The ability to generate innovation and an entrepreneurial ecosystem is a vital part of any organization's survival and durability. By approaching decisions and projects through the lens of conscious evolution, institutions are able to reach maintainable solutions. Applications of Conscious Innovation in Organizations provides emerging research on the advancement of innovation and collaboration in organizational institutions. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics, such as software design, mobile applications, and web applications, this book is a vital resource for managers, professionals, students, researchers, and academics interested in the current methods and theories of coordination and policy regarding innovation.

'If you feel like a hostage of your to-do list, and struggle to find time for what matters most, this book will be a big help.' DANIEL H. PINK,#1 New York Times bestselling author of When and Drive The week just started and already you're playing catch-up. At the end of another busy day, your to-do list is longer than it was this morning. Enter GRIP: the book for everyone who has too much to do. This fresh, no-nonsense guide brings clarity and direction to even the most hectic workweek. Using tools you know - like your calendar, to-do list, and email - GRIP walks you through working smarter, thinking bigger, and clearing the way for what matters most. And GRIP's pick-and-choose structure makes it easy to dive in and start applying what you like straightaway. So you can reclaim your time and start chasing your wildest dreams. Today. 'Packed with immediately actionable insights and smart frameworks to put you in the driver's seat' JULIE ZHOU, former VP Design at Facebook and author of The Making of a Manager 'In a time when we all face so many demands, expectations and uncertainties, GRIP will help you take back control of your week and your life' TONY CRABBE, bestselling author of Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much

This book explores leadership and management in social sector organizations, which include, NGOs, non-profits, social enterprises, social businesses, and cross-sector collaborations focusing on advancing human dignity and social justice. It provides social sector leaders with an overview of current trends, issues, and challenges in the field as well as best practices to foster effective programs, sustain organizations and meet the growing demands of the sector. The enclosed chapters cover topics such as cross-sector organizational design, innovation for client services, gender management dynamics, policy advocacy, and the growing social entrepreneurship movement. The social sector is currently in a vibrant, dynamic, and exciting stage. The sector's role and relevance to advancing human dignity and social justice is greater than ever. The number and types of social sector organizations have increased exponentially around the world and are offering extraordinary and much needed contributions toward an array of social issues. The traditional NGOs and non-profit organizations continue to be an integral part of the global civil society. At the same time, the emerging organizational forms under the social entrepreneurship umbrella are providing new momentum and excitement within and outside of the social sector. The interest in social entrepreneurship is encouraging existing social sector entities to actively embrace and encourage innovation. This interest is also inspiring a new breed of professionals and organizations to contribute to the social sector. This trend falls under the larger social sector dynamic promoting the creation of "hybrid" and emergent organizational forms, which cross and combine the traditional non-profit and for-profit domains. Despite the increased interest, the social sector still faces challenges around the world. CIVICUS - an international group promoting civil society organizations and groups-- recently reported a rise in the restrictions on civil society activities in a number of countries through worsening policy and legal environments. Funding challenges for the social sector are thus becoming more significant. At the same time, the calls for social sector accountability and emphasis on results and impact are growing. This book aims to offer approaches and tools which allow for the bridging of demands between creativity and accountability, between inspiration and results, and between gaining individual commitment and shared ownership of agendas and achievements, all of which are needed to effectively operate in the changing social sector.

The book explores various aspects of cognitive and motivational psychology as they impact entrepreneurial behavior. Building upon the 2009 volume, Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind, the editors and contributors explore the cognitions, motivations, passions, intentions, perceptions, and emotions associated with entrepreneurial behaviors, in each case preserving their original chapters and enhancing them with thoughtful and targeted updates, reflecting on the most recent developments in theory and practice, telling the story of what has transpired in the last decade in the field of entrepreneurial psychology. The volume addresses such questions as: Why do some people start business and others do not? Is entrepreneurship a natural quality or can it be taught? Do entrepreneurs think differently from others? While there is a great deal of literature exploring the dynamics of new firm creation, policies to promote innovation and technology transfer, and the psychology of creativity; research on entrepreneurial mindset or cognition is relatively new, and draws largely from such related fields as organizational behavior, cognitive and social psychology, career development, and consumer research. In this book, editors Brannback and Carsrud have reassembled the contributors to Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind to discuss new research paradigms given their vantage point years after the original volume was published. Featuring the most current literature references, Revisiting the Entrepreneurial Mind continues to challenge conventional approaches to entrepreneurship and articulate an agenda for future research.

Drawing on contemporary debates and responding to an analytic lacuna in organization and management studies and calls from organizational practice, Phenomenology of the Embodied Organization explores the fundamental and integral role of the body and embodiment in organizational life-worlds.

Digital networking technologies are empowering organizations to form dynamic networks, generating exceptional or 'smart' results. These Smart Business Networks (SBNs) enable individual organizations to compete more effectively and to respond better to a changing world. This idea attracted a diverse group of academic scholars and business professionals to Beijing from May 19-23, 2008, hosted by Tsinghua University. They discovered new ways to manage network resources, operate business processes across a network, create a business operations platform, understand the importance of network position and the smart mastering of technology. Effective managers, they concluded, must have a firm understanding of these fundamental network concepts in order to orchestrate the networks of the future. This book presents the results of an intense and energizing event which resulted in new theoretical foundations and practical insights.

Modern logistics comprises operative logistics, analytical logistics and management of logistic networks. Central task of operative logistics is the efficient supply of required goods at the right place within the right time. Tasks of analytical logistics are designing optimal networks and systems, developing strategies for planning, scheduling and operation, and organizing efficient order and performance processes. Logistic management plans, implements and operates logistic networks and schedules orders, stocks and resources.

This reference-book offers a unique survey of modern logistics. It contains proven strategies, rules and tools for the solution of a multitude of logistic problems. The analytically derived algorithms and formulas can be used for the computer-based planning of logistic systems and for the dynamic scheduling of orders and resources in supply networks. They enable significant improvements of performance, quality and costs. Their application is demonstrated by several examples from industry, trade and service providers.

Apart from corrections and modifications the second edition contains a new chapter on "maritime logistics." It demonstrates how the methods of this book can be used to solve complex logistic problems of practical relevance for economy, society and environment.

The book is written for professionals, scientists, teachers and graduate students. An extensive index makes it a dictionary of modern logistics.

Far too many companies have developed outsourcing agreements that were created for a bygone century. Or worse, they are buying strategic services using an overly simplified commodity approach. Today's companies must build deep collaborative relationships with their suppliers that can accelerate the pace of innovation and competitive advantage amidst a new era of continual change and transformational shifts. This requires adopting a new methodology that has the inherent framework to design new levels of collaboration to drive business value. This new methodology is Vested Outsourcing. "The Vested Outsourcing Manual" is the companion guide to the ground-breaking book, "Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules That Will Transform Outsourcing." The break-out book introduced the research study conducted by The University of Tennessee and challenged the conventional approach to how companies outsource. In "The Vested Outsourcing Manual," Kate Vitasek and her co-authors have taken the Five Rules of Vested Outsourcing and developed the roadmap to creating a Vested Agreement through which each party has a vested interest in mutually-defined and desired outcomes. Vested Outsourcing methodology is built on a flexible framework that lays the foundational structure for the parties to come together and create a shared vision, foster an anticipatory lens, share evolving expertise, manage change and drive the required behavior for both parties to drive innovation and mitigate risk. These flexible - vested - agreements will allow the creation of value systems that have the ability to transform every industry and society. Shared vision, desired outcomes, transparency, trust, and win-win are not simply buzz words - they are the principals and values of Vested Outsourcing, being embraced by innovative giants like Microsoft, Intel, and P&G. Now companies and their suppliers have the manual to create a business model for a new century of constant change.

Institutions Incorporated draws together aspects of human and organizational corporeality and links them to institutions. Throughout European anthropology and culture the body has been conceptualized as the 'dark side' to soul and reason. This book explores the 'dark side' of institutions, their materiality and the bodily involvement of their users, in an environment where perfection is measured in intangible entities, notably reason and will. This innovative collection takes a closer look at the interplay of the symbolic and the material, and the triad of institutions, bodies and corporations. This exciting research examines what the tangible, 'dark side' of institutions means both for those who live in them, and those who study them.

Instead of yet another theory on good governance, this book presents a substantiation of contemporary notions. It builds on the theoretical foundations for taking an overall perspective on social contexts and culminates in a systemic framework that captures social structures based on first principles of viability and sustainability. The framework at hand enables applicants to view social contexts holistically while at the same time envisioning a rich picture of what leverages the implementation of social purposes beyond the boxes of the professional disciplines: social structures can be assessed, strengths and weaknesses identified and measures arrived at. Ultimately, the required structures can be tailor-made to align forces for a joint implementation of purposes. Conventional static hierarchies can be deployed into dynamic social organisms capable of developing and adapting continuously according to the opportunities and challenges faced.

This book examines the scriptural concepts that apply to leading and managing people. It begins with a chapter that contrasts leaders, managers, and administrators and the roles they each play. The book then presents the seven virtues from the Beatitudes and how these virtues result in leaders and managers' behaviors. The book then reviews the 15 characteristics of what love is and what love is not from the 1 Corinthians 12 passage. The book presents the four modalities of leaders as conveyed in the Ezekiel 1 and 10 chapters, as well as Revelations 4 where Ezekiel and John describe the four faces of the winged beings. The modalities are described in terms of contemporary leaders interacting with employees in the workplace. A chapter follows, based on the Parable of the Vineyard and how leaders should provide a minimum living wage. The book then compares the wife in Proverbs 31 to a good leader/manager in today's contemporary organization. The book ends with an admonition from Ecclesiastes 3:1 about the need for leaders/managers to step away and not meddle when the leader/manager's role is finished. Throughout the book, composite case examples provide practical application of the concepts to contemporary organizations.

This Handbook is a very timely contribution to organization and business studies. Most calls for longitudinal research are made in sections of published work that deal with limitations of the study or suggestions for further research. This book places longitudinal research methods at center stage. With its practical, hands-on approach it guides us how to design a longitudinal study in and around organizations - whether qualitative or quantitative - and how to implement it. I warmly recommend this Handbook to ambitious senior and junior researchers. It makes the commonly presented excuses for not undertaking longitudinal research completely redundant.' - Rebecca Piekkari, Aalto University, School of Business in Helsinki, Finland'This is a very timely book that fills an important gap in the field of research methods. So far very little attention has been paid to longitudinal research methods, while the usefulness of this type of research has often been discussed in many papers and conferences. Insights provided by scholars who have been doing this type of research provide useful guidelines for anyone interested in research methods from senior scholars to young researchers and PhD candidates. This volume will serve as an excellent complement to the existing range of books on research methods.' - Pervez Ghauri, King's College London, UK This innovative Handbook demonstrates that there is no single best approach to conducting longitudinal studies. At their best, longitudinal research designs yield rich, contextualized, multilevel and deep understanding of the studied phenomenon. The lack of resources in terms of time, funding and people can pose a serious challenge to conducting longitudinal research. This book tackles many of these challenges and discusses the role of longitudinal research programmes in overcoming such obstacles. This book shows how longitudinal research methods enable the understanding of dynamics, mechanisms, causalities and interrelationships of organizational and business concepts in context and in relation to time. It discusses the richness and versatility of longitudinal research and offers, to students and experienced scholars alike, numerous viewpoints, reflections and personal accounts about conducting longitudinal research, from planning and fieldwork to reporting and managing of research projects. Contributors: L. Aarikka-Stenroos, E.A. Alfoldi, P. Dawson, P. Eriksson, A. Halinen, M.E. Hassett, R. Hoy, T.D. Little, T. Mainela, C. Mari, O. Meglio, M.-J. Oesterle, E. Paavilainen-Mantymaki, Y. Ploudre, M. Rhemtulla, H.N. Richta, M.A. Sartor, J.P. Selig, T.W. Taris, Z. Vincze, C. Welch

This book presents conscious business as a constantly expanding and powerful approach to reinvent and shape organizations in a human and beneficial manner. In particular it examines the core characteristics, main drivers and challenges of conscious businesses in Germany. The book offers a structured overview of the current situation of the concept and outlines important issues that need to be considered in order to make independent decisions. Four case studies of successful conscious companies - differing in terms of their size, industry, legal form and international orientation - reveal concrete best practices and provide evidence for the approach's ability to deliver business paradigms that are simultaneously purposeful and profitable.

Leadership is motivation and motivation is leadership, say the authors of this important and unique study. The two elements are inseparable, but until now no one has actually conceptualized motivation in a useful way to demonstrate and analyze the connection between it and leadership. The key for leaders is dealing with the emotions that underlie and activate motivation. Maddock and Fulton provide a highly successful, proven, and replicable approach not only to motivate people, but also to train them to lead others. The authors develop an 11 level structure of human motivation that defines and describes motivation in simple, graphic, all-inclusive language. They then show how leaders can use this motivational hierarchy to solve complex problems in the workplace. The result is a blueprint to help executives in all types of organizations manage more effectively, and as they do so, to motivate and truly lead the people who depend on them for guidance and direction.

Maddock and Fulton offer several scenarios to show how their ideas work in practice. In the vertical fix they demonstrate how motives that get out of synch with each other can be re-aligned, eliminating the chaos that would otherwise occur. In the lateral fix they show how a person who may be functioning at the extreme edge of motivation can be moved back toward the center, a place where the person's effect on others is most and best felt. Well documented throughout, their book will be important reading for training and development professionals, specialists in organizational behavior, and executives at all levels in public and private sectors.

"The complexity and tensions of industrial innovation processes are fleshed out through the analysis of an intriguing case study from the food industry. Drawing together insights from multiple disciplines, this book shows the controversial nature of innovation processes."--

A comprehensive collection by Professor Cary Cooper and his colleagues in the field of workplace stress and wellbeing, which draws on research in a number of areas including stress-strain relationships, sources of workplace stress and stressful occupations.
Split into two volumes, the chapters present a range of research and theories linked to the field of occupational stress and wellbeing. It charts the flow from concerns about specific occupations to the widening of the concept of stress into the more positive arena of wellbeing. By showing where we came from to where we are now, we hope it will help to develop the field of identifying and helping people who have to cope with the excessive pressures of work in a more insecure and less stable economic climate.
Volume 1
Theory and Reviews of Stress and Wellbeing
Stress-Strain Relationships
Sources of Workplace Stress
Stressful Occupations
Research Methods in Stress and Wellbeing
Volume 2
Stress Management
Stress and Wellbeing Issues
Work-life Balance
Wellbeing

This book includes 23 papers dealing with the impact of modern information and communication technologies that support a wide variety of communities: local communities, virtual communities, and communities of practice, such as knowledge communities and scientific communities. The volume is the result of the second multidisciplinary "Communities and Technologies Conference," a major event in this emerging research field. The various chapters discuss how communities are affected by technologies, and how understanding of the way that communities function can be used in improving information systems design. This state of the art overview will be of interest to computer and information scientists, social scientists and practitioners alike.

The impact of Chinese culture can be felt in all areas of business and management in China, from Chinese firms to Western companies. This edited volume integrates contributions from multiple disciplines and countries, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. More than merely a compendium of how-to-do-business-in-China tips, this book examines the influence of culture--specifically, Confucian values and Chinese traditions--on foreign direct investment, joint ventures, management styles and theories, and organizational behavior.

Alon and his contributors demonstrate that significant differences still exist between Chinese and Western cultures, and that these differences require an adaptation on both sides. Chinese firms will need to adapt to the way Western organizations do busines, as well as to currents in Western management theory; meanwhile, Western firms will need to take Chinese cultural influences into account when formulating strategy. Both sides can benefit from the insights contained in this volume, which is relevant for scholars of international business, cross-cultural management, and organizational behavior.

This collection of articles uses economic theory to explain the governance of organizations. It covers the governance of families, oligarchies, democracies, for profit firms and non-profit institutions such as religious organizations. The widespread and novel subject matter within a set of focused economic questions results in fascinating reading allowing the reader to see how similar issues can be answered in areas where the person has little knowledge of the subject. This is an engaging and useful tool for students, researchers and academics wanting to expand their area of expertise into new and exciting realms. Contributors include: D. Acemoglu, R. Gibbons, H. Hansmann, P. Leeson, P. Rubin, B. Weingast

The overall aim of this volume is to present the research studies carried out in the Middle East and Asia in the fields of culture and gender and their influence on leadership in particular. The cultures and practices of these geographical regions are very much varied and this book, "Culture and Gender in Leadership: Perspectives from the Middle East and Asia," brings together analyses of these themes in selected countries of these two regions. The chapter authors use detailed descriptions, case studies and vignettes to speak to the cultural relativism and gender in leadership in these countries and provide a unique and comparative perspective drawn from their own cultures.
This volume also contributes to the development of theory and empirical research found in these regions and through the collective efforts presented in this book, attempts to strengthen the body of knowledge and practice in the fields of culture and gender in leadership. As Asia is becoming the engine of economic growth for the world and Arab Spring is opening up new vistas in the Middle East, this book is a must read.

Professionals Making Judgments examines the role of judgment in professional work and as a constitutive principle of professionalism more broadly. The book reviews the professionalism and makes the argument that too many studies of professionalism put emphasis on rational decision-making at the expense of intuition, experiences, and acquired skills that enables professionals to operate effectively. In addition, the volume discusses the concept of heterarchy as an organizational form that not only tolerates but actively encourages alternative views and therefore promotes professional judgment as a key skill. The more theoretical parts of the book are complemented by empirical studies of three distinct domains of professional practice in reproductive medicine, in a faith-based organization (the Church of Sweden), and a regional government agency. The volume thus contributes to the literature on professionalism by making a connection between analytical skills, decision-making capacities, and performance in professional work without reducing professional work to one-dimensional forms of rationality.

Despite our national preoccupation with achievement, little attention seems to be paid to the pursuit of excellence on an individual basis. For while it's easy to talk about the collective excellence of an organization, Seth Allcorn argues, no one really wants to be threatened by the superior individual performance of another. In this work, Allcorn examines the paradox of human nature that places individuals of distinction in the position of being rejected and ostracized by their peers. He explores the psychological underpinnings of this phenomenon and suggests ways of revising organizational culture to foster individual excellence.

Focusing on the psychological aspects of people and the workplace, Allcorn divides his study into three sections. The first offers an introduction to the search for excellence and discusses the identification of workplace superstars. Also examined are the organizational trends that inhibit individual achievement, the interaction between the superstars and others, and the psychology of office behavior. Section two details the different types of superstars found in organizations and their approaches to achieving excellence. Finally, section three explores some possibilities for adapting current organizational structures to allow and encourage greater pursuit of personal excellence. With its basis in the author's practical experience in middle management, this volume will be a valuable resource for students and professionals in human resource management as well as the management and business fields.

This work proposes that Carl Menger's Subjective Theory of Value (STV), and its subsequent elaboration by Ludwig von Mises as Praxeology, provides a useful alternative to more common methods in the study of action and social phenomena, and more specifically, to leadership in complex social systems. Rather than being based on rationality assumptions and algorithmic predictability, the STV emphasizes transient subjectivity shaped by a complex world of lacking information, mistakes, disequilibrium, uncertainty and attempted error correction that defy mathematization and exact prediction. As such, it is a framework to make sense of human action systems in terms of subjective understanding, learning, and uncertainty, rather than quantitative predictability. Accordingly, the aim of this work is to explain the STV as a general theory of action and to demonstrate its capability in developing adequate qualitative theory and to elaborate on some of the major topics that its implications raise with regard to leadership. The power of the method can be seen in that its procedure naturally branches out to facilitate an understanding of a broad selection of processes and may provide the basis for a universal theory of leadership.

Organizational change is still an issue of high importance for organizations, yet many change initiatives fail. These failures are often attributed to a lack of consideration of existing organizational culture. This book explores ways to undertake cultural change within a shorter time span without losing sight of complexity and sustainability.