As public and private sector organizations work more frequently in partnership, managing uncertainties, problems and controversies becomes increasingly difficult. Despite sophisticated technology and knowledge, the strategic networks and games required to solve uncertainties become more complex and more important than ever before.
Managing Uncertainties in Networks is a new text that examines developments in the area of network strategy. Differentiating itself from other policy network approaches which have a mainly research focus, this text has a managerial orientation presenting strategies and management recommendations for public and private sector organizations as well as the analytical tools required by practitioners seeking to support their own internal decision making and strategy formulation.
Topics covered include:
* Knowledge conflicts
* Uncertainties and governments
* Technological controversies
* Collaborative problem solving
* Managing networks
Tapping into the important and ever-growing area of risk and uncertainty management, this is a vital and long awaited staple for the arena written by two leading authors in the field. It will be key reading for students, scholars and policy makers seeking to understand the complexities of the network society.

How do you implement mindfulness in the workplace? Today's leaders and organisations need to develop an agile mindset and take bold risks. This Authority Guide shows you how to link mindfulness directly to business challenges and offers practical and accessible tools for change. Written by an expert on leadership, meditation and mindfulness, the book teaches you how to manage your inner landscape of thoughts, emotions and interruptions so that you can create a compassionate, innovative and sustainable working culture.

Safety is not easy, it is a full time effort, and is equally important whether people are on the job or on personal time. If an organization is serious about mission success, it must take 'risk' seriously as well. Leaders need to be involved in the risk game at every turn, and understand the key elements (discussed throughout this book) that help them to win. Winning the risk game is what safety is all about. As in operational success, risk management requires the best human faculties to achieve victory; talent of organizational players and commitment from top leadership rule the day. The book covers leadership, safety programs, and risk management for organizations and individuals. It helps in professional development, grooming current and future leaders to understand their roles in safety and risk management. Central to the author's message are: Seven truths of safety that the author discovered as a senior safety officer. Four roadblocks to achieving zero mishaps that must be aggressively addressed. Nine elements to risk reduction, with which leaders must become familiar. He establishes the importance of an organizational leader's role in the safety/risk management game and provides the answer to, 'How safe is safe enough?' Often, managers at various levels do not have an understanding of what goes into a safety program, this book tells them, from an expert's view. The readership includes: executives and middle management; all leaders as a professional development book and students. It is also a supplemental textbook for safety and risk management courses.

The business environment has changed. Sharper competition requires organizations to exhibit greater effectiveness in their operations and services and faster creation of new products and services all hallmarks of the knowledge economy. Up until now, most of the knowledge management literature has focused on technology, systems, or culture. This book moves to the next stage, to focus on the people the knowledge workers themselves. Noted expert Karl Wiig synthesizes recent research findings in cognitive science and related fields to describe how people actually work. He focuses on how people learn, remember, make decisions, solve problems and act in general, how knowledge relates to work behavior. By understanding how people work, managers can improve effectiveness to gain competitive advantage.

The Microeconomics of Wellbeing and Sustainability: Recasting the Economic Process explores the civil economy tradition in economic thought. Gaining increasing consensus worldwide, this alternative-not heterodox-view of the economic process and agents explains how modern economics is placing increasing emphasis on the determinants of subjective wellbeing and environmental sustainability. With support from behavioral economics, this book makes a foundational contribution that will help users better understand and prepare for future economic challenges.

Feeling stuck on autopilot, or totally off course?
What if you could go back to key points in your life and ask different questions of yourself and others to change where you are today?
Speaker, author, and entrepreneur Laura Atchison had it all--a great career, a successful business, ambitious goals, and a loving family--when she realized she was off course. Instead of achieving the life she was meant to live, she had been stuck on autopilot--plodding through the life others wanted her to live. By failing to ask the right questions of herself and others, her life had taken the wrong direction. Explore Atchison's riveting and candid story to see the parallel struggles all women share--and the opportunities all women possess to learn and grow beyond their wildest dreams. Learn the right questions to ask in career, family, relationships, spiritual life, finances, and more.
Unlock the life you were meant to have.
Get back on course, and stay there.
Begin asking different questions starting today--as a Wise Woman.
If these people could have reviewed this book, this is what they might have said:
""Laura's on fire"" - Joan of Arc
""If I had Laura to guide me I might not have gotten lost"" - Amelia Earhart
""Maybe if we had asked how it could end differently than the others we would have kept our heads "" -- The Beheaded Wives of Henry VIII
""If I had read this book, I might not have dated Marc Antony"" - Cleopatra
""Laura's advice is as indispensable as a thimble"" - Betsy Ross
""Laura found the knowledge I was seeking"" - Eve

"Go Slow to Go Fast" strategy counteracts Big-bang disruptors, causing change without early warning signs that makes practitioners incredibly hard to combat. Leaders using the strategy understand that two things are sure to happen; you either disrupt or you're going to be disrupted! For this reason, "Go Slow to Go Fast" strategy offers proven and credible strategic principles to help leaders and organizations survive big bangs to become Big-bang disruptors in their own right, creating their own strategic advantage within the competitive landscape they operate. By the end of the text, readers will be better equipped to think strategically, focus sharply, move quickly (as extraordinary leaders do), and 1) create differentiated products, services and behaviors to overcome incumbent thinking. 2) Integrate new strategy perspectives to grow revenues, market share and profits using Next-Level Practice Decisions (NLPDs) that go beyond best practices to form Next-Level Practices (NLPs). 3) Disrupt incumbent markets to avoid Big-bang disruption. 4) Avoid risk, lead out from crises before they happen and go beyond incumbent thinking to achieve performance-driven execution. In the end, "Go Slow to Go Fast" strategy is the step-wise procedural approach that reviewers have called "a timely paradigm shift that creates much needed dialogue with an objective approach for thought-leadership decisions to be made" about how to challenge the norms using empirical findings that will 'work,' 'will matter' and 'will stick!'

If you can slice a melon or make a right-hand turn, you can be a breakthrough innovator.
The title of this book, "Cause a Disturbance," says it all, and it most assuredly will cause a disturbance in the way you think about business: your business.
Everyone knows--and everyone talks about--how important innovation is in the competitive battle to find, delight, and keep customers, yet far too few achieve it. As Tencer and Cardoso explain, "There's a big difference between an occasional spark of innovation and an eternal flame." But the reality is different; most firms struggle to consistently innovate. All that can change. Kick-start your business with attitude. Cause a disturbance
Whether your business is in transition or simply looking for an innovative spark, give it a lift with "Cause a Disturbance." Within these pages you will learn how innovation can change your business in simple steps through The 90% Rule(R) a straightforward philosophy that drives you to constantly ask "What's the next 10%? What's the next product, service, or process improvement that will create a continuously engaged customer base and strengthen my brand?"
Cause a disturbance in the way you think about innovation as you open your mind to the possibilities--and simplicity--of being innovative every day

When the landmark book Collaborative Leadership was first published in 1994, it described the premise, principles, and leadership characteristics of successful collaboration. The book outlined an innovative way of building partnerships to solve the civic problems too big for anyone to solve alone as well as a new type of leadership that brings together diverse stakeholders to solve a community's problems. While that book provides a much-needed framework for working together, The Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook offers nonprofit practitioners, community leaders, and public officials a practical, hands-on resource. It presents the tools needed for applying the lessons learned, powerful approaches that get results, and guidance for solving complex community problems. In clear and concise terms, the Fieldbook

• Presents a wide range of tools and concepts that can be readily applied
• Provides a comprehensive guide to collaboration from conception to implementation
• Describes how to establish effective civic leadership development programs to support collaborative efforts
• Contains stories and examples that clearly illustrate the book's concepts and tools
• Helps readers find-quickly and easily-what they need for their specific situations

  
  

Contents:
1. Introduction: Costs associated with occupational stress: Risk Management of stress: The Structure of the book: 2. The Effects of Stress on Employee-Related Outcomes: Absenteeism, Turnover and Productivity: Work-Related Accidents: 3. Environmental Factors and Occupational Safety: Organisational Accidents: Organisation and Management: Safety Management Practices: Safety Culture: Safety Climate: Leadership: Supervision: Safety Subclimates: 4. Psychological Factors and Occupational Safety: Human Factors: Human Error: Violations: Accident Proneness: Personality Characteristics: Risk Propensity: 5. Job-Stress and Work-Related Accidents: Job Stress and Unsafe Acts: Job Stress and Safety Behavior: Individual Differences: 6. A Risk Management Approach to Occupational Stress: The Concept of Risk Assessment: Risk Assessment Methodologies: Risk Assessment of Occupational Stress: Risk Evaluation: Risk Reduction: Stress Interventions: 7. Assessment of Job Stress: Stress Audit Tools: Case Study - Stress Auditing at Somerset County Council: Stage One: Assessment of Job Stress: 8. Risk Evaluation: Risk Factors: Assessing Safety Risks: Case Study - Managing Stress and Accidents in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry: Stage Two: Risk Evaluation: Risk Control: 9. Risk Reduction: Secondary / Tertiary Stress Prevention: Primary Stress Prevention: Reducing Safety Risks: Stage Three: Risk Reduction: Index

Recent work has demonstrated that incidents, accidents and disasters tend to result from complex socio-technical failures, rather than just 'human error' on the one hand, or simple technical failures on the other. For the reduction of accidents, therefore, it is necessary to deal with systems factors, in which both technical and human-factors elements play an equal and complementary role. However, many of the existing techniques in ergonomics and risk management concentrate on plant/technical issues and downplay human factors and "subjectivity". The present text describes a body of theory and data which addresses this issue squarely, drawing on systems theory and applied psychology, and which stresses the importance of human agency within systems. The central roles of social consensus and reliability, and the nature of verbal reports and 'functional discourse' are explained in some detail.

This book therefore presents a new, 'Qualitative Systems Approach' to safety management, offering both greater safety and economic savings. It presents a series of methodological 'tools' whose reliability and validity have been shown through extensive work in the rail and nuclear industries and which allow organisational and systems failures to be analysed much more effectively in terms of quantity, precision and usefulness.

This is a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students in occupational psychology, human factors, ergonomics and HCI, and the sociology of disasters and risk. It is also useful for safety managers and professionals in many safety critical firms and organisations, reliability engineers, risk managers, and human factors specialists.

Working in a stressful environment not only increases the risk of physical illness or distress, but also increases the likelihood of workplace accidents. While legislation provides some guidelines for risk assessment of physical hazards, there remains limited guidance on the risks of psychosocial hazards, such as occupational stress.
This book takes the risk management approach to stress evaluation in the workplace, offering practical guidelines for the audit, assessment and mitigation of workplace stressors. Based on both research and case-studies, this book provides a comprehensive source of theoretical and practical information for students and practitioners alike.
This book includes chapters on:
*environmental stress factors
* psychological stress factors
*work-related accidents
*job stress evaluation methods
With its up-to-date approach to a fascinating area of study, Managing the Risk of Workplace Stress is key reading for all students of organizational psychology and those responsible for workplace safety.

The rise of game theory has made bargaining one of the core issues in economic theory. Written at a theoretical and conceptual level, this book develops a framework for the analysis of bargaining processes. The framework focuses on the dynamic of the bargaining process, which is in contrast to much previous theoretical work on the subject, and most notably to the approaches stemming from game theory. Chapters include: decision-making and expectations in theories of bargaining; decision-making and expectations in a game theory model; limitations of the environment concept; game theory as a basis for a theory of bargaining; the decision/expectation/adjustment approach; the adjustment process; direct interdependence and the consistency of decisions.

Data and its processed state 'information' have become an indispensable resource for virtually all aspects of business, education, etc. Consequently, decisions regarding the handling of this data, transforming it into meaningful information, and ultimately arriving at the best course of action have taken on a new importance. This book highlights a selection of cutting-edge research on decision making presented at the 25th International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM 2019), held in Istanbul, Turkey.

This edited volume looks at whether it is possible to be more transparent about uncertainty in scientific evidence without undermining public understanding and trust. With contributions from leading experts in the field, this book explores the communication of risk and decision-making in an increasingly post-truth world. Drawing on case studies from climate change to genetic testing, the authors argue for better quality evidence synthesis to cut through the noise and highlight the need for more structured public dialogue. For uncertainty in scientific evidence to be communicated effectively, they conclude that trustworthiness is vital: the data and methods underlying statistics must be transparent, valid, and sound, and the numbers need to demonstrate practical utility and add social value to people's lives. Presenting a conceptual framework to help navigate the reader through the key social and scientific challenges of a post-truth era, this book will be of great relevance to students, scholars, and policy makers with an interest in risk analysis and communication.

Are you making the most of the greatest asset in your business? To make your good business a great business you need to have more than just a strong product or service. Having a high-performing team in your organisation is guaranteed to give you a competitive advantage. Andrew Jenkins helps you discover how to cultivate in your people the willingness to grow as individuals and as a group. Packed with easy-to-follow activities, exercises and models this Authority Guide explains how to build a high performing, collaborative, trusting and resilient team.

This book, originally published in 1975, is an attempt to bridge the gap between economic theory and business practice by relating the tools of economic analysis to the decision making process itself. It is written from a decision making systems analysis viewpoint. This approach enables the reader to perceive the integrative nature of the subject matter in relation to the functioning of the business enterprise. Although the unifying theme of 'decision making' is at the heart of the book, where necessary some of the theoretical underpinnings of traditional neo-classical theory of the firm are covered.

This book shows business leaders how to develop successful online communities of practice in their organizations by describing the approach for organizing and supporting such communities used by Clarica Life Insurance Company in Canada--widely regarded as one of the best companies for managing knowledge under the direction of Hubert Saint-Onge. Saint-Onge has been recognized by Fortune magazine as a leader in the field of leveraging knowledge capital. He is responsible for integrating progressive knowledge-based strategies within Clarica's overall strategy. Communities of Practice are an integral part of Clarica's Knowledge Capital Initiative to increase intellectual capital through knowledge creation and sharing. Based on the success of a recent project to establish an online community of practice for Clarica's independent agents, this book combines theory and practice to outline a model for successfully developing communities of practice. The authors argue that by acknowledging the value of such communities (e.g., recognition of membership contribution, support for time commitment) and providing them with an infrastructure (e.g., communication platforms, facilitation, information resources), organizations can increase the speed at which communities innovate, extend the reach of the community's knowledge sharing, and provide an opportunity to make the community's knowledge persistent.

Business Excellence and Total Quality Management (TQM) models provide a means of measuring the satisfaction of customers, employees and shareholders simultaneously. A number of such models currently exist, but, the author argues, none of these address all dimensions of TQM.
This book introduces the principles of TQM, and establishes their use in measuring Business Excellence in an organisational environment. It comparatively evaluates various TQM and Business Excellence models, and discusses the complexities of measuring success.
Presenting important, innovative work by one of the most eminent scholars in the field, this book is essential reading for both academics and professionals working in quality management.

Originally published in 1972. Managers at all levels and management students may all expect to become involved increasingly in the development of computer-based information systems. This book, based upon practical training given to systems analysts, is designed to help managers achieve a route to successful implementation of computer systems, or to prepare them for involvement in computer projects.

Never Underestimate the Power of an Effective Team As today's businesses increasingly structure work around teams, it's more important than ever for students to understand group processes. Through the research summaries and case studies of this text, students will learn valuable theory and develop a rich picture of teams in action. Blending theory and practice in areas such as team design, team social processes, and team effectiveness provides them with a realistic view of how teams function in actual work organizations. The combination of research and case examples also shows students how to help teams become more effective. Because key concepts are specifically presented in and applied to business settings, students can gain a real-world perspective of ways they can influence teams. They'll not only learn the complex issues associated with teams, but they'll not only learn the complex issues associated with teams, but they'll also develop tools to succeed as designers, leaders, and members. Special Features of the Text:
* Numerous examples are included to clearly illustrate important theoretical points.
* Theory and research is summarized in a non-technical style that is applied to situations familiar to students.
* Each unit includes a short scenario that provides students with the perspective of someone who is actually involved with teams in an organizational setting.
* Relationships between group theories and business goals (e.g., increasing profit, providing a motivating work environment) are discussed throughout.

The chance of being claimed against is now a major risk factor for every building designer, engineer, quantity surveyor and project manager. Apart from the cases that go to court, many other claims are settled before they reach that stage. The cost of insurance to meet claims is now a substantial component of every practice's overheads. Sensible risk management can identify the potential sources of claims, reduce their likelihood, warn of impending trouble and control how the claim is to be defended.

This book explains how to plan a risk management strategy and suggests techniques that can supplement the practice's existing management procedures without imposing unnecessary bureaucracy. It attaches as much importance to the interaction of risk between members of the design team as to the risk profile of the practice itself.

The first part defines risk and its origins, discusses how risk can arise in the various professions and types of practice, and how it interacts between the professions, compares quality assurance with risk management, and advises on the relations between the practice, its insurers and its lawyers. It concludes with advice on how to create a risk strategy and system for the office.

The second part is devoted to techniques and covers: setting up the appointment; creation of the team; managing the project; the risks of CDM; the complications of procurement; and drafting, awarding and administering the building contract. Risk implications of the major contract forms are discussed in detail. It concludes with advice on the handling of claims.

The book contains references to a number of legal cases to illustrate the risks discussed. It is recommended reading not only for the individual professions (architect, engineer, QS, project manger), but for all of them collectively in understanding how the risk of one profession can become the risk of any of his fellow team members.

Risk as we now know it is a wholly new phenomenon, the by-product of our ever more complex and powerful technologies. In business, policy making, and in everyday life, it demands a new way of looking at technological and environmental uncertainty. In this definitive volume, four of the world's leading risk researchers present a fundamental critique of the prevailing approaches to understanding and managing risk - the 'rational actor paradigm'. They show how risk studies must incorporate the competing interests, values, and rationalities of those involved and find a balance of trust and acceptable risk. Their work points to a comprehensive and significant new theory of risk and uncertainty and of the decision making process they require. The implications for social, political, and environmental theory and practice are enormous. Winner of the 2000-2002 Outstanding Publication Award of the Section on Environment and Technology of the American Sociological Association

Risk or uncertainty assessments are used as aids to decision making in nearly every aspect of business, education, and government. As a follow-up to the author's bestselling Risk Assessment and Decision Making in Business and Industry: A Practical Guide, Risk Modeling for Determining Value and Decision Making presents comprehensive examples of risk/uncertainty analyses from a broad range of applications.

Decision/option selection Manufacturing
Environmental assessment Pricing
Identification of business drivers Production sharing
Insurance Scheduling and optimization
Investing Security
Law

Emphasizing value as the focus of risk assessment, this book offers discussions on how to make decisions using each risk model and what insights the model can provide. The presentation of each model also includes computer code that encapsulates its logic and direction on how to apply the model to other types of problems.

The author devotes a chapter to techniques for consistently collecting data in an inconsistent world and offers another chapter on how to reflect the effect of "soft" issues in the value of an opportunity. The book's final chapters delineate the techniques and technologies used to perform risk/uncertainty analyses, including sections on distribution, Monte Carlo process, dependence, sensitivity analysis, time series analysis, and chance of failure.

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Rejecting the idea that there are ready-made solutions to the challenges of constructing and managing knowledge in organizations, this book addresses the changing nature of knowledge construction and what can be achieved through innovative research practices. Key issues and debates include: working knowledge into the 21st century; the highly contextualized nature of research at work; post-modern perspectives on knowledge construction and practice and performance implications; the impact of globalization; the influences of new technology; language; power; and culture and gender upon the "construction" of knowledge. Leading experts from North America, Japan, Britain and Australia illustrate both practice and theory issues. This text should be of interest to researchers, teachers and students in the field of human resource management, policy-makers and all those concerned with continuing professional development.