This book presents an empirical investigation into the relationship between companies' short-term response to capital and labor market frictions and performance. Two different kinds of performance measures are considered, namely innovation performance and firm performance. The author focuses on two major topics: first, on the relation between innovation performance and the use of trade credit. Second, on the relation between firm performance and the use of temporary employment. The use of in-depth firm-level data and state-of-the-art microeconometric methods provide the scientific rigor to this important investigation to answer the questions currently being confronted by many companies in different economies.

This book offers a first-hand look at the importance of human resource management (HRM) processes to not just one public agency but a large group of public administration entities that rely on a public HRM agency (the Personnel Board of Jefferson County) for its HRM processes. More specifically, the book describes a more than three-year effort undertaken by the author as a federally-appointed court receiver to reform (or what some have referred to as "transform") a public HRM agency from a model of inefficiency to one now considered "best in the business". The book provides the details of the reform or transformation effort in addition to offering suggestions on how to bring about similar civil services and HRM reform in particular and government agencies in general. The book is intended to fill a gap in the current literature while serving as a key work that highlights the importance of bringing about change in a public HRM entity. Timely and topical, the book will be of great interest both to public administration personnel in general, and others in the fields of HRM and public sector management, and to management practitioners and others keen to inform their ability to bring about successful change. TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1 A General Overview of Change Management, Reform, and the Personnel Board. 2 Civil Service Reform and Public Human Resource Management. 3 The Personnel Board of Jefferson County, Alabama: A First Look. 4 Understanding the Situation at the Personnel Board: The Diagnosis and Receiver's 90-Day Report. 5 Restructuring the Personnel Board. 6 Infrastructure Reform: Revamping the Personnel Board's Policies and Procedures. 7 Implementation of a New Human Resource Information Management System at the Personnel Board. 8 HRD Efforts at the Personnel Board. 9 Consent Decree Compliance (Developing and Administering Lawful Selection) Procedures. 10 The Five-Year Classification and Compensation Survey Project. 11 Renovating the Personnel Board's Physical Facilities. 12 Transition of Leadership from the Receiver to the Three. Member Board, Personnel Director and the Citizens Supervisory Committee. 13 Epilogue: Post-Receivership and Keeping the Personnel Board Reform Momentum Going. References.

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.

1. 1 Background of the Study: Ef?ciency in Cross-Cultural International Business Management Ef?cient business management is crucial in achieving corporate (national or int- national/multinational) goals such as higher value, comprehensiveness, corporate governance, etc. Ef?cient business management can be achieved by resolving agency problems existing among different stakeholders in corporations. In inter- tional business, agency problems may exist between managers, owners, staff, and other stakeholders who come from different cultures. Therefore, there is a need in designing ef?cient management of international business by in?uencing the factors (the convergence factors) which cause differences in the interests and cultures of different stakeholders. International business refers to all commercial transactions between two or more nations. Because it comprises a large and growing portion of current world business practice, international business has received considerable attention in academic research (Daniels and Radebaugh 1998). International bu- ness differs in important ways from business conducted within national borders, and poses additional challenges to managers and investors in foreign countries (Mahoney et al. 1998). In this context, Black et al. (1999) state that effective management is increasingly recognized as a key determinant of success or failure, arguing that the success of international business in multinational companies depends most signi?cantly on the quality of management systems (Stroh and Caligiuri 1998). As international business involves people from different cultures, every business function including managing a workforce, marketing output, and dealing with regulators, has the potential to involve cross-cultural problems (Zineldin 2007).

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.

Human Capital in the Indian IT / BPO Industry analyses human capital management in the Indian information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which has created a new paradigm for organising global talent engaged in designing and delivering IT and BPO services.

"Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change" presents the most current theoretical frameworks and practical applications in the field of human resource development. Drawing from the authors' pioneering research, this book offers the most comprehensive treatment of HRD theory and practice available, providing educators and practitioners alike with a rigorous approach to analyzing and launching successful HRD programs.

All people should have access to all that is available in their community and beyond. Neurodiverse individuals often experience barriers when engaging with businesses, even when obstacles can be easily remedied. This book will provide business owners, leaders, managers, team members, and associates the tools to integrate strategies and techniques that will enhance neurodiversity and inclusion, improving the delivery of a quality experience and increasing a varied customer base.

This volume presents current research on gender and culture from business, management and accounting perspectives with a multidisciplinary approach. Featuring selected contributions presented at the 4th IPAZIA Workshop on Gender Studies held at Niccolo Cusano University in Rome, Italy, this book investigates gender strategies adopted and tested by various companies and assesses the impact of their subsequent dissemination. The contents are structured into four sections each of which addressing a specific theme on gender studies as follows: I) Women in Academia and in the University contexts: A trans-disciplinary approach; II) Gender issues, Corporate Social Responsibility and reporting; III) Woman in business and female entrepreneurship; IV) Women in Family Business. The result is a book that provides an innovative and rigorous analysis of gender issues proposing new challenges and insights in gender studies. IPAZIA Scientific Observatory for Gender Studies defines an updated framework of research, services, and projects, all initiatives related to women and gender relations at the local, national and international. In order to achieve this objective, the Observatory aims to implement the literature on gender studies, to organize and promote scientific significant initiatives (workshops, seminars, conferences, studies, scientific laboratory) on these issues at the national and international level under an interdisciplinary perspective.

The theme of this book is moral leadership in action as it manifests itself implicitly and explicitly in European business organizations. We understand leadership as interplay among people at all levels within organizations and also within the economic system by which people are bound together through particular forms of interaction. The contributions collected in this volume mirror the plurality of approaches we find in the theoretical writings of academics in different European countries. The additional business cases from six different nations show how leaders actually have adopted and integrated working with values in their own organizations, i.e. how they put moral leadership into action. While the selected papers are not meant to be representative of each country, particular economic and cultural traditions are apparent in both thinking and managing moral leadership. The contributors, by presenting this emerging multicultural pattern of Europe, contribute to a better and more knowledgeable understanding of how European business leaders pursue their goals. Managers, students and teachers in business, ethics and leadership studies will find this volume an indispensable guide to the unique contributions of European leadership scholars.

The past four decades have seen unprecedented social and economic changes that have demanded a transformation in existing employee relation practices. Shifts in demographics, gender diversity, and an increased mobility of the workforce across the board has changed the landscape in which organizations operate. Against this backdrop, attitudes towards work and careers have changed, leading to different expectations of the workplace. These and other contextual changes mean that existing strategies of employee relation may no longer be effective. Critical Issues on Changing Dynamics in Employee Relations and Workforce Diversity is a collection of pioneering research that addresses the challenges and issues pertaining to the changing dynamics of employee relations and provides additional support to better deal with critical issues related to people management. While highlighting topics including employee engagement, workplace culture, and diversified workforce, this book is ideally designed for human resource managers, managers, executives, researchers, business professionals, academicians, and students seeking current studies on critical matters in employee relation techniques and practices.

This first of its kind book addresses the very special tactics, strategies, and modes of behavior the human resource management function demands of those who want to succeed in a field that faces a work environment ruled by rapidly-changing technology, increased domestic and global competition, and an ever-changing work force. Not a book you merely read, it is a handbook that you will use at every step in your career. Paul Kaponya takes you on the unique human resources career track, with a thorough, no-nonsense look at your success gradient as a human resource professional--the personal action steps, methods, and performance propellants that enhance the achievement every human resource professional wants.

This is a comprehensive and practical career advancement guide offering new ideas, tactics, and strategies for handling developing changes; for overcoming managerial inertia; for making choices that enhance your career; for concentrating your personal efforts on new activities that will strengthen employer-employee relationships; for improving your organization's competitive position domestically and globally; for integrating your human resources activity with the total infrastructure; for helping you to face and handle the To-Get-Along-Go-Along syndrome; and for addressing opportunities for upgrading your personal performance. This comprehensive practical career guide is for everyone from the seasoned human resource verterans who wish to check the status of their careers to the college student interested in the career aspect of this challenging field.

Job migration across international boundaries and jobless economic "recoveries" are the latest disruptions in the workplace's human equation. To help policy makers, employers and employees to address these issues, DiVanna and Rogers propose a more rigorous approach to human capital. They point out that the emergence of stronger measures, management techniques and balance sheet valuations was a key enabler to the emergence of dynamic financial capital markets and international exchanges. This book puts forth a framework for measuring, managing and negotiating issues of human business value. It looks at how policymakers, employers and employees can achieve common ground when productivity threatens job loss or avoid the zero-sum view that pits international trade against domestic employment.

"This book is not only a page turner; it also shares some very valuable information. I look forward to the follow up adventures of Joe and Betty." --D. Dale, Owner, Wayne Manufacturing

Over the years, Joe and his wife, Betty, have built a successful plumbing business, but it's at a crisis point--all because of interpersonal relationships. Joe faces an ultimatum from his managers: fire Betty, or they will quit.

In Communication Tools for Any Trade, authors Layton Park and Myrna Park tell Joe and Betty's story while exploring the key skills and traits of successful business and personal relationships. Using information gained from their personal experiences of starting and running businesses and from examples encountered consulting with clients, the Parks present a guidebook for overcoming communication challenges that many businesses face.

Focusing on the importance of both verbal and nonverbal communication, Communication Tools for Any Trade presents an informative guide to DISC behavioral styles and values in business and explores ways to recognize, remember, and use them. This business parable provides insight in the how and why of relationships and illustrates the fundamental principles necessary to succeed in business and in life.

Learn more at www.chameleoncommunicator.com.

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

Unlike other labor law and management books, Blackard's comprehensive new work not only examines legal, strategic human resources management, change management, and related labor/management relations issues, but also offers easily grasped and applied methods for addressing all of these issues. Labor relations should be a fully integrated part of a systemic approach to human resource management, argues Blackard. He challenges the feasibility of ad hoc programs and labor/management partnerships, but encourages collaboration within the context of both parties' interests and roles. His book provides a philosophy and set of practices to manage change and improve the labor/management relationship in the unionized workplace.

Companies with poor union relationships rarely have union problems; they have management problems. The crux is that managing change is a special challenge. To help executives address the challenge, Blackard first reviews the state of labor relations and discusses key differences between managing change in union and non-union settings. He presents a philosophy based on collaboration of countervailing interests and an integrated model for change management that is uniquely applicable in unionized workplaces. He then discusses the application of management practices based on such concepts as organizational learning, systems theory, trust, power, mutual gains negotiations, and supplemental teams that support the countervailing collaboration concept. By seeing labor relations as part of a broader human resource management system, one can identify and better understand many of the questions that inevitably rise when faced with the need for rapid and often drastic change.

Training and development professionals are faced with a host of responsibilities and goals that can be met only if they integrate the latest thinking in the field with their own experience and thereby develop a new arsenal of skills and knowledge. The contributors to this volume, all of whom have extensive professional, consulting, and/or research experience in the training field, thoroughly examine the leading training issues by speaking straightforwardly to the training practitioner. These issues include the strategic linkage of training to business objectives, the determination of training needs, transfer of training, training technologies, holistic training and development, and the multiple roles of the professional trainer.

The contributors provide the training and development professional with pertinent frameworks, revealing examples and real-life cases, specific recommendations, and various application ideas. References are provided throughout to support key findings, to point the reader toward the most promising and relevant training research, and to provide a comprehensive resource base that would be a valuable addition to any trainer's personal library. In addition to external and internal training professionals, students and instructors of human resource management, instructional systems technology, and industrial/organizational psychology will benefit from the contributors' insights.

Interactive systems are growing in the last decade because of the amount of fields in which this kind of application can be used as a test bed to experiment in medicine, training, education, and so on. book highlights the knowledge of several researchers in the field of interactive systems to offer an overview of the different parts of the environment that must be taken into account to develop a quality interactive system from the software engineering discipline. The book is oriented to developers of interactive systems, as well as researchers in the field of virtual environments. This book will be an important pillar in the way this kind of software will be developed.

By directly addressing the working lives of black women, this book demonstrates the way that the intersection of gendered and ethnic identities operate in the contexts of work and home situations. It puts the British picture of gender and ethnicity in an international context by drawing in experiences, data and policy insights from the United States and mainland Europe.

Whenever a group of individuals comes together and interact in order to reach a common goal, differing individual preferences can lead to conflict. This book focuses on the management of these internal conflicts within business organizations. Peter-J. Jost and Utz Weitzel analyze organizational conflicts and illustrate how the parties involved utilize strategic actions to achieve a desired outcome in conflict. The authors use numerous examples of internal conflicts that are well-known to both practitioners and academics to define and explain the basic concepts of game theory. They then focus on the management of conflict, highlighting how the strategic behavior of conflicting parties can be influenced by direct governance or by changing organizational framework parameters. In contrast to much of the existing literature in this field, the focus is not on formal definitions or mathematical proofs, but solely on the application of game theory to strategic conflict management. This book represents a valuable tool in the assessment of organizational conflicts from a fresh, strategic perspective underpinned by game theory. It will therefore prove fascinating reading for scholars and practitioners with an interest in a broad range of fields encompassing business and management, strategic management, organizational studies, human resource management and game theory.

Presents research in Employee-Driven Innovation, an emergent field of study that meets the demand for exploiting new innovative potentials in organizations. There is a growing interest in creating new knowledge in innovation, emphasizing human resources and social processes. The authors intend to take the global lead in research on these areas.

This book is divided into six chapters: a review of theory and research; diagnosing situational characteristics; measuring performance; estabiling pay increases; pay system administration; and pay system evolution.

Principled leadership is the art of applying ethical business values, and business diplomacy is the means of doing it. London shows that principled leadership and business diplomacy not only provide direction for management, but they also enhance development of leadership in others. His book offers a solid, well-illustrated, immediately applicable way to design a management and leadership development program, select training managers and executives, and a way to change corporate cultures. Concise and practical, his book is as important for teachers and their college-level students as for HR executives, management and organizational development specialists, and consultants throughout the public and private sectors.

London shows how principled leadership and business diplomacy enhance employee and customer loyalty and commitment, essential to the survival of any organization in today's competitive, global economy. But, can this really be achieved? London defines principled leadership as the art of applying ethical business values, and business diplomacy as the means to do it. By using these techniques, executives and managers can implement change and gain commitment to their initiatives from inside and outside their organizations. Well illustrated with case studies and exercises, this book is essential for HR executives, management and organizational development specialists, and consultants throughout the public and private sectors.

London describes how principled, diplomatic leaders and managers put personal feelings aside, avoid anger, and by doing so are highly successful in resolving conflicts. He identifies and explains different styles of diplomacy, such as the trial balloon, shuttle diplomacy, coalitions, and co-optation, and shows how principled, diplomatic behaviors result when people really listen to each other--and by doing so, develop their own values as a foundation for decision making, conflict resolution, and negotiation. The result is a clear demonstration of how human resource managers, trainers, and organizational development consultants can create a truly productive work environment in their own organizations, and how principled leadership and business diplomacy will benefit them as well their relationships with others.

Companies and organisations are increasingly more aware of the importance of people and their knowledge for dealing with economic scenarios as well as their relationships developed both inside and outside of the company. Strategic Approaches for Human Capital Management and Development in a Turbulent Economy examines the useful information developed by individuals presented within organisational structures, routines, and company policies. This book is an international platform for academics, researchers, lecturers, decision makers, and policy makers in order to enhance their understanding and collaboration in issues of knowledge management and human resource management.