Organizations Books

Robert J. Lifton has dedicated his life to explaining the phenomenon of blind faith. However, to understand the Taliban world John Walker entered nine months ago one needs to add to the list of required reading, an eloquent memoir by someone not unlike the idealistic young Walker, Deborah Layton. Dr. Lifton and Layton's words together only broaden the scope of our possible comprehension of this difficult subject and make excellent reading for theologians and society at large.

Dr. Lifton's work gives us an excellent academic look into cult thinking. However, if you want to see how innocently these groups can start, if you want to understand the mind-frame of a believer, if you want to experience how it is that potent beliefs can skew one's morals then also include in your reading Seductive Poison. Anyone who has ever wondered how the unbelievable comes to pass Layton's memoir of cult life has the answers. Although three years old it remains a timely, intimate and enlightening look into a world that exists along-side our own. If you want a heart pounding visceral glimpse inside another world this book is it. It is not just evil that can do the things we've experienced since September 11. It can also be idealistic, devout folks like you and me. We are all more susceptible to fanatical beliefs since war has touched our soil. Would we now even question giving anthrax to "them"? Layton's work shows how it can go both ways.

Subjects like this are not always approached in the same way that someone might go to church, for example. An introduction to this book which depends entirely on a religious point of view might seem strange to the casual shopper, but it suggests the spirit in which this book might be brought into view with a certain humility.

I used to go to church a lot because it provided an opportunity to think. I have also gone to hear the author of this book speak for the same reason, but with much deeper results, because Robert Jay Lifton, at the time of the 50th anniversary of the atomic attack on Hiroshima, was in a perfect position to accuse the American President who tried to explain the attack, Harry Truman, of confabulating when he combined the elements of the situation in a way which was not quite factual. My impression of Lifton at that time was that he was quite old, and not open to the perverse glee that a personal encounter with me might provide, so we didn't quite meet. Given the differences between us, it should be obvious that he has written a much better book on the topic of Apocalyptic Violence than I ever could, embracing a wealth of detail with relentless fascination. Early in the book, on page 16, typical psychological judgments are considered insignificant, as Freud's association with the resolution of the Oedipus complex is compared to the possibility of a guru who can face a real "call to greatness, and a series of ordeals and trials culminating in heroic achievement." Religious greatness can surpass the usual psychological norm when it is possible to demonstrate "the hero's achievement of special knowledge of, or mastery over, death, which can in turn enhance the life of his people." Most of this book reports on terrible events, including the creation of weapons. The guru who is the subject of this book was born in 1955, and the events are quite recent. I see no reason to dispute that the people involved were thinking in the manner that is reported in this book. Some readers might consider this excessively factual, but people with books ought to be able to get real like this once in a while, too.

This is a great book. I recommend it for anyone interested in Dianetics. Read it from cover to cover and then maybe reread it! But at least read it once!

Wanting to know the history and begining of scientology, I was directed to this audiobook. I found it very intreging and and easy to follow, The paperback book that accompanies it has all of the terminology and definitions. I would recommend it to all.

This is the first book written on this subject, (Dianetics) written almost 50 years ago. It's put forth in a manner that is easy to understand and will give you an understanding of why people continue to use this information to improve their lives and why this subject continues to grow in popularity

This five-star book is an excellent resource tool. It is a comprehensive guide about everything and anything you every wanted to know, thought you knew, and felt you should know about the Sacred Liturgy. It is a must for Catholic households. As the jacket cover states: "in a down-to-earth and informative style....with accurate and clear explanations", it is a store of knowledge right at your fingertips. It has everything!

This five-star book is an excellent resource tool. It is a comprehensive guide about everything and anything you every wanted to know, thought you knew, and felt you should know about the Sacred Liturgy. It is a must for Catholic households. As the jacket cover states: "in a down-to-earth and informative style....with accurate and clear explanations", it is a store of knowledge right at your fingertips. It has everything!

This dictionary defines and explains an unbelievable number of Latin and English liturgical terms and includes an indispensible appendix with succint explanations of the history of the Mass. Dictionary entries include theological terms, liturgical feasts, parts and vessels of the Mass, Magisterial documents (obviously not the most recent ones), popular Catholic prayers, and even some Catholic saints. This is an excellent reference tool for anyone who wants to understand the liturgy.

This book is useful for beginners and advanced pray-ers alike. For beginners it will dispel so many of the doubts associated with prayer and help head off many problems and difficulties before they arise. For those already well immersed in a prayer life, Fr Boylan offers encouragement and insight garnered from his many years of deep prayer life. This book offers a solid, orthodox approach to prayer. The wackiness found in so many books on prayer is mercifully absent here. I would recommend reading this book every couple of years to ingest its deep content as one advances in prayer.

An old classic that I read many times before and , thanks to you, I am able to read and reread it again. The book is superb! The author is an Irish Trappist- a priest who knows the ways of prayer and union with God.

This is truly a classic in learning how to grow in friendship with the Lord Jesus. Fr. Boylan is an extremely lucid writer and will help any and all grow in prayer.

Lyle Schaller has done it once again. His knowledge and insight into contemporary American Christianity are excellent. I am not a pastor but rather a lay person involved in my church and Schaller gives me insights into the world that we all live in, not just clergy. Although many of his observations and predictions are disturbing to me - I'd rather some things were not that way - I think his astute insights accurately reflect the society we live in and the people we are. Schaller has helped me perhaps see things more as they really are instead of as I'd wish them to be; that can only help me and others who read this book work more effectively in God's church.

Although not an overly long or difficult read I recommend taking this book in a slow series of smaller bites to allow one's mind to fully digest the points made within. Schaller serves up a wealth of insight in this book and, even though some points may not be what we're accustomed to tasting, they're all nourishing.

Schaller evaluates societal, political, and generational trends in relation to Christianity and contemporary ministry. His insights are inestimable. The wealth of information in this book is immense. Even if the reader disagrees with one or two of Schaller's numerous evaluations, theories, or predictions, the reader is still indebted to the author for sparking boatloads of novel thought. This book is best read slowly so that one's contemplative juices can churn and bubble into a rich froth. Caution: Book is Powerful!

Another in a line of good books from Lyle Schaller. The book is full of his trademark questions that are designed to lead a church to transformation. Some of the findings in this book will challenge even the most reluctant to change and their world view. It is a must read for pastors of churches who are wondering what to do next. Schaller paints a picture that all of us need to see.

The author, a well-known New Testament scholar, published a study some twenty years ago entitled "Jesus and Community." That book was well-received, but it did not provide enough background to be helpful for contemporary parishes wanting to renew themselves. This book is a much more fulsome study of the entire biblical story from Genesis to the Book of Revelation, focusing on the role of community in shaping the people of God. He shows quite convincingly that the God of the Bible wants his people to give witness to their faith not simply as individuals but primarily as a unified community of believers. Accordingly, Christians who do not see the importance of belonging to a concrete parish or local church do not understand the biblical message.

I am reading this book after reading "Jesus and Community", also by Lohfink. I am an older student and fairly well educated (B.S., B.A.). I found the books somewhat slow going but packed full of insightful and thought provoking information. Although Lohfink's background is very different from mine, his use of scripture made it possible to stay on track with his points. I have had hours and hours of discussion and comtemplation from this study. I am in the process of redefining my concept of "church" in response to some of these ideas. I would recommend this to any lay person for serious study (if you aren't scared to pull out your dictionary and don't get alarmed if someone references ideas or texts that you don't necessarily agree with).

This book communicates the author's vision of the Church and its role in the world with power and progressive clarity. Lohfink demonstrates that an understanding of the Church cannot be separated from an understanding of Israel as the people of God, the vehicle through which God brings salvation to the entire world. Using historical critical methods and his experience as a biblical exegete, he reconstructs the story of Israel, particularly its Exodus traditions, showing how the experience of Israel with God resulted in a social project, rooted in the Torah. It was a radically new form of community and worldview that stood in contrast to other nations and peoples. He proceeds to weave the story of Jesus in the context of Israel's history, connecting his gathering of the Twelve with the eschatological gathering of Israel, and portraying his death as the renewal and sealing of the covenant for the people of God. Finally, he details how the Church is a continuation of a history that began with Abraham, but now centered in Jesus.

Of particular interests is how Lohfink handles Jesus' feeding of the five thousand. He shows how the historic Church has tended to make the same mistakes as Jesus' disciples did in their response to the hungry multitudes. Lohfink uses Jesus' response to their questions to deduce how the Church must be formed in order to be more than another charitable organization or religious services provider. The mission of the Church is rather to be the new society, a locus of salvation capable of transforming the world.

Finally, Father Lohfink shares his own story, describing his experiences in the German Church from the time of Hitler to the present, including his decision to relinquish his chair as a Professor of New Testament at the University of Tubingen to join the Catholic Integrated Community and its Association of Priests in Munich Germany.

Does God Need the Church? Yes indeed!

The following comments were submitted by a student the first time I used Dr. Hatch's excellent text--Jim Horn

This book provided a rich description of qualitative research and an easy to understand roadmap for students embarking on the process of conducting a qualitative research study. Hatch took a difficult subject and made it accessible to novice researchers by providing an in-depth, well-thought out presentation of how to go about conducting research step by step in a logical manner. It was thorough from beginning to end. It also spoke to the individual, unique personal qualities and characteristics of the researcher that is inherent to the research. Therefore, it offered us an opportunity to do some real soul-searching and see ourselves in a different light.

It was easy to read and understand and organized well. I thought the section about writing and Hatch's personal experiences were very valuable not only for researchers but for those who wish to write or improve their writing skills in general. The data analysis chapter was extremely helpful during the data analysis process because it provided clear, easy-to-follow steps. I used it as a guide and a reference for my project.

One suggestion is that the section on research paradigms might be a little difficult for some students who are not familiar with the meaning of ontology and epistemology. In our class, a number of students noted they had a hard time understanding these concepts so it might be helpful if there was a paragraph that explains these concepts leading into the connection to the various paradigms.

Overall, this is an excellent introduction for students to the various steps in the process. It was enjoyable to read, enlightening and it gave me a solid foundation for conducting my own study. I loved the book and I enjoyed doing qualitative research. It was also helpful . . . to enable us to delve deeply into the challenging and exciting experience of conducing qualitative research. The book and Dr. Horn also provided a good contextual framework for different methodologies as well.

The importance of qualitative research in education settings can not be underestimated in world in which children are often reduced to nothing but a number on a standardized test score. Thank you, Dr. Hatch, for giving us this wonderful gift and thank you Dr. Horn for sharing it with us.

Judy Rabinowitz
Monmouth University

As a new qualitative researcher, finding Dr. Hatch's book "cleared the clouds" and provided an easy to read support for all the processes necessary to be successful with a qualitative research project, especially for dissertation students. After reading all the classics (Yin, Creswell, Denzin, Lincoln, Stake, Miles and Hubermann, etc) Hatch brings it all together and provides solid questions for you to evaluate your own work before sending it into your committee. Must have for new qualitiative researchers!

Dr. Hatch's book should be required reading for all doctoral students planning to do qualitative research. His clearly written step-by-step methods have proved invaluable in my own dissertation data analysis and reporting. Do yourself a favor and read this book BEFORE starting your qualitative research!

This is a book you will probably want to buy in quantity. It's an affordable little 96-page compendium of the most relevant "Do's and Don'ts" of leading a group of people. What I like about this book is its simplicity. Each "Do" and each "Don't" is accompanied by a short story from real-life situations to help clarify the significant points. These are the issues that tend to get leaders in a lot of trouble, and Steve Herbelin has captured them nicely in this book.

The dos and don'ts are direct, to the point and extremely practical for just about any kind of working environment. I especially like the abundance of true anecdotes that clarify and reinforce the points being made. I strongly recommend this book for team leaders as well as coaches!

I started reading this book with a bit of skepticism. After all, it's written by the workers. Right from the start, though, this book makes sense. Lots of sense. It presents a philosophical outlook on team leadership that gets to the core --- interpersonal relationships --- without using superficial analogies or inventing contrived structures. Just common sense about how to deal with people and situations in a real, straightforward manner. Over and over again I found myself thinking things like, "Yes, I know that. That's true. Right on!" It's mostly things that we already know, but maybe need a little book like this to give us the confidence to more often do the right thing and act the right way. If everyone applied the principles outlined in "The Dos and Don'ts of Work Team Coaching," the world would certainly be a better place in which to work. I'm going to keep it handy and read it again someday, and again.

"Our work on this topic has been inspired primarily by personal consulting experiences over many years...Ten years ago, these experiences confirmed the teachings of W.Edwards Deming and others involved with continuous quality improvement. Deming asserted in his fourteen obligations of managment that quality was impossible where people are afraid to tell the truth...Besides Dming, other voices strongly reinforce the need to understand the dynamics and effects of fear. Chris Argyris's extensive body of work clarifies how invisible and self-reinforcing miscommunication due to fear can be. Peter Senge's explorations of systems thinking illuminate its far-reaching effects. Both of these thinkers underscore the need to understand the negative assumptions about people that keep fear in place. Peter Block's works on empowerment and stewardship demand a wholesale rethinking of the concepts of management and leadership as a way to escape thses destructive beliefs. Most recently, Thomas Stewart's examination of the rapidly emerging value of intellectual capital demands that even more attention be paid to reducing fear and building trust" (from the Preface).

In this context, Kathleen D.Ryan and Daniel K.Oestreich, with the following core questions, illustrate some important elements of the trust-fear continuum. They say that if your answers to these questions are all 'yes,' your workplace is clearly fear-based:

* Do a high proportion of people in your organization frequently hesitate to speak up about certain issues?

* Does a fear of speaking up exist at many levels in your organization?

* Are people in your workplace associating managers and supervisors with th presence of fear?

* Are leaders in your organization exhibiting behavior that causes employees to be afraid?

* Are people reacting with strong emotions to a perceived environment of fear?

* Is fear having an impact on work and how it is getting done?

Thus, by describing the following 'core behaviors,' they define the vision of a high-trust workplace: *mutual helpfulness and understanding, *serving as a reality check for one another, *providing feedback for one another, on strengths as well as areas that need improvement, *influencing each other's ideas and decisions; willingness to be influenced, *humor; enjoyment of each other's company, *creative, synergistic problem solving where the results are greater than the sum of the parts, *respect for different backgrounds and talents; reliance on one another's expertise to ensure the best results, *willingness and ability to work through conflicts and disagreements, *common commitment to the same goal; commitment to one another's success, *a high level of rapport and honesty with one another, *straightforward communication.

They argue that the vision of a high-trust workplace can draw people naturally away from the cycle of fear and mistrust toward a new set of possibilities for better workplace relationships, and hence high-performance organization.

Highly recommended.

This is one of my all-time favorite management/OD books. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in learning how to improve manager-employee relationships, trust, and communication in organizations. I think it should be on the bookshelf of every Organization Development specialist, Human Resource manager, executive coach, and leadership trainer. It contains useful, thoughtful, and often unique advice for managers, team members, trainers, and anyone else interested in reducing the climate of fear in their workplace. Some of the ideas translate well to personal and family relationships too.

Fear is extremely damaging to organizations. It can harm trust, communication, quality, knowledge sharing, cooperation, innovation, retention, and overall organization effectiveness. Whether you are interested in improving morale, communication, and performance company-wide, or you just need to improve your relationship with one person, you'll find something useful here. This is not just the same old recycled advice you'll see in leadership books. Some of the ideas will be familiar to experienced people in the field, but the authors expand them and put them into a new perspective based on their work. They contribute many new ideas and examples that you won't find elsewhere.

Portions of the book are particularly helpful for well-intentioned managers who just don't understand why people don't fully trust them. If you're not getting the level of communication, ideas, and candor needed to bring your organization to the next level, fear may be the problem. If you hear a manager say, "I don't know why they didn't tell me sooner," give him or her this book. Most of us don't realize all the little things we do to discourage good communication.

My favorite concepts in this book include the cycle of mistrust and undiscussables. The cycle of mistrust provides a great understanding of how our perceptions and assumptions influence the behavior of other people. It's a great model for leadership, teambuilding and communication workshops. You'll be sure to recognize a few "undiscussables" in your own workplace. An undiscussable might be a sensitive issue that employees whisper about to one another, but not with those who might have the power to do something about it. It's just too risky to speak up. Management might not learn about it until they experience the shock of scathing comments in an anonymous employee survey, or they hear about it from someone in another company! You can prevent this from happening by driving fear out of the workplace and by creating an environment that makes it easier for people to speak up in the first place.

A culture of fear permeates many organizations, draining them of their potential and vitality. Based on their interview findings, the authors examine how fear is a major obstacle to open communication and organizational effectiveness. The book also addresses fear during times of rapid change. In this work you will find strategies for building a high-trust work environment. The book is loaded with good, practical guidance for managers. From fear to trust is a quantum leap; this book can help you take that enlightening jump.

The American writer Willaim Saroyan once said, "In the time of your life, live---so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

In this time of global terrorism, rising oil prices, climatic disruption and political decay, hope is an increasingly scarce resource. Leadership too is becoming a perception to be managed and not a trait to be displayed. West African writer and teacher Malidoma Some declares that we have "an instinct of community," and so as societies grow and evolve, they build up resevoirs of social capital, taking generations to fill.

This instinct for community -- toward cooperation and competition, or so called 'co-opetition' by Brandenberger & Nalebuff -- is so strong in humans that we come into this world stocked with such emotions as anger, pride, shame, and guilt -- all of which, according to Fukuyama, "come into play in response to people who either are honest and cooperate, or who cheat and break the rules.

Yet the promise of this communal synthesis is being degraded as we "are using the instinct of community to separate and protect us from one another, rather than creating a global culture of diverse yet interwoven communities." Based on the interdependent models available to us in eco-systems theory, there is the possibility to "to connect to others through their diversity, [to re-establish] communities that succeed in creating sustainable [long-term] relationships."

It is the collaboration and cooperation of individuals in elaborate interdependent networks of relationships that allows new capabilities and talents to emerge. Individual fitness leads to greater societal and communal fitness and the connections and relationships strengthen and reinforce the fabric of society.

Yet as individuals weave this social fabric, a paradox is created -- the individual must surrender autonomy to achieve community. This paradoxical tension can lead to even greater awareness and understanding of the role of the individual in society, or it may contain the seed of our eventual self-destruction.

As Wheatley proclaims, "This paradox can be a great teacher to us humans. When we don't answer these questions as a community, when we have no agreements about why we belong together, the institutions we create to serve us become battle grounds that serve no one. Our institutions dissipate into incoherence and impotence. In the absence of these agreements, our instinct of community leads us to a community of 'me' not a community of 'we'." Such is the paradox and the promise of community.

basically satisfied with everything. the book came in good condition and was pretty much on time.

Before WW I, fewer that 5% of the population lived in a city. Today in developed countries, less that 5% live in a rural area. All of this has occured in less than 100 years.

The key to survival and health of this new urban society is the development of communities in the city, by non-profit social sector insititutions, according to Peter Drucker.

Human beings need community. If no communities are available for constructive ends, there will be destructive communities, i.e. gangs to fill the void.

This thoughtfully written, well organized book is about the future -- the future quality of our lives. In "The Community of the Future", the editors have gathered the wisdom and insights from 31 distinguished authors, from around the world, to discuss their unique perspective on the nature of community.

The book is divided into six sections: * Trends Shaping the Evolution of the Community * The Values of Community * The Impact of New Communication Technology * Creating Community in Organization * Strengthening the Social Fabric * Global Dimensions of Community.

If you are interested in creating the future, strengthening our communities and improving our understanding of our world, I highly recommend "The Community of the Future".

Building the global community of the future is not the work of tomorrow. We are each called to build it today -- to build it now.