A comprehensive introduction and teaching resource for state-of-the-art Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R software. This guide facilitates the efficient teaching, independent learning, and use of QCA with the best available software, reducing the time and effort required when encountering not just the logic of a new method, but also new software. With its applied and practical focus, the book offers a genuinely simple and intuitive resource for implementing the most complete protocol of QCA. To make the lives of students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners as easy as possible, the book includes learning goals, core points, empirical examples, and tips for good practices. The freely available online material provides a rich body of additional resources to aid users in their learning process. Beyond performing core analyses with the R package QCA, the book also facilitates a close integration with the R package SetMethods allowing for a host of additional protocols for building a more solid and well-rounded QCA.

Why are some teams, businesses, countries and cultures successful and enduring, and some not? The book describes practical applications of collective intelligence, and unlocks the secrets of highly successful teams at all levels in corporations and governments. Well-known companies are analysed, and the reasons for their success or decline explained. The Mystery of Collective Intelligence proposes a new theory of organizational intelligence, explaining how organizational intelligence lies behind AI, robotics and the accelerating automation that is revolutionizing industry around the world. The book explains how organizations themselves can improve their decision-making cultures. The Mystery of Collective Intelligence describes the scientific basis for collective decision-making, and discusses how ethical and socially responsible corporate objectives lead to increased innovation and information sharing, which ultimately leads to improved economic success.

Over recent decades, the notion of leadership has become increasingly significant in organisational and management literature. Leadership: A Critical Review and Guide provides both a map of the leadership territory, and a guide through it. The book presents an overview of the main strands of the theoretical and empirical evidence associated with the study of leadership; highlights the different ways in which leadership is envisaged; and explores current developments in the thinking and practice of leadership. In so doing, it discusses and reviews some of the most important contributions to this field of study. Leadership: A Critical Review and Guide is designed for students of leadership; those working in leadership positions; and for human resource professionals and management academics.

The World Economic Forum recognizes negotiation as one of the ten most important practical life skills. Books explaining negotiation tactics have been best sellers for many years, but most miss the dynamic interplay of tactics during an actual negotiation. Learning Negotiation Through Literature fills that gap in an engaging and entirely unique way, with line-by-line analysis of extracts from classic and contemporary literature. The book also addresses the ethics of negotiation tactics, and whether that changes with culture or topic. Author: David Churchman is Professor Emeritus, California State University, Dominguez Hills, where he originated an MA in conflict management teaching one course in conflict theory and one in negotiation. A three-time Fulbright Scholar (Cyprus, Ukraine, Norway) in conflict management he also was an army officer and National Science Foundation program officer. After an apprenticeship training animals, especially big cats and raptors for movies, he co-founded a nonprofit company, using injured non-releasable exotic animals kept in a licensed facility, for an educational program averaging 100,000 student contacts each year.

Homework, hormones, heartache...middle school has no shortage of perils. Never fear, the authors of the best-selling Worst-Case Scenario series return with a survival guide for those who are facingor just about to facethis big transitional time in school and life. The handbook is packed with funny-but-useful tips for the trickiest situations that crop up in middle school, like taking charge of a too-busy homework schedule, dealing with a cold shoulder from a friend who has suddenly become just too cool, avoiding common e-mail and cell phone disasters, and more.