This volume focuses on what many see as an iminent crisis in the public sector, and particularly in the federal government-the possibility that, due to the realities of workforce demographics, poor leadership, lack of competitiveness in the labor market, and demotivating worker conditions, the public service will not maintain its capacity to manage programs, execute laws, and effectively deliver services for the American people. Larry Lane and James Wolf examine the significant human resource problems now confronting federal agencies, addressing these issues from a demographic, organizational, political, and cultural perspective. Arguing that the revitalization of the public service demands an effective, responsible, energetic, and committed workforce, they recommend concrete solutions and strategies aimed at stabilizing the current situation and contributing to a stronger and more effective public service over the long term. Following an introductory statement of major issues, Lane and Wolf explore the crucial roles of the public service in a democratic system of governance and assess the factors that now put the system at risk. They then introduce four conceptual lenses that can be used as an analytical tool to understand the problems of the public service and to develop solutions for assuring the supply, preparedness, productivity, and dedication of government employees. The authors first look at employment flow-the problem of maintaining workforce cadres over time. They examine problems of attraction and retention, inadequacies in system personnel policies, and the necessity for workforce planning. Turning to a discussion of competence in the workforce, the authors examine systemicblocks to the development of competence and offer strategies for addressing the competence issue. The next two chapters treat the concepts of energy and commitment, exploring ways to foster an organizational culture that encourages productivity, continuous improvement, and a long-term commitment to public service. The final chapter presents a detailed set of proposals, options, and initiatives for rebuilding the public service. Administrators, policy-makers, personnel officers, and students of public administration will find this work a significant contribution toward understanding and resolving the public sector's intensifying human resource problems.

This book explains how gamification, specifically enterprise gamification, can help mangers in multiple areas within an enterprise to improve attrition. Employee Engagement is an important component to foster employee relations with the organization. Gamification by its inherent design helps to increase engagement within an enterprise. Several successful case studies in Gamification are presented, which present new practical tips for Gamification for IT Management. By introducing general IT management concepts related to the specific environment managers work in, the authors then detail the benefits of introducing gamification in this very environment to resolve business issues. IT Managers, as well as HR professionals, Group Heads and Delivery Leaders will find this be a useful resource to understand how Gamification can improve their everyday work. The book can also be used as a reference for engaging learners and employees to improve their productivity in organizations.

Never before has the world witnessed the phenomenon of severe stress and burnout on such a large scale as in recent years. Globalization, technological advances and economic meltdown have brought about a plethora of unprecedented challenges for industry and organizations across the globe. Consequently, executives have been under growing stress due to economic uncertainties, mergers and acquisitions, role erosion and restructuring, resulting in increased workloads, longer hours and demands for greater productivity and efficiency. This changing environment has created job insecurity, anxiety, dissatisfaction and emotional exhaustion causing a rapid increase in executive burnout. This book provides the most comprehensive analysis of the construct of burnout, including its magnitude, a global research review, a typology of models, comparisons between professions and consequences of burnout for individuals and organizations. In addition, it provides the views of mental health professionals, empirically derived causes, symptoms and coping techniques, while throwing light on preventative measures and comparing Eastern and Western approaches to mitigate the effects of burnout.

Recent statistics indicate that almost 80 percent of employees are unhappy in their current job. These alarming facts, coupled with high profile scandals and corporate takeovers of the past decade, illustrate that today's CEOs struggle with an image problem that is far worse than any other time in history. Ray Faulkenberry says that it is time for enlightened CEOs and business owners to implement new management styles and rely on personal experiences and universal principles as he takes a comprehensive look at the intricacies of how businesses are run today and how they may be better managed in the future. Faulkenberry emphasizes that businesses need to tap into the unlimited potential of its employees, and by executing a model that encourages profit even while it focuses on the human spirit, employers will gain a higher purpose as former management methods become obsolete. Modern CEOs will be both challenged and intrigued by the Eastern philosophy and organizational theory included. The Corporate Samurai reminds business leaders that the wisdom of past generations has great value to CEOs who really can live a life with honor and integrity and the supreme desire to protect and empower those they have been privileged to lead.

Employee theft is one of the most pervasive problems faced by businesses today, and it continues to escalate at an estimated rate of 15 percent per year. This volume presents the first full-length guide to the alternatives available to companies seeking to reduce both the actual theft of tangible property and the profits lost through cheating on time cards and expense accounts. The authors offer an in-depth discussion of the safeguards employers can implement, ranging from internal controls to physical security measures, and develop a comprehensive theft reduction strategy aimed at creating a working environment that discourages theft. They also address the legal and ethical problems arising from theft control issues as well as the question of equity in the workplace.

The authors agree that a plan for reducing employee theft can only be successful if it focuses on making the work environment unattractive to thieves rather than on simply catching thieves. They offer a practical theft reduction strategy, based on techniques that have proven successful in a variety of firms, that begins with the recruitment process and reaches into every aspect of business operation. In their concluding chapter they discuss what to do when a thief is identified. Five appendixes provide additional information including a guide to hiring and keeping good employees, a study of employee theft by Virginia's Crime Prevention Manual Task Force, an examination of what motivates employees, an internal controls checklist, and a list of dos and don'ts in dealing with employee theft. Human resource managers, small business owners, and executives in large corporations will find this volume an invaluable asset in their efforts to confront the growing problem of employee theft.

In the ten years since the much-praised first edition, coaching has become a core requirement for
leadership. It's a core part of business school programmes, it's the norm on all leadership development programmes, and all leaders and managers now have to be able to coach. The FT Guide to Business Coaching is the book on which many leaders rely, and this updated edition will give readers a comprehensive introduction to coaching.
 
Being a successful business coach means having exceptional listening skills, asking great questions and
applying the best techniques at just the right time. But how do you learn to do that?
 
The Financial Times Guide to Business Coaching shows you the way. It gives you a sure footing in the
basics and provides you with a step-by-step overview of all the tools and techniques you need to build
your own unique and well-grounded approach as a coach. Ultimately it enables you to take your coaching from good to great. This indispensible guide covers:

• The business of coaching
• The coaches
• Do you have what it takes?
• Develop your coaching: first steps
• Building your basic coaching skills: the ‘Big Five’
• Building coaching skills: the different approaches
• Deepening your coaching skills: working with individual difference
• Advanced coaching: from individuals to groups
• Advanced coaching: coaching for career transitions
• Advanced coaching: motivation and change
• Why it works
• Building a freelance coaching business

This book has been written for the HR Practitioner and will provide readers with tools, guidelines, ideas, and strategies for developing their role within the Human Resources function. This text focuses on current issues and future trends in both the HR profession and the workplace. Organizations will continue to be forced to function in a lean and mean manner, HR professionals are now required to manage outsourcing functions and to move through multiple internal roles quickly. This book will act as a roadmap to help them plan and implement these roles quickly and efficiently, aligned to their organizations strategy.

Senior Executive Assessment is a concise and practical guide that demystifies assessment that is conducted at the senior-executive level. Defines Senior Executive Assessment, describes its benefits, and explains how it differs from assessment at lower levels Discusses how significant shifts in markets and business models can require a change in the characteristics needed in senior executives Provides a practical model with suggestions for assessing senior executives Offers guidelines for determining what assessment methods to use in an organization Examines practical considerations in how to choose professionals to conduct senior executive assessment

The purpose of this volume is to describe the impact of the increased demand for flexibility on employees and its impact on their individual work life trajectories and health. The volume offers concrete examples of interventions aimed to find innovative ways of sustainable work careers for today's workers. We focus on the school to work transition, job insecurity, job loss and re-employment and retirement. The interventions described offer strategies for implementing support in employment contracts, increasing preparedness of individual employees with public education programs or developing work arrangements and support systems in work organizations.

With the demise of the polygraph following the passage of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, honesty testing has come to be seen as an alternative approach. But it has become the subject of considerable controversy, some legal enactments, a barrage of union opposition, and a great deal of employer interest. Miner and Capps provide an understanding and the tools necessary to help human resource managers make decisions regarding the use of honesty testing. Generic types of testing instruments are assessed; the writing is straightforward, with all statistical and mathematical concepts presented with sufficient detailed explanation for those without technical training.

The employers' need to protect their organizations and reduce the potential for theft and white-collar crime versus the individual's right to privacy are polarized issues in discussing the use of honesty testing. The authors deal with the restrictions imposed by the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991 and show that certain features of test scoring were directly influenced by legal considerations. The authors then extend the discussion to the Americans with Disabilities Act and how this enactment affects honesty testing.

Leadership is not a role reserved for presidents, prime ministers, and CEOs. All of us have the opportunity to be leaders, inspiring others while encouraging them to improve themselves in so many ways. Parents, managers, coaches, union leaders, church volunteers, and many others can be incredibly uplifting and inspiring. It's really not that complicated. What will you do to be a better leader for your workplace, your family, or your community?

Covering the period of the financial crisis, this Research Handbook discusses the degree of importance of different driving forces on employee turnover. The discussions contribute to policy agendas on productivity, firm performance and economic growth. The contributors provide a selection of theoretical and empirical research papers that deal with aspects of employee turnover, as well as its effects on workers and firms within the current socio-economic environment. It draws on theories and evidence from economics, management, social sciences and other related disciplines. With its interdisciplinary approach, this book will appeal to a variety of students and academics in related fields. It will also be of interest to policy makers, HR experts, firm managers and other stakeholders. Contributors: I. Beltran Martin, S. Bevan, M. Bossler, C. Carrillo-Tudela, W.-J.A. Chang, M. Coles, C.L. Cooper, H. Dale-Olsen, M. Daskalaki, T. Eriksson, P. Ferreira, R.W. Griffeth, K.E. Hall, L. Holbeche, J.-T. Kao, Y. Lai, C.S. Long, A.-M. Mohammed, K. Morrell, E. Parry, J. Purl, G. Saridakis, S. Taylor, R. Upward, P. Urwin, W.K. Wan Ismail, M. Wong El Leen

This volume of Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics includes selected papers from the 24th Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, held in Bangkok. The theoretical and empirical papers gathered here cover diverse areas of economics and finance from different geographic regions; yet the main focus is on the latest findings on labor markets and their interactions with competitive environments. The volume also includes meso-economic studies that analyze individual companies, economic and financial environments, particularly with regard to human resource and financial risk management.

As the way work is done changes and as organizations flatten themselves down in response to demands posed by the new global economy, managers on the front lines, where some say the real work is done, need a broader set of skills than ever before. They must learn to see their jobs differently--to become tougher and more durable--but they must also become more flexible in how they interact with the organization itself and its changing work and economic environments. The authors emphasize key tasks that front-line managers must do today, such as strategic planning, budgeting, quality management, and benchmarking, and how they must focus attention on their customers, until now far removed and perhaps out of mind. They must also recognize the need for effective information systems and find ways to align their immediate work units with larger organizational strategies and processes. In short, the authors offer essentially a new paradigm for the way management should now be practiced in a far-ranging book that today's managers will need to keep pace with changes that could threaten their careers, and a book that offers others on the way up a way to start their own careers on the right foot.

Becoming an effective front-line manager starts with understanding the job. The authors begin with a comprehensive look at what it means to be a front-line manager and the special challenges they face. They must become all things to all people, say the authors, and at the same time consider other, perhaps unfamiliar challenges, such as safety and health concerns. Front-line managers today must also learn to grow and adapt to changing work environments. The authors present an extensive view of these new tasks and roles and detail the ways in which front-line managers can address and overcome the obstacles they will find. The book is a readable, thought-provoking study of special interest to teachers of general management courses on the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Emerged from the Lewinian tradition of research into organizational behavior, motivation, and change, here is a conceptual but practical way for HR professionals and others in today's organizations to understand better, more quickly and reliably, what the underlying human problems in their organizations are. Cunningham proceeds from the conviction that the key to solving organizational problems is in the hands of people, and that when people talk about the problems they experience they are reflecting their values and beliefs. The way to get people to do that is through a style of inquiry called indirect questioning--the Echo approach. This approach, which managers and executives in all types of organizations will find helpful and extensively useful is the subject of CunninghaM's examination.

The Echo approach is designed to bring to the surface and measure the values and beliefs held by a group of people and the organizations they comprise. Cunningham illustrates how this approach works, how to design interviews, surveys, and observations that actually echo peoples' values and beliefs--the obvious ones and those they keep hidden. Readable, well illustrated with cases and examples, this book will help executives at all levels understand better what people in these organizations are actually thinking and saying. In doing so it will help organizations become more productive and be more desirable places to work.

This edited volume focuses on innovative solutions to the debate on human thriving in the fast emerging technology-driven cyber-physical work context, also called Industry 4.0. The volume asks the important question: How can people remain relevant and thrive in workplaces that are increasingly virtual, technology-driven, and imbued with artificial intelligence? This volume includes two major streams of discussion: it provides multidisciplinary perspectives on what thriving could mean for individuals, managers and organisations in current and future non-linear and Web-driven workspaces. In this context, it points to the need to rethink the curricula of the psychology of human thriving so that it is applicable to Industry 4.0. Second, it discusses the new platforms of learning opening up in organisations and the ways and means with which people's learning practices can be adapted to changing scenarios. Some of these scenarios are: changing job designs and talent requirements; the demand for creativity; the need for virtual teams and intercultural collaborations; and changing emotional competencies. This topical volume includes contributions by scholars from across the world, and is of interest to scholars, practitioners and postgraduate students of psychology, organizational behaviour and human resource management.

A volume in Research in Careers Series Editors S. Gayle Baugh, University of West Florida and Sherry E. Sullivan, Bowling Green State University The first volume of the series, Maintaining Focus, Energy, and Options Over the Career, examines how individuals enact and keep their career vital over their work life. Awarding-winning, internationally renowned researchers, including Daniel Feldman, Jennifer Deal, Phyllis Tharenou, and Terry Beehr examine the dynamic nature of contemporary careers and how careers change as individuals change in response to such factors as aging, learning, experience or contextual changes. Volume 1 includes theoretical perspectives on maintaining personenvironment "fit" over the course of the career, the shifting constellation of developmental relationships over time and place, a new framework for examining midcareer renewal, a reconceptualization of the retirement transition, and potential gender differences in self-initiated international careers. Empirical studies in volume 1 examine provocative questions including: Is the traditional career really dead? Are there significant generational differences in learning and development? Can career plateauing be positive for the individual or the organization? The focus throughout this volume is on how careers unfold over time and how individuals remain productive and successful as they navigate career changes.

As a newly appointed middle school principal in a small town, Hannah Gardner wonders if there is a manual for leading an organization using head, heart, and spirit. Her life changes when Dr. Maddy Mathews, a recently retired superintendent from a neighboring district, is hired as interim superintendent. Once on board, Maddy sees that a great divide exists among the board members. An unscrupulous middle school coach-the town's former football hero-has been promised Hannah's position once he completes the certification requirements. Maddy, however, sees Hannah's outstanding character and high ideals, combined with compassion for her students and staff, and decides to mentor her. Their weekly conversations ignite conceptual thinking and greater awareness as Hannah learns to trust her inner voice. Maddy not only mentors Hannah, but also works with all the administrators to foster change in a place where power has been misused. By introducing three leadership models, as well as the three Cs, the administrators explore new paradigms to balance work and play, embracing the next generation of student mastery. Throughout the school year, the relationship between Hannah and her mentor reveals the challenges and opportunities of leading a school district with love, while addressing political, social, and personal issues that require courage, integrity, and candor.

Combining what economists know about productivity with the findings of organization theorists about worker motivation, the author describes a strategy to improve the quality of work life, with major benefits for both employers and employees.