There is recurrent public concern with enhancing the quality of professional performance. What is the con-temporary understanding of professionalism? Are the needs of professionals in various fields being met in today's world, as what is commonly called "continuing professional development" has become of a sizable industry? Many books treat the professions as a homo-geneous group and view them from an external stand-point. In Professional Practices Tony Becher investigates the differences as well as the similarities between and within professional groupings, and presents the perspec-tives of insiders. One particular theme concerns the main patterns of change in professional careers and the spe-cific problems faced by women professionals in a largely male-dominated environment. Brilliantly written, the book focuses on six professions-medicine, pharmacy, law, accountancy, architecture, and slructural engineering. The material is based on 190 interviews with a variety of members of the six professions. Becher's book offers original and sensitive insight into the working Ives of practitioners and an understanding of the ideas and values they embrace. He a'gjes that their high sense of commitment stems from a concern to enhance their individual reputations and to maintain their collective professional status. Becher highlights re variety of activities in which these professionals are engaged and the reasons for their reponses to social and political pressures from outside their fields. Above all, he seeks to demystify professionalism and to show that professional people share with others a wide range of universal human feelings and concerns. A postscript raises the issue of why -Diversities are little involved with continuing education in the professions. Practicing professionals will benefit from this insight into how people in their own and other professions cope with similar problems. Becher's volume will be particularly ap-pealing to educationists, policymakers, and social scientists interested in the subject of professionalism, those involved in the provision of initial and mid-career change for the orofessions, and those with a lay interest in the topic.

The no bullsh*t guide to getting your work and life on track in the new flexible workplace.

Virtually every industry is making lasting changes that will open doors to a more flexible working week. So how do we adjust, thrive and excel in an environment where glitchy daily video conferences are the norm? By turns fierce, funny and highly practical, Harriet Minter will show you the skills to be effective and creative during the day-to-day.

Harriet breaks down how to be an inspiring and energising manager (either remotely or to a flexibly working team), how to create and thrive in a high-trust culture (on a small and large scale) and most importantly how to achieve your ambition and propel your career forwards.

Packed full of hard-won tricks, tips and tools, Harriet Minter draws on her own experience as a careers coach and adviser to companies on their flexible working culture to help you bring your best self to work - from your living room.

The series is designed to meet the needs of students and lecturers of the National Certificate Vocational. To facilitate students' learning, the following features are used in the series: Content is written in easy-to-understand language, key terms are carefully explained, using everyday English, case studies show how to apply the theory in the work environment, the study skills sections help students make the most of their learning in class and prepare for the exams, there are many practice activities and questions with model answers at the back of the title, checklists assist students to make sure that they have covered all the skills and content in each chapter, and summaries at the end of each chapter are useful for exam revision. Lecturers using the series can teach with confidence because content is comprehensive, up-to-date, and meets all the curriculum requirements for the subject, outcomes and assessment standards are clearly identified, and assessment tasks and activities are aligned to the outcomes and assessment standards. Prescribing lecturers have access to comprehensive lecturer support material on CD including model answers to assessments in the textbook, additional assessments with model answers, rubrics for assessments, and general reference material on teaching outcomes-based education. The series is available for all programmes, all fundamental and compulsory subjects, and all elective and optional subjects.

In a time of unusual stress, with a pandemic raging and economic insecurity and dislocation increasing, we need to rediscover the values that make us human, that give us a sense of meaning in order to increase our potential for productivity and success. What stands in the way, however, is a professional culture where human connectedness is a lost art: the frenzied numbers-obsessed, bottom-line thinking, the "scratch and claw" workplace, and organizations where the boss can literally be an algorithm. Through moving stories and a modern spin on the ancient framework of Socratic dialogue, David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer show how to move forward and build workplaces fit for humans through what uniquely defines us as human beings: our ability to think, talk, and create. By thinking carefully about a challenge, engaging peers in dialogue via open-ended questioning, and building a strategy collaboratively. Think Talk Create enables us to cultivate trust and define collective values, seemingly "soft" attributes that nonetheless markedly increase innovation and, ultimately, financial performance. Think: Step back, slow down, avoid impulsive, short-sighted decision making. Talk: Ask non-judgmental, open ended questions, with your mind as a blank slate, pursuing the problem like an empirical scientist or a judge presiding in court. Create: Bring something new and meaningful into play, a novel solution to a pesky problem that can move the world in surprising, positive directions.

Get yourself paid and broaden your skillset with this everyday guide to side hustles The gig economy is growing by leaps and bounds, partly because it's easier to find a flexible work-life balance. Those of us who don't want to leave our full-time jobs, however, can still grab a piece of excitement and extra income for ourselves by starting a side hustle. Or you can bundle your own personalized set of side hustles to replace your full-time job and take full control of your professional life. Whether you're thinking about driving for Uber, developing apps, or starting an online boutique, Side Hustles For Dummies walks you through every step of the way of starting your own side gig. You'll learn about how to structure your new business and keep records, create backup plans, and steer clear of scams. You'll also: Find out whether you need investment capital and learn what your new time commitments will be Learn to create a business plan and patch any holes in it before you get started Discover how to incorporate a vibrant side hustle into your already busy life Learn how to adjust your side hustle to meet changes in your personal life and the overall business climate Side hustles are for everyone, from high school and college students to full-time professionals to retirees. If you've been looking for an excuse to pursue your latest passion, hobby, or interest--or you're just in the market for some extra income--Side Hustles For Dummies is the easy-to-read, no-nonsense guide to creating a rewarding and engaging new life.

What if leaders stripped away all preconceptions about how business operates, allowing the organization to go back to its core and build itself back up to become something new - something so responsive, so innovative and resilient, it becomes virtually non-displaceable in the market? The Regenerative Business sets the stage for what is now only dreamt of by most of today's forward-thinking leaders and paves the path to make it possible. The book features: - Real stories from companies leading innovation and transformation across the globe including; Google, Colgate Europe, Seventh Generation, Nike and others - A logical, comprehensive approach that factors in the complexities of the modern organization - The work of internationally-recognized leadership expert Carol Sanford, who for decades has been designing and leading systemic business change

According to Pinkerton-the leading provider of risk management services in the world-workplace violence is second only to cybersecurity as the top threat faced by organizations today. Incidents involving active shooters in the workplace are on the rise and becoming more violent and deadly. Active Shooter provides the tools necessary to identify potential violent individuals, along with the options and responses needed to save lives, reduce corporate liability, and recover from an active shooter event should it happen. Active Shooter begins with a brief history of active shooters and how they have changed over time. It shows why many perpetrators initiate attacks, what they often are thinking, and some of the indicators that could have been identified prior to the attack. The book shows how to develop an active shooter program in an organization, walking readers through the entire process including training exercises to test the efficiency of the program. With the uniquely private security perspective, Active Shooter illustrates how to communicate with law enforcement, government agencies, and the media in the event of active shooter incident. The book concludes with a discussion of how organizations can recover promptly after an incident, which is crucial for operational survival.

Spectacular and terrifyingly true' - Owen Jones

'Thought-provoking and funny' - The Times

Be honest: if your job didn't exist, would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why, and what we can do about it.

In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services, finance or admin: jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union, but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so, he looks at how, rather than producing anything, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and, finally, how we can get out of it.

This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard, who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things, or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world.

In this book, leading organization theorist Gibson Burrell presents a provocative and challenging approach to the study of organizations, aiming to move beyond the two-dimensionality of much organizational thinking and present more complex 3-D models, which allow for the 'intractions' of apparently disparate perspectives. The book aims to illuminate organization theory by discussing its interrelationship with key features of economics, architecture, aesthetics, design of the built environment, and associated artwork. He argues that by their shared 'definitions', these areas of social science and the humanities are struggling with the same issue - 'the will to form'. The author suggests that, whilst there are a huge number of possibilities for the process of organizing, the constraints of the human body, our cognitive limitations in space and time, and our relationship to nature, mean that these are necessarily limited to an 'envelope' of possibilities. He then outlines the basic parameters of the 'design envelope', analysing it through discussion of 'styles', and examines the hidden assumptions of these styles with regards the origins and potentialities of human knowledge. Burrell argues that the envelope of organizational, politico-economic, and architectural design possibilities may be seen as a cube, thus taking forward the geometrical notions of 'lines' of fight, 'points' of difference, and 'planes' of agreement to discuss the huge range of, and massive constraints upon, human organizing that are reflected in the 'will to form'. Key differences in assumptions demarcate distinct 'styles of organizing' which every reader possesses - whether they are aware of them or not.

Institutions - the structures, practices, and meanings that define what people and organizations think, do, and aspire to - are created through process. They are 'work in progress' that involves continual efforts to maintain, modify, or disturb them. Institutional logics are also in motion, holding varying degrees of dominance that change over time. This volume brings together two streams of thought within organization theory - institutional theory and process perspective - to advocate for stronger process ontology that highlights institutions as emergent, generative, political, and social. A stronger process view allows us to challenge our understanding of central concepts within institutional theory, such as 'loose coupling', 'institutional work', the work of institutional logics on the ground, and institutionalization between diffusion and translation. Enriched with an emphasis on practice and widened by taking a broad view of institutions, this volume draws on the Ninth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies to offer key insights that will inform our thinking of institutions as processes.

Part of the Smart Skills Series Meetings offers all you need to know to get the most out of meetings - from setting meetings up, leading them, to how to make the most out of them once the meeting is over. A must for any employee, manager, freelancer of business owner. The book offers proven, practical advice on: setting objectives and creating practical agendas; deciding who should attend and when and where; effective chairing and effective participation - the communications skills necessary - listening, observing, questioning and getting your points across; dealing with problems; follow up after the meeting to prompt suitable action.

Organized into five direct and digestible chapters, You, Incorporated, is the ultimate practical guide to career success that zeroes in on the three essential concepts that job-seekers, career builders and career changers need to know: - No Job is Forever - Employability Equals Options - Your Career is Your Business Written by an expert in career transition who has helped thousands of people find their own "job utopias," readers will find a down-to-earth, accessible approach to becoming more valuable to current employers while developing long-term personal competitiveness to attract future employers and seize the opportunities that are waiting out there.

After the local newspaper where she worked as a reporter closed, Emily Guendelsberger took a pre-Christmas job at an Amazon fulfilment centre outside Louisville, Kentucky. There, the vending machines were stocked with painkillers and the staff turnover was dizzying. In the new year, she travelled to North Carolina to work at a call centre, a place where even bathroom breaks were timed to the second and finally, Guendelsberger was hired at a San Francisco McDonald's, narrowly escaping revenge-seeking customers who pelted her with condiments. Across three jobs and in three different parts of the country, Guendelsberger directly took part in the revolution changing the U.S. workplace. ON THE CLOCK takes us behind the scenes of the fastest-growing segment of the American workforce to understand the future of work in America - and its present. Until robots pack boxes, resolve billing issues and make fast food, human beings supervised by AI will continue to get the job done. Guendelsberger shows us how workers went from being the most expensive element of production to the cheapest - and how low wage jobs have been remade to serve the ideals of efficiency, at the cost of humanity. ON THE CLOCK explores the lengths that half of Americans will go to in order to make a living, offering not only a better understanding of the modern workplace but also surprising solutions to make work more humane for millions of Americans.

Is it time to be bolder?

Leadership opportunities for women are increasing in the Middle East. As debates about gender parity and gender politics continue to be a hot topic globally, Annabel Harper addresses the complexities of the culture in the Middle East and how business women can navigate these in order to take better advantage of the openings which are emerging.

Using her own experiences of working in this vibrant culture, Annabel explores:

• The meeting of traditionalism and modernism
• How women can create their own style of leadership blending their best skills and the unique culture of the Middle East
• Prerequisites for organisations in the region to maximise the resources of their female talent pipeline
• The imperative for both women and men to collaborate in order to build organisations which are fit for the future

Women's voices are at the heart of the book.

It's time to acknowledge that not all working women are interested in climbing the corporate ladder or securing the corner office. Most want and need flexible, less life-consuming work to accommodate their real lives, and it's not weak, lacking ambition or letting down the sisterhood to pursue professional fulfillment and financial security through less lofty, or headline-making ways. Eye-opening and practical, Ambition Redefined is a welcome alternative to 'women's business books'. Sollmann calls it like it is: everyday women want and need flexible work that allows them to unapologetically pursue their own brand of ambition and success. She shows them how without sacrificing themselves, their careers or their families. Armed with practical insights and tools, readers will be empowered to go after opportunities beyond traditional definitions of work, career and success. They will learn why they should never leave the workforce, how to make a case for flexibility in a current full-time job, how to find flexible employers, industries and job functions and how to return to work after time away raising children or caring for elderly parents.

The last thirty years have seen the world of work transformed in Britain. Manufacturing and nationalized industries contracted and private services expanded. Employment became more diverse. Trade union membership collapsed. Collective bargaining disappeared from much of the private sector, as did strikes. This was accompanied by the rise of human resource management and new employment practices. The law, once largely absent, increasingly became a dominant influence. The experience of work has become more pressured. The Evolution of the Modern Workplace provides an authoritative account and analysis of these changes and their consequences. Its main source is the five Workplace Employment Relations Surveys that were conducted at roughly five-year intervals between 1980 and 2004. Drawing on this unique source of data, a team of internationally renowned scholars show how the world of the workplace has changed, and why it has changed, for both workers and employers.

Can working parents in America--or anywhere--ever find true leisure time?

According to the Leisure Studies Department at the University of Iowa, true leisure is "that place in which we realize our humanity." If that's true, argues Brigid Schulte, then we're doing dangerously little realizing of our humanity. In "Overwhelmed," Schulte, a staff writer for "The Washington Post," asks: Are our brains, our partners, our culture, and our bosses making it impossible for us to experience anything but "contaminated time"?
Schulte first asked this question in a 2010 feature for "The Washington" "Post""Magazine" "How did researchers compile this statistic that said we were rolling in leisure--over four hours a day? Did any of us feel that we actually had downtime? Was there anything useful in their research--anything we could do?"
"Overwhelmed" is a map of the stresses that have ripped our leisure to shreds, and a look at how to put the pieces back together. Schulte speaks to neuroscientists, sociologists, and hundreds of working parents to tease out the factors contributing to our collective sense of being overwhelmed, seeking insights, answers, and inspiration. She investigates progressive offices trying to invent a new kind of workplace; she travels across Europe to get a sense of how other countries accommodate working parents; she finds younger couples who claim to have figured out an ideal division of chores, childcare, and meaningful paid work. "Overwhelmed"is the story of what she found out.

In the 1970s, Xerox pioneered the involvement of social science researchers in technology design and in developing better ways of working at PARC, its internal research center at the time (now an independent wholly owned subsidiary). The PARC legacy resulting from this work is a hybrid methodology that combines an ethnographic interest in direct observation in settings of interest with an ethnomethodological concern to make the study of interactional work an empirical, investigatory matter. This edited volume is an overview of PARC and Xerox's social science tradition. It uses detailed case studies showing how the client engagement was conducted over time and how the findings were consequential for business impact. Case studies in retail, production, office and home settings cover four topics: practices around documents, the customer front, learning and knowledge-sharing, and competency transfer. The impetus for this book was a 2003 initiative at Xerox to transfer knowledge about conducting ethnographically grounded work practice studies to its consultants so that they may generate the kinds of knowledge generated by the researchers themselves.

There is recurrent public concern with enhancing the quality of professional performance. What is the con-temporary understanding of professionalism? Are the needs of professionals in various fields being met in today's world, as what is commonly called "continuing professional development" has become of a sizable industry? Many books treat the professions as a homo-geneous group and view them from an external stand-point. In Professional Practices Tony Becher investigates the differences as well as the similarities between and within professional groupings, and presents the perspec-tives of insiders. One particular theme concerns the main patterns of change in professional careers and the spe-cific problems faced by women professionals in a largely male-dominated environment. Brilliantly written, the book focuses on six professions-medicine, pharmacy, law, accountancy, architecture, and slructural engineering. The material is based on 190 interviews with a variety of members of the six professions. Becher's book offers original and sensitive insight into the working Ives of practitioners and an understanding of the ideas and values they embrace. He a'gjes that their high sense of commitment stems from a concern to enhance their individual reputations and to maintain their collective professional status. Becher highlights re variety of activities in which these professionals are engaged and the reasons for their reponses to social and political pressures from outside their fields. Above all, he seeks to demystify professionalism and to show that professional people share with others a wide range of universal human feelings and concerns. A postscript raises the issue of why -Diversities are little involved with continuing education in the professions. Practicing professionals will benefit from this insight into how people in their own and other professions cope with similar problems. Becher's volume will be particularly ap-pealing to educationists, policymakers, and social scientists interested in the subject of professionalism, those involved in the provision of initial and mid-career change for the orofessions, and those with a lay interest in the topic.

Agile may be the best-kept management secret on the planet and if you want a quickstart introduction, then Agile NOW is essential reading. Agile is a different way of thinking that’s steeped in common sense and produces immediate results. That’s why there’s a quiet revolution going on.

Agile will help you design better products, get faster results, cut down costs, and keep improving as you go. With a simple system called The Golden Triangle - Prioritising, Time Boxing and Change Management - you can hit the ground running and get started immediately.

Agile NOW is slim, accessible and easy to dip into - yet covers all the essential theory and provides practical advice. Agile is for everyone - from one-person start-ups to multinationals – the promise of quicker, cheaper, better has universal appeal. Agile NOW shows you how to get going fast at minimal cost.

Modern workplaces are following a strong trend of increasing flexible working practices and approaches, offering more flexibility in working times, working places, work organization, and work relations as the result of new information and communication technologies. This book brings together a group of internationally recognized experts in the field of flexible work to examine the psychological and social implications of these practices, describing the current state of research and empirically-based practices in this field. It focuses on organizational, job, and individual factors related to the quality of working life, and identifies potential risk groups where the benefits of flexible work are suppressed or not realized. Ideal for organizations implementing or considering implementing flexible work, for professionals and researchers in work and organizational psychology, and for HR professionals, this volume is an invaluable overview of rapidly changing work norms and their impact on working life.

Once hidden behind the veils of entrepreneurship, it is now clear that platforms are reshaping the world of work, and Amazon has been a forerunner in setting the trend. This book examines two key and contrasting Amazon platforms that differ in how they organize workers: its e-commerce platform and digital labor platform (Mechanical Turk). With access to the people who are working at the heart of these platforms, it explores how different working conditions alienate workers, and how, despite these conditions, workers organize within their political-economic contexts to express their agency in traditional and alternative ways. Written for social scientists studying and researching the platform economy, this is a timely and important analysis of work and workers on the (digital) shop floor.

Work-life balance isn't about where or how you spend your time. At least not solely. It's about where and how you use and replenish your energy. Work matters. Life matters. Work-life matters. As we start to navigate life during and after the pandemic, employers and employees are increasingly re-evaluating how work can be made more sustainable and more fulfilling. Many employees - particularly Gen X and Gen Z - are seeking a new psychological contract with their employers. Putting these trends into context and offering practical solutions, this book takes a deep dive into why work matters as part of a healthy and fulfilling life. The authors present a new and different way of thinking about the matter of balance, arguing that there is no hard divide between 'work' and life' because 'work' takes place entirely within 'life' and you can't balance two things when one is a subset of the other. To achieve the balance required for a healthy existence, we need to recognise that there are activities in all parts of work-life that drain our energy and others that give us a buzz. Rather than trying to solve the drain of hard work by living it large at the weekend - or compensating for an unfulfilling home life by working like a demon, we need to create balance at work and balance at home. Now is a golden opportunity to re-examine the world of work and job-craft to make them more satisfying, less draining and more energising. The ideas in this book provide a practical guide to help that process.

The last twenty-five years have seen the world of work transformed in Britain. Manufacturing and nationalized industries contracted and private services expanded. Employment became more diverse. Trade union membership collapsed. Collective bargaining disappeared from much of the private sector, as did strikes. This was accompanied by the rise of human resource management and new employment practices. The law, once largely absent, increasingly became a dominant influence. The experience of work has become more pressured. The Evolution of the Modern Workplace, first published in 2009, provides an authoritative account and analysis of these changes and their consequences. Its main source is the five Workplace Employment Relations Surveys that were conducted at roughly five-year intervals between 1980 and 2004. Drawing on this unique source of data, a team of internationally renowned scholars show how the world of the workplace has changed, and why it has changed, for both workers and employers.