_______________ 'A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions of what work means' - Yuval Noah Harari 'There is eminently underlinable stuff on most pages ... Fascinating' - The Times 'One of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down' - Susan Cain 'Illuminating' - New Statesman _______________ A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work, from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present The work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn't always the case: for 95% of our species' history, work held a radically different importance. How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? How did it transform our bodies, our environments, our views on equality and our sense of time? And why, in a time of material abundance, are we working more than ever before?

Push through when procrastination calls. Some days you're on fire at work; other days you're burned out and easily distracted. How can you maintain your drive, make consistent progress, and expend your energy wisely? This book will help you identify what's behind your flagging engagement and productivity-and provide the expert research and advice on what to do about it. This volume includes the work of: Annie McKee Heidi Grant Shawn Achor Elizabeth Grace Saunders How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

Do we regard our place of work as a prison? Is our place of work where we fulfil God's purpose for our life? Should church leaders consider returning to work? Is full-time ministry a heresy? This book is for every working man, woman and church leader: to challenge what we believe, what we preach,the language that we use and the way we behave, and to help us bring about a change in 'doing church' - where the church supports the workers as well as the workers the church.

The Encyclopedia of Cryptology addresses the basic theoretical concepts and provides a broad overview of the writing, sending, protection, and decrypting of codes and ciphers. This volume also includes biographical sketches, important events in the history of cryptography, and discussions of the practical applications of codes in everyday life. Illustrations, bibliographic references, and cross-references, plus two indexes complement the text. Includes biographical sketches of important figures and events in the history of cryptology Contains illustrations, bibliographic references, cross references, and two indexes

Using data from an ongoing longitudinal study of adolescents and young adults, this provocative volume examines the frequency, prevalence, and types of disruptive drug use in the workplace and in schools. The findings provide essential information for developing effective long-term prevention and education programs which focus on creating a drug-free work environment that is responsive to the needs of both employers and employees.

This critical resource gives managers, HR, and anyone who may come into contact with someone in trauma-including workplace violence, harassment, assault, illness, addiction, fraud, bankruptcy, and more-the tools they need to be prepared for what lies ahead. This book is crucial for every manager or HR representative who shouldn't just prepare to one day be faced with a report of a traumatic experience at work, but plan on it. This five-step method will help managers make survivors feel supported and understood. The Empathetic Workplace guides supervisors of any level through an understanding of how stories of trauma impact the brain of both the survivor and the listener, as well as the tools to handle the interaction appropriately, to help the listener, the organization, and most importantly, the survivor. The easy-to-follow LASER method outlined in these pages includes the following elements that all managers should know and understand: Listen-Controlling your own reaction, managing your body language, asking open-ended questions, hearing what is not being said, and winding down the speaker when the conversation becomes unproductive are essential elements in being a good listener. Acknowledge-Once someone shares a difficult personal story with you, it is important to acknowledge that gift. Share-You can help the speaker regain some measure of control by sharing information with him or her about what happened or what happens next, your personal or organizational values, and what you don't yet know but hope to learn. Empower-You can help the traumatized person by providing him or her with resources that are available to them through the company or outside groups. Return-The final step is to ensure that the traumatized person has a way to come back later when he or she cannot remember all that you said, thinks of more questions, or wishes for updates. The LASER technique can benefit all who are responsible for others, from top-tier managers at Fortune 500 companies to Residence Advisors in college dormitories.

Internationalisation is now a necessity for American organisations, leading to unprecedented cultural exchanges in multinational employers. Much has been written about Americans working abroad, but how do non-Americans feel about working for Americans? To answer this question, Bond Benton directly surveyed nearly 600 Foreign Service Nationals working for the US State Department.

Business as usual’ is not a sustainable strategy in the 21st-century workplace. Organisations have to adapt in order to thrive in the contexts of a transforming South Africa and increasing exposure to the global economy.

South African and African organisations need interventions based on international knowledge and best practices but supplemented with African research and application. In Fundamentals of Organisation Development and Change Management, the authors have combined their extensive local and international experience in the practice of organisation development and change management to present the student, manager and science practitioner with the fundamentals they need to facilitate change initiatives.

Key Features/ Benefits:

• Approaches to organisation development and change management
• The differences between organisation development and change management classic organisation development models and theories, combined with latest developments in the field
• A practical, structured approach to change managementcase studies in the South African context enriched learning activities throughout the text with added reflective questions, multiple choice questions and case studies at the end of each chapter.

The book covers the core concepts of organisation development with a good balance between theory and application, and is accessible to the novice student, manager and science practitioner of OD. Although the practice of organisation development is growing rapidly in South Africa and neighbouring countries, the lack of academic books on the subject for undergraduate students to serve as a foundation in this field poses a challenge. The aim of this book is to address this gap.

Increasing numbers of businesses and Information Technology firms are outsourcing their software and Web development tasks. It is has been estimated that currently half of the Fortune 500 companies have utilized outsourcing for their development needs and estimates that by the end of 2008, 40% of U.S. companies will either develop, test, support, or store software overseas, with another 40% considering doing the same. Several industries, from computer software to telemarketing, have begun aggressively shifting white-collar work out of the United States. The United States currently accounts for more than half of worldwide spending on IT outsourcing, with a growing portion of this spending going to countries such as India, Russia, and the Philippines, and this trend will continue. Research has indicated that the primary problem is language because of idiomatic expressions and subtle cultural nuances associated with the use of particular words. Thus communication frequently breaks down when dealing with overseas companies.

Just a few years ago, the concept of job-related privacy was barely recognized by the law and virtually unknown to most employers. Under the legal doctrine of employment-at-will, the conditions of most employment were dictated by employers, and workers held their jobs at the discretion of their superiors. In the past two decades, however, numerous laws and court rulings have established the doctrine of workplace privacy: the protection of employees and job applicants from attempts by employers to learn information about them and to regulate their activities on and off the job. This book examines the multi-faceted concept of workplace privacy, helping employers and workers to appreciate each other's legal rights, and offering practical suggestions for avoiding legal pitfalls.

A number of general privacy-related issues are addressed in the volume, including how to balance employee privacy interests with business needs, what adjustments should be made in regard to illicit drugs and drug testing, and the role of computers in monitoring employees. In language stripped of as much legal jargon as possible, Jon Bible and Darien McWhirter discuss some basic aspects of our legal system and consider why employee screening attracts so much attention today. They review factors that impinge on an employer's right to screen and trace the evolution of the privacy concept from its 1890 recognition as a legal article to its current applications in the field of employment law. Finally, they explore the privacy implications of specific employment screening devices, such as AIDS, drug, and polygraph testing, as well as on-the-job surveillance and lifestyle activity interference. Extensive references are supplied at the end of each chapter, and an appendix containing the entire text of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is also included. This study of an important legal issue will be a valuable reference source for the personnel and human resource professionals in most businesses, as well as for any employees who wish to further understand this complicated subject. Students of business and employee relations will also find it to be an important resource, as will both academic and public libraries.

A common complaint heard in today's business office is, There is paper everywhere but I cannot find the document that I'm looking for It is estimated that 90 percent of all data and information currently being processed and distributed within offices and between organizations resides on paper. Finding the physical space to store this paper can be a key problem. To overcome this problem and others, there is a need for a dramatic new approach to information processing found in business. Such an approach is found in this unique and useful volume.

Essentially, image processing systems in business use today's computer technology to solve paper processing and storage problems. Their main means of processing is performed electronically, that is, documents are captured initially on an electronic medium and forwarded to other users in the same mode. In this manner, their essential means of communicating with users is in an electronic format versus a paper one. Also, image processing systems in business are much more flexible in meeting changing user needs, especially when the data is stored on optical disk.

This book deals with how coaching interventions can drive a journey of transformational change at individual, team, and organizational levels. As a result, coaching interventions serve to create more reflective people, who in turn, create better organizations. The group coaching methodology, used by the INSEAD Global Leadership Center (IGLC) and adopted by the Center for Leadership Development Research (CLDR) at the European School of Technology and Management (ESMT), Berlin, is the basis for developing the theoretical assumptions behind the chapters. Through sharing research methodologies, and describing intervention and change techniques used in the leadership development and education of executive coaches, the book sheds light on how the 'magic' of coaching works, what coaches actually do, and how their clients respond.
This book is a joint project between the IGLC and the CLDR. In compiling it, we have involved academics who conduct research, teach, and consult; leadership development coaches; change consultants; and executives who adopted IGLC methods for reflection on leadership development opportunities and challenges. We have also included people who have experienced IGLC methods in the process of their developmental journeys. They have collaborated, consulted their research and practice notes, analyzed data from inquiry projects, and shared their personal experiences in individual essays.