productive decisions with staff in the talent-driven global economy increasingly requires the development of "intrinsic" meaning in work, a human-centered work-place culture, and human-focused working practices. This book tackles these topics in comprehensive and efficient detail.