Drawing on a selection of ethnographic studies of precarious work in Africa, this book discusses globalisation and digitalisation as drivers for structural change and examines the implications for labour. It explores the role of digital technology in new business models and how it can be harnessed for counter mobilisation by the new worker.

Much of the debate on the future of work has focused on responses to technological trends in the Global North, with little evidence on how these trends are impacting work and workers in the Global South.

Drawing on a rich selection of ethnographic studies of precarious work in Africa, this innovative book discusses how globalisation and digitalisation are drivers for structural change and examines their implications for labour. Bringing together global labour studies and inequality studies, it explores the role of digital technology in new business models and how it can be harnessed for counter mobilisation by the new worker.

The no bullsh*t guide to getting your work and life on track in the new flexible workplace.

Virtually every industry is making lasting changes that will open doors to a more flexible working week. So how do we adjust, thrive and excel in an environment where glitchy daily video conferences are the norm? By turns fierce, funny and highly practical, Harriet Minter will show you the skills to be effective and creative during the day-to-day.

Harriet breaks down how to be an inspiring and energising manager (either remotely or to a flexibly working team), how to create and thrive in a high-trust culture (on a small and large scale) and most importantly how to achieve your ambition and propel your career forwards.

Packed full of hard-won tricks, tips and tools, Harriet Minter draws on her own experience as a careers coach and adviser to companies on their flexible working culture to help you bring your best self to work - from your living room.

The definitive guide to eliminating the forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get things done in organizations. Find out why Adam Grant says "If every leader took the ideas in this book seriously, the world would be a less miserable, more productive place."

Every organization is plagued by destructive friction. Yet some forms of friction are incredibly useful, and leaders who attempt to improve workplace efficiency often make things even worse. Drawing from seven years of hands-on research, The Friction Project by bestselling authors Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao teaches readers how to become “friction fixers.”

Sutton and Rao kick off the book by unpacking how skilled friction fixers think and act like trustees of others’ time. They provide friction forensics to help readers identify where to avert and repair bad organizational friction and where to maintain and inject good friction. Then their help pyramid shows how friction fixers do their work, from reframing friction troubles they can’t fix right now, so they feel less threatening, to designing and repairing organizations. The heart of the book digs into the causes and solutions for five of the most common and damaging friction troubles: oblivious leaders, addition sickness, broken connections, jargon monoxide, and fast and frenzied people and teams.

Sound familiar? Sutton and Rao are here to help. They wrap things up with lessons for leading your own friction project, including linking little things to big things; the power of civility, caring, and love for propelling designs and repairs; and embracing the mess that is an inevitable part of the process (while still trying to clean it up).

This innovative Handbook explores the complexity of cultural, conceptual and definitional issues surrounding research into organisational culture, outlining the varied frameworks and theories that underpin the field. International contributors present a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods that can be used in organisational culture measurement. They explore topics of special contemporary interest, such as high performance cultures, corporate entrepreneurship, organisational culture in nonprofits and safety culture, unpacking the textured relationships between leadership style, organisational culture and organisational outcomes. Highlighting key implications for organisational values and ethical climate, the Handbook provides practical guidance on how to move from culture assessment to action and improvement. Offering a critical outline for measurement approaches and tools, this Handbook is crucial reading for researchers and students of organisation studies, particularly those focusing on culture and leadership of organisations. It also provides practical insights for business consultants and senior management teams, proposing methods and frameworks for developing positive organisational cultures to improve the productivity, performance and quality of businesses.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this timely Handbook builds upon research and practice to discuss and assess what is currently known about virtual work and its evolution, given the increasing numbers of those working virtually. Taking a holistic approach to the subject, the expert contributors review the critical areas of virtual work split into five thematic parts. Firstly technology, the foundation of virtual work, is thoroughly discussed focussing on new forms of technology and the use of AI. Working practices of both the individual and virtual teams are then fully reviewed alongside the organisation, context and emerging systems that support virtual work in practice. Forward-thinking, this Handbook, looks at the future direction and where we go from here towards the next decade of virtual work. Managers and practitioners who are moving towards virtual or hybrid working or continuing to work remotely will find this an excellent resource for ongoing and future guidance. Scholars and researchers interested in this expanding subject will find this illuminating and informative.

From executives complaining that their teams don't contribute ideas to employees giving up because their input isn't valued--company culture is the culprit. Courageous Cultures provides a road map to build a high-performance, high-engagement culture around sharing ideas, solving problems, and rewarding contributions from all levels. Many leaders are convinced they have an open environment that encourages employees to speak up and are shocked when they learn that employees are holding back. Employees have ideas and want to be heard. Leadership wants to hear them. Too often, however, employees and leaders both feel that no one cares about making things better. The disconnect typically only widens over time, with both sides becoming more firmly entrenched in their viewpoints. Becoming a courageous culture means building teams of microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates working together. In our world of rapid change, a courageous culture is your competitive advantage. It ensures that your company is "sticky" for both customers and employees. In Courageous Cultures, you'll learn practical tools that help you: Learn the difference between microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates and how they work together. See how the latest research conducted by the authors confirms why organizations struggle when it comes to creating strong cultures where employees are encouraged to contribute their best thinking. Learn proven models and tools that leaders can apply throughout all levels of the organization, to reengage and motivate employees. Understand best practices from companies around the world and learn how to apply these strategies and techniques in your own organization. This book provides you with the practical tools to uncover, leverage, and scale the best ideas from every level of your organization.

This innovative Handbook explores the complexity of cultural, conceptual and definitional issues surrounding research into organisational culture, outlining the varied frameworks and theories that underpin the field. International contributors present a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods that can be used in organisational culture measurement. They explore topics of special contemporary interest, such as high performance cultures, corporate entrepreneurship, organisational culture in nonprofits and safety culture, unpacking the textured relationships between leadership style, organisational culture and organisational outcomes. Highlighting key implications for organisational values and ethical climate, the Handbook provides practical guidance on how to move from culture assessment to action and improvement. Offering a critical outline for measurement approaches and tools, this Handbook is crucial reading for researchers and students of organisation studies, particularly those focusing on culture and leadership of organisations. It also provides practical insights for business consultants and senior management teams, proposing methods and frameworks for developing positive organisational cultures to improve the productivity, performance and quality of businesses.

The #1 New York Times Bestseller From the bestselling author and columnist behind The Atlantic's popular "How to Build a Life" series, a guide to transforming the life changes we fear into a source of strength. In the first half of life, ambitious strivers embrace a simple formula for success in work and life: focus single-mindedly, work tirelessly, sacrifice personally, and climb the ladder relentlessly. It works. Until it doesn't. It turns out the second half of life is governed by different rules. In middle age, many strivers begin to find success coming harder and harder, rewards less satisfying, and family relationships withering. In response, they do what strivers always do: they double down on work in an attempt to outrun decline and weakness, and deny the changes that are becoming more and more obvious. The result is often anger, fear, and disappointment at a time in life that they imagined would be full of joy, fulfillment, and pride. It doesn't have to be that way. In From Strength to Strength, happiness expert and bestselling author Arthur C. Brooks reveals a path to beating the "striver's curse." Drawing on science, classical philosophy, theology, and history, he shares counterintuitive strategies for releasing old habits and forming new life practices, showing you how to: - Kick the habits of workaholism, success addiction, and self-objectification - Meditate on death-in order to beat fear and live well - Start a spiritual adventure - Embrace weakness in a way that turns it into strength. Change in your life is inevitable, but suffering is not. From Strength to Strength shows you how to accept the gifts of the second half of life with grace, joy, and ever deepening purpose.

This innovative and thought-provoking Research Handbook explores the theoretical debate surrounding work-life balance, and provides a reflection on the opportunity to adopt multilevel research approaches and perspectives, along gender and temporal axes. The Research Handbook is an international overview of current research on work-life balance, considered in macro, meso and micro perspectives. Offering both theoretical reflections and empirical research examples illustrating the multiple strategies through which the different articulations that characterize the work-life intersection can be analysed, this Research Handbook includes analyses of gendered labour, generational assets and technological changes. Contributors provide translation and actualization of specific research practices and methodological choices, focused on different national contexts. The empirical analysis ranges from comparative research based on quantitative methods, to qualitative approaches centered on longitudinal, discursive and narrative perspectives, and mixed-method studies. Further contributions adopt innovative research methods based on the use of digital and visual technologies. This Research Handbook will be an inspiring read for both undergraduate and postgraduate sociology and social policy students. The book is also addressed to researchers, consultants and policy makers interested in work-life balance issues.

Mission in the world of work has been neglected by the churches within the UK for decades. The Kingdom at Work Project addresses this crippling failure. It sets out a new and comprehensive model of mission for the transformation of the workplace. The model is founded on a radical theology of community and related spirituality which guide and empower an innovative process of discernment and intervention. The last covers individual and collective action, dialogue, the use of symbols, prayer and worship. Mentoring, the role of chaplains and ministers in secular employment, and the responsibilities of the gathered church are key issues covered in depth. This book is the most thorough and imaginative exploration of mission in the world of work to appear for many years.

Meditation has become an essential skill in every business leader’s toolkit, helping leaders adapt to and better handle ever-increasing complexity in their day-to-day environments. The benefits of meditation are varied, and undeniable. Studies on meditation programmes in the workplace show a marked improvement in productivity, decision-making, problem-solving and listening skills.Meditation can bring balance, meaning and mindfulness into the workplace, raise EQ and executive function, and improve the quality of one’s work life. It also reduces stress and anxiety.

If you thought that meditation was too ‘woo-woo’, time-consuming or difficult to do, think again. Meditation for Business Leaders demystifies the practice by sharing examples of top global CEOs who meditate and includes plenty of solid research to back all the benefits. The book also provides simple, step-by-step guidelines for more than 60 different techniques – from beginner to adept – that you can practise and enjoy. Whether you have just five minutes to spare, or 50 – choose an exercise that fits your schedule and desired outcome.

This full colour, illustrated guide includes meditations, mindfulness and breathing exercises, mudras, and postures for you to experiment with to bring greater calm, balance, and wellbeing into your day. Background, benefits, and tips are provided for each technique. The author also guides you on how to introduce a meditation programme into your workplace.

This groundbreaking book arrives at a time of growing concern for the future of true scholarship. Morten Huse calls upon the scholarly community to reflect on the recent dramatic changes to academia, calling for coordinated efforts to reorganise the scholarly ecosystem. Offering a holistic view of academia, Huse outlines the institutions, audiences, messages, channels and communities that interact in this ecosystem, introducing a 'sharing philosophy' as the foundation of change. Reflecting on the past and looking to the future, this exciting book demands a communal approach to scholarship that comprises an open, innovative and impact-driven attitude to research that can change the academic game. Incisive and optimistic for the future, this book is crucial reading for PhD students and junior faculty members hoping to find new avenues for impactful and innovative research. Established scholars, as well as leaders of academic institutions, academies and associations concerned with recent structural changes to scholarship will also benefit from Huse's strong critique and alternative pathways.

This is an ambitious and engaging book. It lays the foundations for a methodology that bridges entrepreneurship researchers?' need to provide explanations and practitioners?' need to make their local world comprehensible --? by calling the researcher to also practise as an entrepreneur. Disclosing Entrepreneurship as Practice outlines and demonstrates this '?enactive?' approach and its outcomes in terms of a proposed practice theory of entrepreneurship. Presenting entrepreneurship as a sense-making, stabilising force in a liquid and ambiguous world, accordingly addressed as ?'entrepreneuring?', Bengt Johannisson argues that the duality of shrewdness and prudence provides the appropriate knowledge needed to practice entrepreneurship. By generalising entrepreneurship as creative organizing in multiple arenas beyond just the market, and conceptualising entrepreneurship as practice, this book presents a compelling rationale for considering entrepreneuring as ?'routinized improvisation?' dealing with situations as they arise. Reflective and thoughtful, this book will be of interest to researchers in the field of entrepreneurship concerned with theoretical and methodological matters, as well as those engaged with qualitative methodology in the social sciences.

Employee engagement, accountability, and true commitment--not management's well-thought-out initiatives--are the real key to achieving results. In The Power of Strategic Commitment readers learn how to improve strategic processes by enlisting the support of managers, employees, boards, suppliers, investors, and others to promote company-wide ownership. The book outlines the key factors that determine commitment and reveals how readers can continuously measure buy-in, involve everyone in creating their own piece of a larger organizational future, tailor commitment strategies for individual employees, keep everyone on the road to achieving stated goals, hire fully-engaged talent, and create a commitment-inspiring rewards system.Most managers and executives don't have a clear system for ensuring the support they need from those around them. But creating and sustaining the kind of buy-in that drives results starts with you. The Power of Strategic Commitment provides practical methods for getting everyone to not only accept and support, but actually embrace organizational initiatives and promote long-term success.

'An amazing portrait of how grifters came to be called visionaries and high finance lost its mind.' Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit The definitive inside story of WeWork, its audacious founder, and the company's epic unravelling from the journalists who first broke the story wide open. In 2001, Adam Neumann arrived in New York after five years as a conscript in the Israeli navy. Just over fifteen years later, he had transformed himself into the charismatic CEO of a company worth $47 billion. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the six-foot-five Neumann looked the part of a messianic Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The vision he offered was mesmerizing: a radical reimagining of work space for a new generation. He called it WeWork. As billions of funding dollars poured in, Neumann's ambitions grew limitless. WeWork wasn't just an office space provider; it would build schools, create cities, even colonize Mars. In pursuit of its founder's vision, the company spent money faster than it could bring it in. From his private jet, sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke, the CEO scoured the globe for more capital but in late 2019, just weeks before WeWork's highly publicized IPO, everything fell apart. Neumann was ousted from his company, but still was poised to walk away a billionaire. Calling to mind the recent demise of Theranos and the hubris of the dotcom era bust, WeWork's extraordinary rise and staggering implosion were fueled by disparate characters in a financial system blind to its risks. Why did some of the biggest names in banking and venture capital buy the hype? And what does the future hold for Silicon Valley 'unicorns'? Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell explore these questions in this definitive, rollicking account of WeWork's boom and bust.

New information and communications technologies have revolutionized daily life and work in the 21st century. This insightful book demonstrates how telework has evolved in the last four decades, as technological developments have improved our capacity to work remotely. Based on a new conceptual framework, this book explores the global variations in telework, examining the effects on working conditions and individual and organizational performance. Breaking the traditional intellectual conception that telework is performed only in the home, this book surveys the full breadth of working environments, as technology allows employees increased working mobility. Contributors expose a profound ambiguity surrounding the effects of 21st-century telework, revealing that its advantages and disadvantages may simply be two sides of the same coin. This timely book is crucial reading for researchers of labour and employment interested in the evolution of contemporary telework and the influence of modern technologies in the workplace. Policy-makers will also benefit from this book's concrete policy recommendations to improve the practice of telework. Contributors include: S. Boiarov, P. D'Cruz, A. Dal Colletto, L. Gschwind, T. Harnish, K. Lister, A. Mello, J.C. Messenger, E. Noronha, A. Sato, O. Vargas

Social Contracts and Informal Workers in the Global South draws on the accounts of informal workers, who represent over 60 per cent of the global workforce, to advocate for radically new conceptualizations of state-society, capital-labour and state-capital-labour relations, illustrating how current social contracts may be considered inadequate, irrelevant or unjust. Bridging social contract theories, both mainstream and critical, and the experiences of informal workers - self-employed, wage employed and sub-contracted - this book sheds light on how many existing social contract models stigmatize informal workers and do not offer legal or social protection. Instead of ideologically driven 'top-down' calls to revitalize the social contract, it advocates for 'bottom-up' initiatives focused on the demands of the working poor in the informal economy. With a wealth of cross-national evidence, as well as promising case studies, this timely and thought-provoking book will prove vital for scholars and researchers of informal workers and of state-capital-labour relations; and for policy makers negotiating new social contracts.

Stuck in a job that’s boring you to tears? Slogging away at a business that’s never quite taken off? Still can’t decide what you’d rather do? It’s time to say ‘enough’.

The world has changed. It’s now possible for anyone to make a living from doing the things they love. The only problem is that no one has shown you how. Until now.

Based on life-changing ideas and tools proven with tens of thousands of people over the last decade, F**k Work Let’s Play is your blueprint to create a work-life full of fun, freedom and creativity; something more like play than work.

Packed full of stories from people who turned a passion into a living – or even a multi-million-pound business – you’ll discover 10 secrets to transform your working life, starting today.

There’s no need to suffer unfulfilling work a moment longer. Whether you want to start a business, create your ideal job, or change the world, F**k Work, Let’s Play is your guide to doing what you love and getting paid for it.

'In the current surge of organizational theory research on emotions in organizations, Dirk Lindebaum's book makes a unique and important contribution. He identifies and explores how workers' emotions are being abused as a tool of social repression by our bosses. In bringing together critical theory and theory on emotion regulation, he stimulates us to see through the workings of managerial power and, in the same go, offers ways to resist repressive emotional conditions in the workplace. A remarkable accomplishment that deserves to be read for both its theoretical insights and practical relevance!' - Frank den Hond, Hanken School of Economics, Finland Emotion is often used by organizations to manipulate and repress workers. However, this repression can have adverse psychological and social consequences for them. This book articulates the pathways through which this repression occurs, and offers emotion regulation as a tool for workers to emancipate themselves from this repression and social control. Bringing together the largely unconnected literatures on critical theory and emotion regulation, this book articulates two pathways to social control currently underexplored in management: one where the social functions of emotion are exploited, and one where discussions about emotion override its social function. The author illustrates the processes through which workers can start to 'see through' the repression, and enlist emotion regulation strategies to emancipate themselves from it. These strategies may work in the short to medium term but, in the long term, workers may eventually change jobs. If staff turnover becomes unsustainable, the organization can seek to change the social structures causing the repression of workers in the first place. Combining fresh theoretical insights with practically informed vignettes, this book will appeal to academics and students across many social science disciplines, including business studies, organization studies, cognitive change, sociology and psychology. Both practising managers and disenchanted workers will also find this an enlightening read.

A "riveting and powerful" (Gretchen Carlson, cofounder of Lift Our Voices) insider's account on Wall Street-an updated Liar's Poker-where greed coupled with misogyny and discrimination enforces a culture of exclusion in the upper echelons of Goldman Sachs. Jamie Fiore Higgins became one of the few women at the highest ranks of Goldman Sachs. Spurred on by the obligation she felt to her working-class immigrant family, she rose through the ranks and saw it all: out-of-control, lavish parties flowing with never-ending drinks; affairs flouted in the office; rampant drug use; and most pervasively, a discriminatory culture that seemed designed to hold back the few women and people of color employed at the company. Despite Goldman Sachs having the right talking points and statistics, Fiore Higgins soon realized that these provided a veneer to cover up what she found to be an abusive culture. Her "engrossing" (Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro, authors of Power, for All) account is one filled with shocking stories of harassment and jaw-dropping tales of exclusionary behavior: when she was told she only got promoted because she is a woman; when her coworkers mooed at her after she pumped for her fourth child, defying the superior who had advised her not to breastfeed; or when a male boss used a racial epithet in front of her, other colleagues, and clients without any repercussions. Bully Market "exposes the #MeToo movement's unfinished work on Wall Street" (Meighan Stone, author of Awakening: #MeToo and the Global Fight for Women's Rights) sounds the alarm on the culture of finance and corporate America, while offering clear, actionable ideas for creating a fairer workplace. Both a revealing, extraordinary look at the industry and a top Wall Streeter's explosive personal story, Bully Market is an essential account of one woman's experience in a flawed system that speaks to the challenge and urgency for change.

A high level of employee commitment holds particular value for organizations owing to its impact on organizational effectiveness and employee well-being. This Handbook provides an up-to-date review of theory and research pertaining to employee commitment in the workplace, outlining its value for both employers and employees and identifying key factors in its development, maintenance or decline. Including chapters from leading theorists and researchers from around the world, this Handbook presents cumulated and cutting-edge research exploring what commitment is, the different forms it can take, and how it is distinct from related concepts such as employee engagement, work motivation, embeddedness, the psychological contract, and organizational identification. Examining topics such as high-commitment work systems, work attitudes and motivation, the Handbook provides integration with related literatures. Internationally applicable, sections also discuss the implications of culture differences for commitment and present the latest developments in research methods and analytic techniques that can be used to advance our understanding of commitment. Comprehensive and engaging, the Handbook of Employee Commitment is essential reading for commitment scholars and researchers interested in the latest developments in the field as well as for international scholars who will benefit from its guidance on how to approach research in unique cultures. It will also prove of prime interest to managers and management consultants with its wealth of suggestions to guide evidence-based practice. Contributors: S.L. Albrecht, N.J. Allen, B.K. Anderson, L.M. Arciniega, J. Barling, T.E. Becker, K. Bentein, M.E. Bergman, D.R. Bobocel, N.L. Bremner, C.T. Brinsfield, G. Caesens, A.C. Chris, L. Clark, A. Cohen, S. Datta, V.L. Dhir, O.J. Dineen, R. Eisenberger, J.A. Espinoza, J. Felfe, M. Gagne, D.G. Gallagher, I.R. Gellatly, Y. Griep, S.D. Hansen, L.M. Hedberg, M.R.W. Hamstra, B.C. Holtom, P. Horsman, J. Howard, V.A. Jean, K. Jiang, Z. Junhong, E.K. Kelloway, H.J. Klein, J. Koen, E.R. Maltin, B. Marcus, J.P. Meyer, N.A. Morelli, A.J.S. Morin, F. Mu, A. Newman, H. Park, E. Read, R.A. Roe, O.N. Solinger, H. Spence Laschinger, D.J. Stanley, F. Stinglhamber, M. Trivisonno, R. Van Dick, W. Van Olffen, A.E.M. Van Vianen, R.J. Vandenberg, C. Vandenberghe, D. Wang, S.A. Wasti, J. Wombacher

Two pioneering researchers identify key causes of workplace burnout and reveal what managers can do to promote increased productivity and health. Burnout is among the most significant on-the-job hazards facing workers today. It is also among the most misunderstood. In particular, we tend to characterize burnout as a personal issue-a problem employees should fix themselves by getting therapy, practicing relaxation techniques, or changing jobs. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter show why this is not the case. Burnout also needs to be managed by the workplace. Citing a wealth of research data and drawing on illustrative anecdotes, The Burnout Challenge shows how organizations can change to promote sustainable productivity. Maslach and Leiter provide useful tools for identifying the signs of employee burnout, most often exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness. They also advise managers on assembling and interpreting worker self-evaluation surveys, which can reveal workplace problems and potential solutions. And when it comes to implementing change, Maslach and Leiter offer practical, evidence-driven guidance. The key, they argue, is to begin with less-taxing changes that employees nonetheless find meaningful, seeding the ground for more thorough reforms in the future. Experts estimate that more than $500 billion and 550 million workhours are lost annually to on-the-job stress, much of it caused by dysfunctional work environments. As priorities and policies shift across workplaces, The Burnout Challenge provides pragmatic, creative, and cost-effective solutions to improve employee efficiency, health, and happiness.

Rising life expectancy has led to the growth of the 'Sandwich Generation' - men and women who are caregivers to their children of varying ages as well as for one or both parents whilst still managing their own household and work responsibilities. This book considers both the strains and benefits of this position. Tackling a myriad of issues such as gender, parents and parents-in-law, ethnic differences, residential status, and developing changes in the caregiving relationship such as Alzheimer's or dementia, this book highlights the complexities of the caregiving relationship. Key chapters also address potential benefits including improved relationships, skill set development and generously giving to another. Expert contributors use examples to illustrate the need for organizations to address increases in caregiving among their employees and develop supportive policies and initiatives. They further show that there is a need at the country level to integrate employees, communities, employers, businesses and levels of government to deal with this increasing trend. This timely book will prove an indispensible reference for academics and students interested in the sandwich generation, caregiving and health. Its practical approach will also benefit human resource management professionals, managers dealing with sandwiched employees and health administrators at various levels of government. Contributors include: R. Attieh, S. Austen, R. Burke, L. Calvano, C.E. Greaves, T. Jefferson, N.L. Jimmieson, A.H. Kim, S. LoboPrabhu, N. Mandell, A. Mitra, V. Molinari, A. Ollier-Malterre, R. Ong, S.L. Parker, A.H. Prokos, J. Reid Keene, C. Reinicke, C.W. Rudolph, R. Sharp, P. Ulmanen, S.I. White Means, T. Yamashita, H. Zacher