Exploring the diversity of small firms, this contributed volume focuses on the crucial topic of work and the ways in which it is regulated, and offers reflections on the future of labour more generally. Traditionally managed through informal and adaptive processes, small firms allow us to understand the challenges and opportunities facing larger companies within an increasingly fragmented global production system. Analysing the case of Italy, a country characterised by a high number and wide variety of small firms, the authors draw on the results of a survey involving over 2,300 firms and face-to-face interviews with owner-managers working in 60 small and micro firms across several different sectors. Providing detailed analysis which will be useful for scholars of human resource management and small business, as well as managers, practitioners and policy-makers, the book enables a better understanding of the world of work in a globalised economy.

The authors review the state of the art in employee development, identifying what human resource development is, how it functions in today's organizations, what kinds of programs and methods are available, and how such programs are evaluated. They offer an integrated and comprehensive model of employee development through which programs can be implemented and coordinated in order to achieve better results. Finally, they provide case studies of two organizations that have utilized the integrated approach to employee development that they advocate.

* Authored by a collaborative, diverse, and inclusive community of contributors, rather than offering a singular point of view on change efforts * Addresses the topic of transformational change from multiple perspectives including individual, team, organization, and society, and through business, personal, and social lenses * Presents a pragmatic practitioner-based emphasis on the why, when, where, who, and how of successes and failures - including related patterns and threads of key learnings that do not rely on one specific framework or model

Value creation is the bedrock of business. It's what sets you apart from your competition, secures long-term customers, and brings distinct meaning to your brand and your solution. Without creating a value for your business, your unique offering will be seen as just another commodity in the eyes of your target market. It's in every business leaders' vocabulary and uppermost in their overall strategy. In fact, it is considered to be the purpose o a company according to the Business Roundtable and the World Economic Forum. Many companies and leaders seek to create value but do not know how. As a result, they continuously create value and but the result is they unconsciously destroy what they've build. To create long-term value, organizations need to put in place the infrastructure, capability and relationships (tangible and intangible assets) that enable them to meet the needs of their customers and stakeholders. This book is intended to make value creation understood and used by executives and managers. The book describes value creation in its various nuances, how it arises, how it is used, and the width of value creation, from how it impacts a company and how that company can become more successful by creating value for customers. The author also provides tips for CEOs, managers, HR and other professionals on how to succeed in value creation as a long-term strategy. The author also uses numerous examples and case studies to illustrate points being made.

The Handbook of Mediation gathers leading experts across fields related to peace, justice, human rights, and conflict resolution to explore ways that mediation can be applied to a range of spectrums, including new age settings, relationships, organizations, institutions, communities, environmental conflicts, and intercultural and international conflicts. The text is informed by cogent theory, state-of-the-art research, and best practices to provide the reader with a well-rounded understanding of mediation practice in contemporary times. Based on four signature themes-contexts; skills and competencies; applications; and recommendations-the handbook provides theoretical, applicable, and practical insight into a variety of key approaches to mediation. Authors consider modern conflict on a local and global scale, emphasizing the importance of identifying effective strategies, foundations, and methods to shape the nature of a mediation mindfully and effectively. With a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, the text complements the development of the reader's competencies and understanding of mediation in order to contribute to the advancement of the mediation field. With a conversational tone that will welcome readers, this comprehensive book is essential reading for students and professionals wanting to learn a wide range of potential interventions for conflict.

Contextualising humanitarian work in history, justice, methods and professional ethics, this book articulates process skills for transformational partnerships between diverse organizations, motivating education, organizational learning and selecting the disaster workforce.

Fact: Wellness programs benefit the bottom line. Motorola, for example, found that each dollar invested in wellness benefits returned $3.93 in health and disability cost savings. "Next-Generation Wellness at Work " tells how to get in on the action. A nuts-and-bolts, how-to guide for managers, it delivers the latest thinking on how to take full advantage of the benefits that wellness programs can offer both employees and companies. And the effort couldn't be more important. With the soaring cost of medical care and the increase in obesity and lifestyle-related illnesses, there is growing recognition that companies must build a culture of health and enable employees to become better guardians of their own well being. This book illustrates, in detail, exactly how to accomplish those goals.

Good health saves in ways that go beyond smaller insurance premiums. It also has a direct relationship with employee productivity, making wellness a matter of high-level strategy. However, many workplace wellness programs are not as effective as they could be. They are not comprehensive, not long-term, and not marketed to the people who could benefit most. Wellness expert Stephenie Overman helps managers take practical steps to overcome these deficiencies and build successful workplace wellness programs that result in tangible, bottom-line benefits for organizations. And the book starts from the ground up, first by explaining how to take a company's temperature, get management buy-in, and design a program that fits a company's unique needs and situation.

Building a program is one thing, but will they come? That's where Overman's expertise is essential: She shows how to motivate workers to take advantage of the program and reap its many benefits. And she explains how to partner with local health providers and integrate methods to promote psychological well being, two key ingredients for success. Not many corporate programs benefit both employees and the company equally, but a well-planned wellness initiative will boost the health and productivity of employees, leading to a happier--and more competitive--workplace.

For the first time in one volume, the leading proponents and practitioners of action learning define their approach, and describe how action learning and executive and organizational development are practiced in the public, private and 'not-for-profit' sectors around the world. Described in detail are the experiences of General Electric, Merck, Volvo, Japanese and Korean multinationals, as well as the Canadian Civil Service and The World Council of Churches, among others.

Servant Leader Human Resource Management provides a comprehensive conceptual framework based on a dignity enhancing stewardship model that integrates and balances mission achievement with motive, means and ends integrity from both a line manager and human resource department perspective.

The leading academic authorities contributing to this book have been involved in major studies carried out for international organisations, individual governments, and national trades' union organisations; in Vulnerable Workers they consider the growth of job insecurity, the prevalence of flexible or temporary work, and the emergence of precarious forms of self-employment. They look at the new market economies of post-communist Eastern Europe and China, where economic development may occur at the expense of workers' lives and health; 'misclassification' by employers of workers as 'contractors', denying them access to rights; and the plight of migrant, transient and 'invisible' workers. The impact of supply chain business strategies on the most vulnerable workers; and on the complex relationships between levels of job security and the presence of different kinds of risks are similarly assessed. The contributors also propose responses to the challenges they highlight. The role of employee representatives is examined, together with the potential to enhance worker capability through organisational change. New legislative approaches, and changes to traditional compensation and social security systems are considered. Academics and researchers, policy makers, regulators, trades unionists and occupational health professionals - and wise employers - will all find a use for this book.

Based on twelve years involvement with more two thousand MBAs, managers and professionals, Maximum Performance is a comprehensive analysis of leading and managing people set against a backdrop of accelerating organizational, business and technological change. It covers traditional topics - such as personal performance and stress management, employee motivation and performance, power and politics, communication skills and leading and managing change, as well as more contemporary issues, such as business ethics in a global economy and leadership in high-tech and virtual organizations. It also looks at how leaders and managers can create cultures to promote essential modern organizational competencies such as creativity and innovation, the effective dissemination and use of knowledge and intellectual capital, and creating systemic intelligent learning capabilities amongst employees. Maximum Performance represents a distillation of the best practical ideas about leadership and people management of recent times, condensed into a form that busy managers and professionals can assimilate and make immediate use of at work in large, medium-sized or small organizations, and in the public or private sector.

Human resource management is increasingly recognized as having an important "European" face. Breaking new ground by focusing on new developments through specific themes, this text represents a truly European approach written by a range of European experts drawing on a common European survey.

Strategic management of HR in health care is important in delivering high-quality patient care. Given that salary and wages constitute about 65 to 80% of the total operating budget in a typical health care organization and also the fact that people play a critical role in delivering high quality patient care, it is imperative for health care organizations to manage their human resources more effectively. Unfortunately, the HR function remains one of the most neglected in health care organizations and 'warm body syndrome' seems to characterize the role of HRM in health care organizations. The purpose of the special issue of AHCM on Human Resource Management is to explore the strategic role that HR function can play in delivering high quality and affordable health care.

This book covers three fundamental problems at the interface of multi-project management and human resource management: the selection of projects, the composition of small project teams, and workload leveling. Matthias Walter proposes optimization models and solution methods for these problems, assuming multi-skilled workers with heterogeneous skill levels. For the first time, the author presents exact and heuristic methods that support managers to form small teams. Additionally, he outlines a new skill chaining strategy that increases workforce flexibility.

This fully updated second edition of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching in Practice explores various aspects of coaching from within a cognitive behavioural framework. In response to the continued growth in the popularity and scope of coaching and cognitive behavioural therapy, Michael Neenan and Stephen Palmer again bring together experts in the field to discuss topics including procrastination, stress, coaching alliance, motivational interviewing, goal selection and self-esteem. The book is illustrated throughout with coach-coachee dialogues that include a commentary of the aims of the coach during the session. This second edition is fully updated and includes three new chapters on single-session coaching, health and wellbeing coaching and coaching supervision. Part of the Essential Coaching Skills and Knowledge series, this comprehensive volume will be essential reading for coaches, as well as therapists, counsellors and psychologists.

Introduction to Intelligent Simulation of Complex Discrete Systems and Processes: RAO Language focuses on a unique approach in modeling and simulation of complex systems. In this volume are considered features of complex systems and processes, their mathematical description, and modeling. Theoretical foundations of the RAO (Resource-Action-Operation) language as well as its syntax and utilisation are given. Examples of simulation models of different complexity levels, related to different fields, are also presented. The RAO intelligent modeling system, introduced and described in Introduction to Intelligent Simulation of Complex Discrete Systems and Processes is unique because: (1) it makes simulation modeling universal for the classes of systems and processes modeled; (2) it is simple to modify the models; and (3) it has the capacity to model complex control systems together with the object controlled (including simulation modeling for on-line control). The RAO tool allows the user to use a language very similar to his professional language and rids him of intermediary, supplementary description of the system modeled. In fifteen chapters this volume provides an overview of general modeling trends, and hence serves the research community in guiding their modeling methods; intelligent simulation modeling is introduced to solve complex systems and processes.

This book aims at exploring the link between corporate and organizational culture, public and private policies, leadership and managerial skills or attitudes, and the successful implementation of work-related healthcare in Europe. Therefore it brings together a wide range of empirical and theoretical contributions from occupational health, management, psychology, medicine, economics, and (organizational) sociology to address the question of how to sustainably promote occupational health. Such important questions are explored as: What aspects of a corporate culture can be associated with health issues? How does leadership style affect the health of employees? How are health-related decisions in the workplace affected by the political environment? To what extent are interventions influenced by corporate culture, leadership and public policy? How can we make such interventions sustainable?

"Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management" publishes monograph length conceptual papers designed to promote theory and research on important substantive and methodological topics in the field of human resources management. It is considered to be one of the most respectable publications in the field of human resources management and acts as a primary resource to both individuals and series.

Uniquely accessible and concise guide to complexity and management Includes perspectives from the complexity sciences, philosophy and history Includes chapter bringing theories to management practice

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.

Now with SAGE Publishing! In Applied Psychology in Talent Management, world-renowned authors Wayne F. Cascio and Herman Aguinis provide the most comprehensive, future-oriented overview of psychological theories and how those theories impact people decisions in today's ever-changing workplace. Taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach, the new Eighth Edition includes more than 1,000 new citations from more than 20 top-tier journal articles. The authors emphasize the latest developments in the field-all in the context of historical perspectives. Integrated coverage of technology, strategy, globalization, and social responsibility throughout the text provides students with a holistic view of the field and equips them with the practical tools to create productive, enjoyable work environments.

In today's economy, job loss will likely affect each of us at some point in our careers. Layoffs used to happen only when times were tough, but even a bustling economy is no protection when positions are eliminated, plants are closed, and jobs are shipped overseas in search of even higher profit margins. A toolkit for survival and coping with unemployment, this book explains how to minimize your chances of being laid off, how to negotiate the best outcome during the severance process, and how to re-enter the job market from a position of strength. This book is as important for employers, human resource managers, and outplacement specialists as it is for employees. Just as employees need to be aware of their rights and options, employers need to understand the ramification of their actions. This book provides an understanding of the hiring and firing process from both perspectives. Issues include: How to examine and negotiate your termination package How to determine if you need an attorney--and how to select one How to prove your dismissal was inappropriate or illegal How to move from a bad job situation to a better one