"Redesigning the Work of Human Services" explores alternative organizational designs for the delivery of human services--designs that emphasize collaborative governance and partnerships among public and private agencies, local control and responsibility for results, and the use of innovative information, planning, and community capacity-building technologies. This book redefines the debate about whether human services should be privatized or not. The author suggests that the basic task of human services--to enable families to socialize the young--is one that can neither be fulfilled effectively by the state nor by private agencies. Rather, carefully crafted public-private partnerships, when combined with new accountability mechanisms and the sophisticated use of emerging information technologies, are likely to offer more in the way of effective, efficient, and appropriate human services. Because this work is solidly grounded in the literature on both human and business services, the author's suggestions for major redesign are comprehensive and intelligently qualified.

The first management book to describe with numerous original examples, how successful leaders combine 'the three agendas' of strategy, leadership and followers engagement. It is down to earth, pragmatic and offers a solid toolbox for leaders who are about to engage into a major, large scale change.

Over the past five years the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research has welcomed research projects by the very best qualitative, organizational researchers in the world. This conference has helped authors develop and hone theoretical ideas in an environment friendly to qualitative methods, and more importantly, has begun to build a community of qualitative researchers that work on organizational and management issues. The authors winning the ""Best Presentation Awards"" at the Davis Conference over the past five years have contributed chapters to this volume. The ideas in these chapters were ""born"" before the conference, but were nurtured through dialogue at the conference, and subsequently matured through later interactions among the community of qualitative scholars associated with the conference. As such, this volume represents the fruits of our collective labor as a qualitative research community. This collective and iterative process is a hallmark of qualitative methods, and often leads to a counter-intuitive, ""ah-hah"" experience for the researcher. This volume showcases some of the very best of those ah-hah experiences from the organizational, qualitative research community.

Expanding Competition in Regulated Industries reviews the changing regulatory environment, notably incentive regulation and competition in regulated industries. Some of the major changes in electricity, gas, and telephone utilities allow for competition in local service through unbundling. This book is of interest to researchers, utility managers, regulatory commissions, and the Federal Government.

This work on networks in and around organizations is part of a series that considers the theoretical, methodological and research issues relevant to organizational sociology. Both micro and macro sociological approaches are emphasized.

As communication and leadership skills are both essential for personal and organizational success, new approaches and management styles are continuously being sought. Emerging technologies, automation opportunities, and a diverse workforce are just a few of the challenges business professionals must be prepared for in today's workplace environment. The Handbook of Research on Strategic Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Management in Modern Organizations provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of managing and solving conflicts, and introduces updated approaches for refining communication and leadership skills. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as emotional intelligence, organizational crises, and virtual team management, this book is ideally designed for professionals, leaders, managers, and human resource specialists seeking current research on developing the skills and consciousness needed to effectively communicate, negotiate, and collaborate in diverse organizations.

Organisational Semiotics offers an effective approach to analysing organisations and modelling organisational behaviour. The methods and techniques derived from Organisational Semiotics enable us to study the organisation by examining how information is created and used for communication, coordination and performance of actions towards organisational objectives. The latest development of the young discipline and its applications have been reported in this book, which provides a useful guide and a valuable reference to anyone working in the areas of organisational study and information systems development.

Effective education and training is essential to the positive development of a manager in corporate or organizational settings. In order to stay abreast of current management trends, it is necessary to implement new perspectives and technologies being utilized in the field. Innovation and Shifting Perspectives in Management Education features a comprehensive assessment of the complexities present in management training programs in educational settings. Highlighting best practices and real-life experiences within the field, this book is an essential reference source for practitioners, policy makers, undergraduate and graduate students, academics, managers, and professionals.

Volume 22 of Research in Organizational Behavior continues the tradition of innovation and theoretical development with eight diverse papers. Most of these papers present theory and propositions that make linkages between different levels of analysis.

The publication of this clinically analytical and trenchantly insightful volume is felicitously timed. By fortuitous coincidence, it comes at a time when the Chicago School enjoys a high-water mark of acceptance in U.S. legal circles, and at a time when the U.S. merger movement of the 1980s is cresting. It provides a welcome warning against the dangers of translating abstract theories, based on highly restrictive (and unrealistic) assumptions, into facile public policy recommendations. As such the Schmidt/Rittaler study serves as a needed antidote to the currently fashionable predilection to confuse ideology with science. In the Chicago lexicon, the only appropriate policy toward business is a policy of untrammeled laissez-faire. Because there are no market imperfec tions (other than government-created or trade-union-generated monopolies), the market can be trusted to regulate economic activity, inexorably meting out appropriate rewards and punishments. In this ideal world, corporate size and power can be safely ignored. After all, corporations become big only only because they are efficient, only because they are productive, only because they have served consumers better than their rivals, and only because no newcomers are good enough to challenge their dominance. Once an industrial giant becomes lethargic and no longer bestows its productive beneficence on society, it will inevitably wither and eventually die. This is the "natural law" that governs economic life. It demands obedience to its rules. It tolerates no interference by the state."

This book bridges a crucial gap in the literature on gender and organizational culture by providing an historical account of how discriminatory practices develop, are maintained but also change over time. Drawing on in-depth interviews and extensive archival material, the author presents an historical account of the way specific discriminatory practices developed and changed over the life of three airline companies--British Airways, Air Canada, and Pan American Airways. The book covers the period 1919 to 1991 and is organized around key periods in the hiring and treatment of female employees but the focus is on gender in the broadest sense of the word (looking at the social construction of male and female sexuality; heterosexuality and homosexuality). Gender is explored through analysis of organizational symbolism, workplace practices and organizational structuring. As a history of discriminatory practices the book is unique in the field of business and corporate history.

Organizations - whether profit or nonprofit, services or manufacturing - need to be able to adapt and transform their cultures to succeed. Yet cultural transformation can seem either too easy or completely overwhelming. "Transforming Culture" shows how effective and sustainable cultural transformation can be achieved even in a challenging environment such as a General Motors manufacturing plant. The authors offer both a practical approach and tools to draw on the energy and ideas of employees and executives, remove obstacles to change, and create durable improvements.

This book recognizes that organizations do all they can to increase their chances for survival and growth, especially in changing and often tough economic times. The book shows how human resource development can help by being action-oriented and tailored to the organization's changing requirements. Close working relationships are needed between human resource professionals and corporate executives to ensure that employee development policies support the organization and that organizational initiatives take human resource considerations into account. The authors, who have considerable management and administrative experience in dynamic organizations, show how to establish and refine human resource policies and programs to meet the needs of changing organizations.

The book begins by examining directions for organizational change, including mergers, downsizing, restructuring, expansion to new markets, and using new technologies. Individual motivation is described as a way of understanding employees' career goals in relation to changing organizational opportunities. New roles for managers are outlined, including the roles of educator, developer, experimenter, and facilitator. The book then outlines human resource programs that facilitate organizational transformation. These include ways to create a comprehensive human performance system that ties together personnel selection, training, goal-setting, appraisal, feedback, and compensation. Recognizing the changing demographics of the workforce, programs for managing diversity are reviewed. The book concludes with ways to diagnose organizational needs and establish new human resource and training strategies that create a continuous learning environment. The book will be useful to human resource and training departments. Overall, the book offers guidelines for developing people--oneself and one's subordinates--in changing organizational environments.

The notion of paradox dates back to ancient philosophy, yet only recently have scholars started to explore this idea in organizational phenomena. Two decades ago, a handful of provocative theorists urged researchers to take seriously the study of paradox, and thereby deepen our understanding of plurality, tensions, and contradictions in organizational life. Studies of organizational paradox have grown exponentially over the past two decades, canvassing varied phenomena, methods, and levels of analysis. These studies have explored such tensions as today and tomorrow, global integration and local distinctions, collaboration and competition, self and others, mission and markets. Yet even with both the depth and breadth of interest in organizational paradoxes, key issues around definitions and application remain. This handbook seeks to aid, engage, and fuel the expanding interest in organizational paradox. Contributions to this volume depict how paradox studies inform, and are informed, by other theoretical perspectives, while creating a resource that enables scholars to learn about and apply this lens across varied organizational phenomena. The increasing complexity, volatility, and ambiguity in our world continually surfaces paradoxical dynamics. Thus, this handbook offers insights to scholars across organizational theory.

Leaders are usually held responsible for the trust, health and success of an organization, but it is the culture of organizations that provides the true foundation for these important factors. The leader's personality and skills influence how a trustful environment and working relationship is created, but the organization has a culture, tradition and experience of its own which influences the leader's success. The level of trust in an organization's culture will ultimately determine whether or not it is trustful, healthy and successful.
Based on the interview of current and former chief executive officers from profit and non profit organizations to record their experiences in creating trust in their environment and their perceptions of the health of their organizations. The collected data reveals:

- The qualities of a "trusted" leader;
- How they created trust or;
- How trust was destroyed in organizations;
- How leaders worked in distrustful environments;
- How to create a more healthy organization.

This timely work will be of interest to organizations and occupational sociologists, human resource workers, social psychologists, and students of management courses.

Companies need to invest in innovation in order to ensure their long-term survival. This book focuses on how and why key players support or obstruct the implementation of a technological innovation in ambidextrous organizations, and how the interaction between players involved in daily business and innovation affects implementation of innovation in 'high reliability organizations'. This book argues that an organization has to create new innovations or adopt innovations to constantly deliver attractive products on the one hand, while also adjusting and improving current products and processes on the other. In turn, it addresses a specific problem: What if a company operates in an innovation-averse and procedural environment and culture? Drawing on case studies, focus group studies and a unique analytical framework, it then provides ways for companies to overcome this situation.

This book was written to help organizations and their members better manage stress. Through a simple framework, C-O-P-E, human resource managers are provided the tools with which to determine if they and their organization are in Control, are showing Outward signs of distress, have Personality predispositions which escalate or de-escalate stress levels, and are Energy-balanced. The book's tone is optimistic, and its theme is: If there is a stress problem, identify it, fix it, but never ignore it. Treatment interventions typically employed by stress experts for fixing stress problems are discussed. Case histories are discussed to give managers a clearer understanding of what can go wrong with coping efforts, and what individuals and organizations can do to turn a negative situation into a positive one.

Professionals, such as human resource managers and industrial psychologists, and those teaching and researching in such fields as human resource development and training and organizational behavior, will be interested in this work.

Traditionally, tapping into the power of competitive intelligence (CI) meant investing in the development of an internal CI unit or hiring outside consultants who specialized in CI. "Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence" offers an alternative: learn how to do it yourself and how to effectively manage the parts you cannot. The tools and techniques that will enable you to produce your own CI for your consumption are out there, and have been honed by decades of work. But, you cannot just adopt them - you have to adapt them.

Why? Because, when you finish reading this book, you will be the data collector, the analyst, and the end-user. Traditional CI is premised on a reactive, two part relationship - a CI professional responding to what an end-user identifies as a need; by doing this yourself you can turn CI from being reactive to being proactive. As the decision-maker, you can get what CI you need, when you need it, and then use it almost seamlessly. Written by two of the foremost experts on CI, Proactive "Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence"

shows where and how CI can help you and your firm,

provides practical guidance on how to identify what CI you need, how to find the data you need, and how to analyze it, and

discusses how to apply CI to develop competitive- and career- advantages.

Each chapter is supported by important references as well as by an additional list of resources to support and supplement your knowledge. "Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence" teaches you how to generate proactive intelligence and use it to advance your business and your career- making it an essential resource for managers and executives, as well as everyonewho wishes to integrate CI into their daily work routine."

This is the 18th volume in an annual series of reviews of research in organizational behaviour. This volume covers such topics as affective events theory, motivational agendas in the workplace and consequences of public security for leaders and their organizations.

This book emphasizes that entrepreneurship is a social activity that takes place within and among organizational systems rather than as an individual activity. To provide a comprehensive view of entrepreneurship as an organizational phenomenon, new theory building and empirical chapters are supplemented by previously published work updated to reflect current developments.

Many writers assume that employees will be as committed as managers to changing work organizations to meet the demands of global competition. Charles Boyd discusses reasons why many employees do not commit to these changes. He explains how an oversized menu of life choices complicates many people's lives, with profound changes in the family, government, organized religion, and education adding to many people's confusion. These problems cause employees to reject still more change at work, making it difficult for managers to get the commitment they need to the changes they must make. Boyd explores the reasons for the changes in personal lives and in our society's institutions. He offers ways managers can get the commitment they need for organizational change.

The book opens with a thorough discussion of the forces making organizational change necessary. Boyd discusses the barriers to commitment inside and outside organizations that slow or block needed changes, and shows how managers can overcome these barriers. The book gives examples of organizations that gain commitment to change by using good compensation plans and by tying goals to employee achievement. Boyd discusses the importance of developing a more productive work force for global markets and how to do so. He concludes by describing the star organization, a type designed to meet employees' needs and today's changing economic demands. This book is an important guide for human resource managers, chief executive officers, and college and public libraries.

This volume is motivated by key questions and challenges associated with reviving and developing a comparative perspective. One organizing theme of the volume is to present comparative analysis as a means to explain and describe organizational heterogeneity, at varying levels and contexts. While much empirical work looks for the sources of homogeneity within fields, industries, etc., we believe that one advantage of doing comparative analysis is to make assessments of the observed differences between organizations. Thus, we have asked all of the authors to consider how their style of comparative analysis enhances our understanding of organizational heterogeneity. The volume consists of two sections: an introductory essay section and a section where authors focus on specific theoretical, methodological and empirical topics. A couple of papers are original empirical analyses that use a comparative logic or method. We expect that each paper, in addition to providing a theoretical contribution, will offer a meta-discussion that explains how taking a comparative approach enhances our understanding of the phenomenon of interest.

Conquer the most essential adaptation to the knowledge economy The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy. With so much riding on innovation, creativity, and spark, it is essential to attract and retain quality talent--but what good does this talent do if no one is able to speak their mind? The traditional culture of "fitting in" and "going along" spells doom in the knowledge economy. Success requires a continuous influx of new ideas, new challenges, and critical thought, and the interpersonal climate must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Not every idea is good, and yes there are stupid questions, and yes dissent can slow things down, but talking through these things is an essential part of the creative process. People must be allowed to voice half-finished thoughts, ask questions from left field, and brainstorm out loud; it creates a culture in which a minor flub or momentary lapse is no big deal, and where actual mistakes are owned and corrected, and where the next left-field idea could be the next big thing. This book explores this culture of psychological safety, and provides a blueprint for bringing it to life. The road is sometimes bumpy, but succinct and informative scenario-based explanations provide a clear path forward to constant learning and healthy innovation. Explore the link between psychological safety and high performance Create a culture where it's "safe" to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes Nurture the level of engagement and candor required in today's knowledge economy Follow a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety in your team or organization Shed the "yes-men" approach and step into real performance. Fertilize creativity, clarify goals, achieve accountability, redefine leadership, and much more. The Fearless Organization helps you bring about this most critical transformation.