Organizations Books

This book charts the funeral journey and more than familiarizes the reader with the new Order of Christian Funerals. It is very readable and reaches those who want to prepare funeral liturgies by keeping in mind the ministry of consolation. This is a valuable tool for those interested in explaining and implementing meaningful aspects of separation and loss. Provisions are made for ways to prepare the liturgies. There is also an excellent schematization of the funeral journey. This is a unique commentary for ministry.

This book puts the funeral into perspective according to the new Order of Christian funerals. It is a resource for parish ministry. It takes the reader through the actual funeral journey. It has an innovative approach to the expression of loss through ritual.

One of the greatest challenges of responding with a life-giving "Yes" to the call to become a living reflection of Christ's presence in the world is dealing with the seemingly conflicting pulls. Do I spend time in prayer or in service? Do I want to join a religious order or become involved in a ministry where I live? "Contemplatives in Action" shows how these paradoxes can actually become a creative tension in our lives. It's wonderful!

This small book is an excellent, accessible introduction to Jesuit spirituality. The authors, both highly respected Jesuits with vast experience of the Spiritual Exercises, have written a work intended for a general audience. Containing only 80 pages of text, the book is organized according to what the authors describe as "a set of lifegiving and creative tensions" inherent in Jesuit spirituality. Their approach is both innovative and clever. They cover some of the historical circumstances which called forth the kind of responses from the earliest Jesuits that have come to characterize Jesuit spirituality. I cannot think of a better, more compact introduction to Jesuit spirituality for the novice. Especially good for those working with Jesuits or in Jesuit apostolates who want a quick, helpful primer.

If a church is going to be discussed, it is less likely to be the Orthodox Church.
If it's an Orthodox Church, it's unlikely to be a Non-Chalcedonian Church like the Coptic.
If it's the Coptic Church, it's less likely to be the monastics.
If it's the Coptic monastics, it's highly unlikely to be a discussion of women.

So this is a rare book on a subject no one speaks of. When Abba Shenouda, the Coptic Pope, is asked about the number of monastics in his church, he lists only men. Pieternella performs a great ethnography on the Coptic Orthodox Nuns, discussing all aspects of their life in an extremely satisfactory etic study. She looks at the long history of monasticism in Egypt, and, because of the dearth of resources on nuns, we also get to learn a lot about Coptic monks and ecclesiology in the process. Pieternella lists the various forms of ministry that women have available to them in the Coptic Church- contemplative nuns, active ministry nuns, and quasi-deaconesses. She convincingly demonstrates how, in the Coptic tradition, contemplation is a more valuable pursuit for the monastic than is service for the poor and social justice work. She compares the monastic situation to the wider culture- the opportunities for women in Coptic Orthodoxy and the Muslim hegemony to show that monasticism is the best opportunity for religious advancement available to Egyptian women. It is only here, especially as Abbess, that a woman can become a spiritual authority figure, even to the point of performing the charisma of healing of men. And Pieternella doesn't just give a Western look at these monastics. She is to be highly credited for not falling into the myth of the excluded middle, in which the personal miraculous is ignored and does not exist. She looks in great detail into the supernatural, the mystical, prayer life, and saint hagiography. In this study, you get to learn all there is about a group that most don't even know exists. These are the women who have devoted their lives to love of others and serve through work and prayer to the Eternal Listener.

The general editor's preface to this volume states, "If books treating Christianity from a comparative religion standpoint are rare as hen's teeth, books in English treating Coptic Christianity from any perspective are far rarer" (p. vii). Pieternella van Doorn-Harder has thankfully reversed that trend. She reminds us of early lessons: listen to those who live their own history, write what they have said and meant to say, and write without casting too much of a personal shadow on the text.

Van Doorn-Harder's academic rigor sets her in critical solidarity with the subjects of her study and their ecclesiastical institutions. Her direct writing style joined with life experience sets a sympathetic tone for a text whose dissertational structure might otherwise have proven dull and pedantic. She aims at highlighting and describing how contemporary contemplative and active Coptic nuns have developed their place in their church and in the context of modern Islamic Egypt. The roots of this monastic tradition are found in the lives of the earliest monks, Antony (251-356) and Pachomius (292-346). The author points out without ambiguity that there is little written history of Egyptian convents, except for scant references to the twelfth century. She concludes that this "heritage is more or less confined to the centuries prior to the Arab invasion. What came after the invasion remains rather opaque" (p. 33).

The modern Coptic monastic rule of life is not a set document as it is in the numerous contemplative and active communities of Roman Catholicism. The singular rule for Coptic monastics does not yet exist. References to early patristic tradition and the needs of present-day bishops in consultation with convent superiors establish lines of authority, prayer life, ascetic practices, and bread-and-butter issues. In the case of the active convents, the type of social involvement also shapes both their ascetic life and the economic requirements of daily living.

The nineteenth- and twentieth-century revival of the Coptic Church is at the source of new religious lifestyles. Contact with European convent life and the Egyptian Islamic context have helped shape the lives of these Coptic nuns. Questions confronting all religious orders in Christianity are raised: authority and its exercise, the role of women as role models and leaders, the relations with the non-Christian community, and finally, the demands of the spiritual life in a modern society: "the key words for the situation of female monastics seem to be transition and redefinition" (p. 197).

The author neither shirks nor skirts the difficult issues. She shows a prudent restraint in being nonjudgmental with questions of possible conflict. One example is male authority and female competence, about which Van DoornHarder states, "This situation forms a potential source of friction within the highest levels of Coptic male hierarchy who on the basis of their interpretation of scripture, tradition, and culture, cannot tolerate self-reliant women" (p. 201). Photographs accompany the text. Notes, a glossary of Arabic words, a good bibliography, and an index complete a welcome and much needed study.

Current wisdom is that shareholder value should be the guiding light for corporate management. The US is following this lodestar. US companies outperform all other so who can quarrel with this? European companies are following the US example. The author wonders if companies are digging their own graves by doing so. Her arguments may not be watertight but they make you sit up and think. She correctly states that a company's success is dependent on innovation. There is no evidence that concentrating on shareholder value is best for innovation. The blossoming of the electronics industry is not based on the free market or entrepreneurship or shareholder value. The foundation was enlightened procurement by the Department Of Defence. IBM, INTEL and DEC all owe their success to "buy only American" defence orders according to her analysis. She also shows that the stock market only plays a very small role in providing capital for investment. Most funding comes from depreciation and retained earnings. Equity issues are only important to buy out owners and to allow companies to acquire other ones. An interesting analysis shows that the benefit of an acquisition almost always accrues to the shareholders of the acquired company and almost never to the acquiring company. Institutional investors (and raiders) are the only shareholders with influence. Their only interest is share performance. They have aligned their interest with that of top management through stock options and bonus plans depending on share performance. Company managers can now become very rich when increasing the value of the shares. As the average tenure of a CEO is around five years, it leads automatically to a short-term perspective. She believes that there is more to the economic value a company can produce than shareholder value. This point is not dealt with in any detail other than the emphasis on innovation and organisational learning that are long-term processes. One interesting point is the difference between German and Japanese companies on the one hand and US on the other. US companies do not see it as an objective to upgrade the job opportunities for its employees. In the past companies offered good pay for relatively simple jobs. The company attitude is to move these jobs to low cost countries and make the employees redundant. Most of the redundant people have to take lower paid service jobs. She believes that companies can and should follow a different path and enrich the kind of work the company can offer and invest in the education of its employees. She gives no real-life examples of US companies that have successfully done so. The different path taken by German is described very lucidly. Even though German companies have made much greater effort than American companies in upgrading its workforce, they face other problems. Financing pensions is big problem, so is the restructuring of the banks. Getting the "upgraded" specialists at all levels to work as teams across specialist borders is very difficult. This book presents many thought-provoking challenges to readers that believe in shareholder value and the free market without any reservations or concerns.

Current wisdom is that shareholder value should be the guiding light for corporate management. The US is following this lodestar. US companies outperform all other so who can quarrel with this? European companies are following the US example. The author wonders if companies are digging their own graves by doing so. Her arguments may not be watertight but they make you sit up and think. She correctly states that a company's success is dependent on innovation. There is no evidence that concentrating on shareholder value is best for innovation. The blossoming of the electronics industry is not based on the free market or entrepreneurship or shareholder value. The foundation was enlightened procurement by the Department Of Defence. IBM, INTEL and DEC all owe their success to "buy only American" defence orders according to her analysis. She also shows that the stock market only plays a very small role in providing capital for investment. Most funding comes from depreciation and retained earnings. Equity issues are only important to buy out owners and to allow companies to acquire other ones. An interesting analysis shows that the benefit of an acquisition almost always accrues to the shareholders of the acquired company and almost never to the acquiring company. Institutional investors (and raiders) are the only shareholders with influence. Their only interest is share performance. They have aligned their interest with that of top management through stock options and bonus plans depending on share performance. Company managers can now become very rich when increasing the value of the shares. As the average tenure of a CEO is around five years, it leads automatically to a short-term perspective. She believes that there is more to the economic value a company can produce than shareholder value. This point is not dealt with in any detail other than the emphasis on innovation and organisational learning that are long-term processes. One interesting point is the difference between German and Japanese companies on the one hand and US on the other. US companies do not see it as an objective to upgrade the job opportunities for its employees. In the past companies offered good pay for relatively simple jobs. The company attitude is to move these jobs to low cost countries and make the employees redundant. Most of the redundant people have to take lower paid service jobs. She believes that companies can and should follow a different path and enrich the kind of work the company can offer and invest in the education of its employees. She gives no real-life examples of US companies that have successfully done so. The different path taken by German is described very lucidly. Even though German companies have made much greater effort than American companies in upgrading its workforce, they face other problems. Financing pensions is big problem, so is the restructuring of the banks. Getting the "upgraded" specialists at all levels to work as teams across specialist borders is very difficult. This book presents many thought-provoking challenges to readers that believe in shareholder value and the free market without any reservations or concerns.

Cornerstones of Strong Schools: Practices for Purposeful Leadership lives up to its title with its recommendations and experiences-tested practices for school principals, as well as specific leadership strategies ideal for fostering an optimum learning environment. Chapters discuss how to affirm success and acknowledge failure (including teacher underperformance), the value of being a visible principal, building positive relationships with teachers and handling the teacher evaluation process, the importance of requiring behavior adjustments before belief adjustments when instituting a new change, and much more. "Involving parents in their child's learning is another critical way we affirm the performance of our students. One of the most successful ways we have accomplished this is through our student-led conferences. In these conferences students, rather than teachers, take the lead in showing and telling their parents what they have learned by a given point in the school year... The number one benefit we have discovered from student-led conferences is the extent to which students become accountable for their own education." Highly recommended especially for public and private school leaders.

Jeffrey Zoul and Laura Link have crafted a very readable and practical primer for school leadership that is long overdue. The business community is replete with multitudinous volumes describing sound leadership practices. By contrast, the education profession has lagged in telling its own story of the characteristics of the successful leader for that profession.

Cornerstones of Strong Schools identifies nine essential responsibilties necessary for the successful school leader. Examples and strategies for each is detailed in the respective chapter describing the particular quality of leadership. The authors weave personal experience with valued research to provide the reader with information that will enhance and augment leadership styles.

Quality schools and their attendant results begin at the top. Zoul and Link have given the school leader a valuable tool with which to achieve such success!

I have been using Paul Argenti's Corporate Communication for my Management and Corporate Communication class and find the book very systematic and comprehensive. It provides students with a new perspective of professional external and internal communication that a company needs to build its image and identity. Especially, the down-to-earth cases for discussions such as, the Adolph Coors Company and the 60 minutes CBS program, and the case of United Technologies, are perfect application of knowledge to practice. More significant is that those problems are universal and might occur to any organization. And this is credited to Paul Argenti's long experience of teaching management and corporate communication. I really enjoy using this book.

Though not as current as some other texts dealing with corporate communication, Argenti's book is still the best. It combines both theory and practice, never letting one dominate the other; instead, it combines them, letting their merged strengths shine. It's similar to Guerrilla PR: Wired by Michael Levine, which also utilizes the practice of public relations to great effect in examining how to attain the objective.

Argenti uses several brilliant case histories in his examination of corporate communication. This text is both informative and useful. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's involved in the field.

This book is great!! it is easy to read and makes some information that could be presented in a very complex way very understandable and applicable to managing a quality organization. This should be required reading in management courses!

In "Corporate Culture and the Quality Organization," James Fairfield-Sonn leads readers through a journey on quality. To understand the roots of thinking on the topic of quality, the book begins with a historical perspective including the views of the early writers on quality improvement - Deming, Juran, and Crosby. Dr. Fairfield-Sonn then provides a big picture perspective on the importance of creating a quality culture as well as specifics on making quality happen. Dr. Fairfield-Sonn also discusses the emerging challenges organizations face, including nurturing a learning environment. Written in a logical, easy to follow format, the book includes relevant examples from Dr. Fairfield-Sonn's work as a management consultant.

Great book that in simple, insightful and witty prose (not academic) shows us how the Industrial Age model of management is creating everying from workplace stress to ecological disasters. Best of all, it also offers us all solutions to everything from our daily workplace angst to the bigger picture of how we can save ourselves and the planet by changing organizational structures using lessons from nature-not machines. I highly recommend this book!

One headline that is almost guaranteed to appear in our daily newspapers is news of yet another corporate misdeed. Greed, falsification of information, denial, and in general a sense of lawlessness of government seem to be cancers that are now surfacing in many of the big organizations: names of these need not be mentioned as everyone has paid attention to various scandals. While most readers will sigh and move on to the next bit of everyday news disaster, few will take the time to think through why our corporations are infected with significant disorders. Dr. Eli Sopow, the author of this informative book CORPORATE PERSONALITY DISORDER: SURVIVING & SAVING SICK ORGANIZATIONS, has indeed paid attention and in this 'textbook' he helps us understand why the corporations are so susceptible to inner decay.

Writing in an entertaining and no nonsense style, Sopow 'goes to the core' of the problem and that core, he feels, is akin to analyzing the family tree of the company. And what is more important is that the book can serve as a guidebook to corporations to mend their ways, but it is also a fine backup tool for the employee of 'sick' companies to diagnose and detect and help resolve the problems that in Sopow's hands are made easily identifiable. Be an activist under Sopow's tutelage and perhaps the frightening number of ill corporations will dwindle.

Sopow's approach to a very serious problem in our country today is one that will encourage each of us to be activists, demanding and encouraging change, instead of simply whining about the greed of the MegaMonsters. It is immensely readable and valuable and HOPEFULLY will find a large readership. Highly recommended for everyone's illumination! Grady Harp, December 07

Where's the great editorals from some leading authors and experts in the field ? Just started to re-read. Great stuff for those spearheading a re-engineering project. Still awaiting your next text/book from the trio of Kelvin, Rich and John.

The book is crisply written, and gives some remarkably clear insights and advice on reengineering. It also provides some useful, applicable tools (process maps, LP diagrams) to make an effort more effective. Advice includes service quality design, organizing a reengineering effort, and implementation. All is invaluable.

I stongly recommend this book.

I was very happy to finally find a book that could help me (and anyone else) discern the priesthood. The authors simply lay out the facts, supported by seminarians, priests, and laity, but never push you one way or the other. I found that this book helps you process the many questions swirling in your mind about discernment and come to your own conclusions. I would recommend this book to any one who is considering religious vocation because it gives a wonderful chronology of what to expect of yourself and others throughout the entire process (from first interest to retirement). This is a must read!!

A young man who struggles with the idea of priesthood would find himself alone, confronted by a host of important questions, which he may be afraid to ask others. This small book provides some basic answers to such questions. Christopher Duquin himself has been to the seminary personally discerning his vocation and grappling with these and similar questions. The basic aspects of a call to priesthood are dealt here in a simple and understandable language, in 172 pages. The beautiful cover design and the straightforward title question are assets of this book.

In seeking answers to the questions the authors refer to the basic books and documents like 'The Program for Priestly Formation'. The book is also abounding in quotes from bishops, priests, seminarians and laity who are serious about their vocation. The basic facts dealing with both religious and diocesan priesthood are clearly stated without any prejudices and preferences. This is the kind of book a young man should read even before he enters the seminary in order to discern his vocation.