The financial Crash of 2008 was not just about government regulation or lack thereof; the low tide of the Crash also revealed just how vulnerable our societies are to those organizations which focus so much on their own self-serving goals, that they ignore the damage they can do outside their walls. To counter this, the authors ask whether there is a better way to run this capitalist system of ours, instead of being tempted to throw it out and replace it with something much worse. Their prescription is to create the high engagement work culture in our organizations through a greater balance between the urges of 'me' and the desires and needs of 'we'; a work culture which brings real benefits to all stakeholders, not just the few, and drives the performance of our organizations to new heights. This is not 'pie in the sky': it is being lived by those companies featured in detail in these pages, such as Whole Foods Market and BMW.

During the last two decades, there have been many reports about the success and failure of investments in ICT and information systems. Failures in particular have drawn a lot of attention. The outcome of the implementation of information and communication systems has often been disastrous. Recent research does not show that results have improved. This raises the question why so many ICT projects perform so badly. Information, Organization and Information Systems Design: An Integrated Approach to Information Problems aims at discussing measures to improve the results of information systems. Bart Prakken identifies various factors that explain the shortfall of information systems. Subsequently, he provides a profound discussion of the measures that can be taken to remove the causes of failure. When organizations are confronted with information problems, they will almost automatically look for ICT solutions. However, Prakken argues that more fundamental and often cheaper solutions are in many cases available. When looking for solutions to information problems, the inter-relationship between organization, information and the people within the organization should explicitly be taken into account. The measures that the author proposes are based on organizational redesign, particularly using the sociotechnical approach. In cases where ICT solutions do have to be introduced, Prakken discusses a number of precautionary measures that will help their implementation. The book aims to contribute to the scientific debate on how to solve information problems, and can be used in graduate and postgraduate courses. It is also helpful to managers.

Social businesses and non-profit organizations act at the interface of markets and civil societies. Their executives are challenged by issues of social mission and economic rationale. This book presents a new concept of social businesses and a framework for the mission and strategy-related decision making in this complex concept.

Managing Creativity in Organizations addresses the notion of organizational creativity and innovation in general, and explores in some detail how it is achieved. The first part of the book critically reviews the literature on creativity. The second half explores the management of organizational creativity in the pharmaceutical industry. Here issues such as technology, cognition and leadership are introduced as central resources and practices in the management of organizational creativity and innovation. The research is based on management practices in four companies, all of whom have demonstrated a significant ability to exploit their organizational creativity.

Debate about organization and workplace learning has now moved on from viewing learning as a way of fostering control, to paving the way for viewing learning, working and living in the context of organizational complexity. The book suggests that by focusing on learning as a way of living, the needs of production can be reconciled with the need for employees to have satisfying engagement with their work.

A discussion on the social complexity approach, where dialogue and stories allow for the degrees of freedom needed for the opportunities of emergence to take root. The authors focus on the experience of coherence and how such experiential lessons differ from the establishment and maintenance of categories and labels.

This book is for upper-level students, managers and academics who are interested in exploring the 'messy reality' of the contemporary workplace and in considering how things might be done differently. In particular, it offers a critical perspective on organisational behaviour and the sociology of work. By challenging common sense ideas about management, this textbook offers an up-to-date view of the complex problems and dilemmas facing managers and workers in the contemporary world. Providing a fresh analysis and overview of several core themes, the chapters focus on applied ethics, social issues, diversity, continuity and change. Theoretical reflections are combined with detailed ethnographic studies to offer both breadth and depth. Individual chapters present studies on issues as diverse as teleworking, apprentices, paternalism, migration, animal charities, factory work and farm work. Underpinning all of these studies is a sense that the world of work could be a better place and that students, practitioners and tutors all have an obligation to question the assumptions in business and management. Key features include: * Original in-depth qualitative cases * Critical approach * Non-standard work situations * Presents lived experience rather than 'model' or 'idealised' problems * Focus on context, understanding and interpretation of complex situations * Examples of a variety of management practice * Discussion of management issues in wider philosophical and political context Contemporary Issues in Management would be suitable for those studying organisational behaviour, management, ethnography and sociology of work. The book will also be of interest to the general reader with an interest in developing a broader awareness of contemporary management.

Describes the decisions that led to the success of 16 software companies. The decisions are illustrated in detail, providing entrepreneurs with insights into what it takes to make a decision that can change the future of a company.

There are many different types and causes of trauma in the workplace which can impact employee behavior and performance. Thus, it is imperative for managers to discover new ways to combat these issues and work toward a more harmonious working environment for all. Impact of Organizational Trauma on Workplace Behavior and Performance is a comprehensive examination of the multiple types of workplace traumas and the solutions which will heal these challenges to increase overall organizational culture and success. Highlighting extensive coverage of relevant topics such as downsizing, change management, trauma exposure, and organizational leadership, this publication is ideal for practitioners, professionals, managers, and researchers seeking innovative perspectives on organizational traumas in the workforce.

Beyond Inclusion adopts a holistic and systems view of the organization, presents a behavioral model of organizational inclusion based upon research with thousands of employees, and discusses elements of organizational design that need to be adjusted to create, nurture, and sustain an inclusive culture.

This book is based on two seminars held at Rutgers on October 22, 1993, and May 6, 1994 entitled Incentive Regulation for Public Utilities'. These contributions by leading scholars and practitioners represent some of the best new research in public utility economics and include topics such as the theory of incentive regulation, dynamic pricing, transfer pricing, issues in law and economics, pricing priority service, and energy utility resource planning.

This book provides a set of integrated frameworks-capital, systems, and objects-that transcend managerial or technology hype by focusing on the long-term fundamentals that sustain organizational success. Many organizations are currently addressing two important transformational issues: ecological sustainability and digitization. Sustainability is a goal, an end, and digitization is a process, a means to achieve a goal. This book introduces a flexible model that can be applied to current and future organizational challenges, including sustainability and digitization, because the fundamentals are constant. This book is designed to serve two purposes for the readers: first, to present three conceptual foundations for designing and operating organizations (capital, systems, and objects in Part I); and second, to provide a reference source for implementing these ideas in an organization (Parts II and III). The Part I of the book, chapters 1 through 7, sets forth the conceptual foundations. The chapters mix concepts and practical examples to give a new way of thinking about the setting in which one may work many days each year. The Part II provides details and associated examples of every one of the thirty-six forms of capital conversion. It also illustrates how the five foundational systems support capital conversion in a variety of ways. Finally, the Part III is about measuring capital and systems. The book will resonate with practitioners and students of strategy, leadership, and organizational design. It is critical reading for leaders, industry experts, and general readers who want to understand how over thousands of years the capital creation system has developed today's world and will fashion its future.

* Serves as a design/art direction/writing/creative-collaboration primer for non-designers * Enables development of a common frame of reference for business and creative professionals, to foster better understanding and appreciation of the creative process - and better business results * Includes a chapter on diversity, equity, and inclusion in design

This case study book provides 30 cases and responses from 90 OD consultants with expert insights specific to each particular case topic. This book is the culmination of ten years of collaboration between the Homer Johnson, Peter Sorensen and Therese Yaeger, and the OD Network that originally printed these cases in the OD Practitioner. Now with the 30 case studies compiled in one OD resource book, both practitioners and academics can experience an OD challenge and value the differing responses from OD experts.

The banking sector is undergoing a process of fundamental transformation - mainly due to the challenges of digitalization, insistent customers, regulation and a volatile economic environment. This book provides an in-depth understanding of the underlying logic of 21st century's banking environment and helps to develop a roadmap for the successful transformation of contemporary business models. The authors introduce the 'Zurich model for a customer-centric banking architecture enabling the reader to develop a sustainable business model which copes with the challenges of this information age. They identify customer behavior traps in such an environment; introduce adequate strategic instruments and cornerstones for providing added value through financial services, and provide core factors for conducting a successful transformation process.

This book presents the comparative evaluation of international and industrial factors affecting the financial condition of enterprises. In the theoretical part, the results of previous research on the occurrence of the country and industry effect in the financial health of companies are reviewed. The aim of the empirical study is to determine such factors - national or industrial ones - that have a greater impact on the corporate performance in the selected European Union countries. Corporate performance is measured and described with the use of a large set of fundamental ratios. Corporate performance is therefore treated as a more complex matter influenced by such aspects as profitability, liquidity, working capital and solvency. The book especially analyses the importance of non-public companies of all sizes, which is also rare as current research focuses mainly on public companies due to the data constraints.

Multi-rational Management explains the concept of multirational management and illustrates it with many practical examples. It has primarily been written for 'reflective practitioners', i.e. those executives who continually think about their organisation and their own roles in that organisation.

The ethics of data and analytics, in many ways, is no different than any endeavor to find the "right" answer. When a business chooses a supplier, funds a new product, or hires an employee, managers are making decisions with moral implications. The decisions in business, like all decisions, have a moral component in that people can benefit or be harmed, rules are followed or broken, people are treated fairly or not, and rights are enabled or diminished. However, data analytics introduces wrinkles or moral hurdles in how to think about ethics. Questions of accountability, privacy, surveillance, bias, and power stretch standard tools to examine whether a decision is good, ethical, or just. Dealing with these questions requires different frameworks to understand what is wrong and what could be better. Ethics of Data and Analytics: Concepts and Cases does not search for a new, different answer or to ban all technology in favor of human decision-making. The text takes a more skeptical, ironic approach to current answers and concepts while identifying and having solidarity with others. Applying this to the endeavor to understand the ethics of data and analytics, the text emphasizes finding multiple ethical approaches as ways to engage with current problems to find better solutions rather than prioritizing one set of concepts or theories. The book works through cases to understand those marginalized by data analytics programs as well as those empowered by them. Three themes run throughout the book. First, data analytics programs are value-laden in that technologies create moral consequences, reinforce or undercut ethical principles, and enable or diminish rights and dignity. This places an additional focus on the role of developers in their incorporation of values in the design of data analytics programs. Second, design is critical. In the majority of the cases examined, the purpose is to improve the design and development of data analytics programs. Third, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are about power. The discussion of power-who has it, who gets to keep it, and who is marginalized-weaves throughout the chapters, theories, and cases. In discussing ethical frameworks, the text focuses on critical theories that question power structures and default assumptions and seek to emancipate the marginalized.

In Understanding Psychological Bonds between Individuals and Organizations the author integrates different theoretical perspectives on how individuals form deep, meaningful, and self-defining relationships with their employing organization and proposes a novel and comprehensive take on key triggers and processes associated with such relationships.

This book examines gender and professions in the 21st century. Historically the professions encompassed law, medicine and the church, all of which excluded women from participation. Industry and the 20th century introduced new professions such as engineering and latterly information technology skill and, whilst the increase in credentialism and accreditations open up further avenues for professions to develop, many of the 'newer' professions exhibit similar gendered characteristics, still based on a perceived masculine identity of the professional workers and the association of the professional with high level credentials based on university qualifications. In contrast, professions such as teaching and nursing, characterized as women's professions which reflected women's socially acceptable role of caring, developed as regulated occupations from the late 19th century. Since the 1970s and the women's movements, anti-discrimination and equal opportunity legislation and policies have aimed to break down the gendered bastion of the professions and grant women entry. With growing numbers of women employed in a range of professions and the political importance of gender equality gaining prominence globally, Gender and the Professions also considers how women and men are faring in a diverse range of professional occupations. Aimed at researchers, academics and policy makers in the fields of Professions, Gender Studies, Organizational Studies and related disciplines. Gender and the Professions provides new insights of women's experiences in the professions in both developed and less developed countries and in professions less often explored.

This book addresses the nexus of issues exploring governance structures and mechanisms in public service organizations, thus contributing to the development of disciplines that focus on public management. It goes beyond the state of the art by addressing a number of specific issues in a more systematic fashion. The book's interdisciplinary focus is a particularly valuable asset, as its topic is situated at the crossroads of a number of fields, including public management, business administration, corporate governance, policy studies, political science, sociology, and third sector studies, all of which offer important perspectives and are important for the development of public management and public services. The book covers more than Italy and Norway and focuses specifically on public service organizations, addressing more aspects of their governance structures and mechanisms than any other book available today. The unique presentation of features related to the governance and management of different actors (state-owned enterprises, local public utilities, ministries, municipalities, citizens, etc.), involved at different levels in the production and provision of public services, makes it possible to compare and contrast these different perspectives and opens new avenues of theoretical collaboration and development.

Black Women in Management highlights the trials, tribulations and achievements of professional and managerial black African women who now form part of the ever increasing number of women in paid employment worldwide. Focusing on the career and family lives of professional and managerial black African women originating from Sub-Saharan Africa and on the lives of black African women living and working within the corporate private sector in Johannesburg and London, this book explores how such women, with relatively similar colonial histories, cultures, career and professional backgrounds, handle their complex social positioning.As black African women with careers in major cities on opposite sides of the globe, the professional and managerial women, or transnational and emerging black elite women in the book are unique both in the workplace and in their communities. Although the women are part of the majority population in South Africa, they remain minorities within the professional and managerial circles of South Africa's corporate private sector. This is despite a strong sense amongst some South Africans that of all historically disadvantaged South Africans, black African women have benefited the most from employment equality polices. In the UK, black Africans form part of the growing black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in the country. However, while black African women form part of this growing black African community in the country, they remain minorities within the UK population, but also remain minorities in their role as professional and managerial women within the corporate private sector. This is in spite of black Africans having fairly high rates of higher education amongst the country's BME population. Black Women in Management identifies some of the differences and/or similarities that exist between these women's career choices and progression and explores how they address socio-cultural and gendered expectations of domestic, social and caring commitments as career women living and working in two urban cities - one African, the other European.