Human Resources Books

Author's field works and photographs document changes in the way people and their environment interact. Book design: Heidi Haeuser.

Nigel Smith is a longtime student of the Brazilian Amazon. In this illustrated book, he attempts to capture the social, economic and environmental reality of the estuary region of the Amazon river, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.

This is a wonderfully illustrated book, with the pictures going a long way in capturing the reality of the region. The region is quite peculiar even within the Amazon in that it suffers the influence of the Ocean, with ingredients such as daily tides and beaches that are not common elsewhere in the Amazon.

The social and economic contrasts are vast: on the one hand, there is the city of Belem, with over 1 million people and a cosmopolitan feel to it; on the other hand, you have the people who live in the banks of the thousands of rivers that crisscross each other on the way to the Ocean, living very simple lives, often without electricity. The book depicts, with few words and many images, the distinct local living conditions.

The environmental aspect, which makes the region all the more interesting, is present throughout. Despite an economy heavily dependent on natural resources, especially in the Marajo island, the author presents an ecossystem that is often well integrated with man. For example, he demonstrates how people survive off gathering acai (a local plant), crab or eels, in such a way that the resources are naturally replenished.

The sweet sea is clearly a distinct region from the rest of the Amazon, and hence deserves unique attention. The books gives one a full view of life there (human or not), which is quite amazing. I highly recommend this book for the armchair voyageur, or to someone considering visiting Belem and surroundings. It will definitely give you a perspective that most of the locals don't even have.

If you know anything, everything, or nothing, about Christianity, then consider delving into "And God Created Human: A Collection of Scenes and Monologues," by upcoming author Jana Tether. This book is replete with: hilarious, yet inspirational, scenes and monologues; Bible verses; summaries; reflections; and thought-provoking questions. The colorful characters and scenarios come alive in your mind, as you peruse. But the real value comes with gathering a group of actors (professionals or amateurs), family and/or friends, and bringing these slice-of-life tableaus and introspections, to fruition. It doesn't matter if the production is in your living room, at a coffee bar, or on a professional stage--just get started now!

Actress and cable show writer Jana Tether presents And God Created Human: A Collection of Scenes and Monologues, an anthology of brief theater-style scenes suitable for reading or performance that bring to life God's message of love, hope, and support in daily life. The subjects of these creative dramas range from insecurity and temptation to spiritual warfare, fear, and the joy of worship. Scripture verses and thought-provoking questions designed to stimulate discussions on how God's Word applies to the here and now round out this welcome resource for church libraries and Christian community theater.

Can't say enough good things. Funny, insightful, loaded with expertise, a how-to for the rest of us. Thanks!

This book is a fantastic resource and is truly a must for every business, organization or club. If you ever wanted to know how to motivate and excite your employees, co-workers, members, or anyone else in a positive way without laying on the cash...this book has the answer!

I am new to the site and ordered a book, in error. The seller immediately responded and a refund was quickly issued.

The book is an excellent support to the art of helping book. It is great for any student embarking on a journey of counselling. Easy to follow directions and examples guide you along to understand the material.

Pierre Rabhi joins the ranks of great agro-ecologists such as Vandana Shiva, Wendell Barry, or Mansanobu Fukuoka. As an American journalist said on hearing of Rabhi, "An Arab ecologist? Thank God there's at least one!"

In this book, Rabhi tries a fictionalized approach, spinning a folk tale of modern Africa. Perhaps this will catch the world's imagination better than presentations of scientific evidence or documentation of alternative farming projects. A short quote illustrates the obvious dream:

"The village of Mafi fully deserved its reputation. Staring at this swath of greenery and life in the midst of a desert environment, I reflected how little we measure the miracles that can arise from generous intelligence and constructive will. Not only did this green island emanate a palpable sense of well-being, it ennobled the arid country around it. Much of its landscaping followed the principles of antierosion, and many young trees now grew there. This place was a message of hope carved in the very flesh of death. Now I understood better what was meant by the sickness of the earth and how it is possible for humans to transform themselves from destructive parasites to healers." (p. 127)

--Brian Griffith, author of "The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History"

Pierre Rabhi's As In The Heart, So In The Earth: Reversing The Desertification Of The Soul And The Soil blends ecology with spirituality, explaining how the growing desertification of North Africa reflects the desolation claiming the hearts and souls of the Western world and how dead soil mirrors dead souls. A traditional African parable leads readers to ideas of planetary harmony and connections with the land, and comes from Rabhi's southern Algeria roots and involvement in agri-ecology with many world organizations.

Organizations spend vast amounts of time, money and energy to recruit and hire top executives. Then those same companies let these new valuable employees sink or swim totally on their own. A new receptionist is likely to receive more attention than a new division manager, as author Diane Downey explains. Despite its jargon-laden title, this enlightening book will change the way you think about hiring or being hired. We from getAbstract recommend this book to any manager who hires, who is being hired for a high-level job or who would like to be.

How many times have you read a book and then found yourself wishing, if only I had had this book way back when.....In this case, I kept finding myself saying, "if only I had had this book when I started this new job, I would have known that I wasn't alone in what I was going through." Apparently, the trials and frustrations of organizational politics and culture come in a common and predictable form. This book is full of insights and tips about how to build relationships and influence in an organization quickly and strategically. I found the author's description of the four stages of assimilation process to be particularly insightful. The psychology of the assimilation process really resonated with the experience I've had time and time again each time I've taken on a new job. While the author's assimilation model does not reflect radically new information about what happens when you enter a new job or company, it is full of intuitive truths about what one often forgets. After all, how many times have we repeated the experience of starting a new job, new company, joining a new team and yet how often do we learn from that experience to be more deliberate in our actions and change our behavior in a given situation to have a greater impact? Then before you know it, you've left the company, joined a new company and make the same initial mistakes you made previously. And then in hindsight, you say to yourself, "I wish I had done this differently" or that you had the power of hindsight. Well, with this book, you do. While the tactics in the book are targeted to an HR audience, the author shares a multitude of practical insights and tools to help you as a leader make decisions at those critical points, understand and analyze the political and organizational dynamics within your organization, and develop a plan for short term wins and long term impact within your organization. The executive handbook in the back of the book was particularly useful tool.

I have worked with several groups on how to discover and exercise strengths. Once we get past the basic principles -- and perhaps do some exploration using instruments like StrengthsFinder 2.0 or the VIA signature strengths questionnaire ([..]) -- people often reach an impasse. What do we do with this information? How do we use it to change the way we work and live?

Average to A+ is extremely useful at this juncture. It describes several practical steps that people can take to discover, practice, refine, and use their own strengths and appreciate the strengths of the people around them. It does so in a very readable way with interesting stories and references to the scientific underpinnings. It creates bridges to supporting ideas from positive psychology that are extensively explored in academia, making them accessible to lay readers. I love the way each chapter ends with a one-page summary of the key points followed by a section called Areas for Reflection and Action. The book also describes a business case for greater emphasis on strengths -- very useful for people who want to use these ideas in organizational settings. I am very glad to have this book in my personal library.

I was amazed when I first read this book. For anyone interested in personal strengths, Linley's book provides all new insights into what strengths are and practical suggestions for how to spot them in yourselves and others. This book is a cutting edge guide to using strengths at work, in parenting, and in everyday life. For people familiar with positive psychology and the VIA strengths this book is the obvious next step. For everyone else this book is an essential first step.

Barbara Glanz is balanced. Well, no she's not either. Barbara Glanz is multi-focused, coming from her heart (the soft stuff) as well as from her head (loads of information and advice). Result: she produced a heart-felt tool to enrich your life.

The title is deceiving, but is clarified in the subtitle. Balancing Acts. Hey, we're all trying to be better balanced in today's rush-rush life where work, family, personal, spiritual, and community aspects compete for our time, attention, and devotion. Glanz's advice? Give it up. That elusive "balance" won't happen. Instead, blend your work and non-work lives so the ever-changing combination works for you. The formula will be different for each of us, and many of us need some good ideas about how to design our own personal mix. As the subtitle tells us, this easy-to-use volume delivers more than 250 blending ideas for your consideration.

The chapters are well-organized, following an introduction that nicely sets the stage for why this issue is so important-for people like you and me and for employers. Following a foundation chapter and a section on understanding the various facets of our lives, the text is organized into chapters exploring ideas to blend work with family, friends, health, spirit, and service. A summary chapter pulls it all together.

The writing is conversational in tone; this is a very comfortable book to read. Call-outs and cartoons enhance the ease and fun of the experience. Supplementing the chapters are an appendix of questions that will prompt productive discussions with family (and yourself). You'll also find pages of resources, including notes and a bibliography that will empower you to continue growing even beyond where this book will take you.

Expect to mark up the pages, turn down the corners, and keep this book around for a while. This attachment means you'll probably purchase additional copies for your friends, relatives, and co-workers. Be sure to inscribe the copy you give to your boss!

Barbara Glanz is a tried and true author who speaks to your heart as well as to your head - and she has done it again! "Balancing Acts" is a practical how-to book that offers specific, proven techniques for dealing with the guilt associated with trying to do everything you feel responsible for in your life.

Glanz looks realistically at the typical situations most of us have to cope with at different points in our lives. She provides creative, proven solutions for blending work and life along with the guilt-busters that will allow you to apply these ideas guiltfree and change the way you live, and enjoy, your life.

This is not your basic read. As usual, Barbara has based this, her sixth, book on deep research, which is impeccable, as well as her own personal experiences. You will find this book entertaining as well as enlightening. Includes helpful exercises and lists great additional resources.

Authentic and immediately usable. Highly recommended.

This book is a good introduction for system safety.
The methods are very systematic and very wide view of points.
I will recommend this book as first read.

Gives an introduction to various apects of system safety. It has worksheets that can be applied at work. Nothing complicated about the book, it is very concise and easy to understand. I bought it to be introduced to system safety before reading Moriarty's system safety book.

This book is built around the proposition that we can all be more effective by making our efforts build on one another's rather than working at cross purposes. Most would agree with that point. You cannot build a bridge if another part of your group is demolishing what you have done.

The culprit when this kind of conflict occurs turns out to be a misunderstanding of what the common purpose is. So think of this book has a paean to, guide and workbook for overcoming the communications stall about your what your organization's purpose is.

Properly done, that purpose creates economic value. In a for-profit company, this means having cash earnings in excess of input costs and the opportunity costs of capital. For an individual, you can apply the same concept. In a non-profit organization, you can define economic value as creating benefits for those you serve in excess of their costs and the opportunity costs of the efforts involved.

Professor Thakor makes an intersting argument about why one should overcome this stall. He feels that this is the path to greater self-fulfillment. "Creating value is how we achieve self-fulfillment and realize our unique potential." He also argues that there are career advantages. Those who "get ahead fastest . . . with the [most] energy and enthusiasm, and are the happiest" are those who are highly successful in value creation. I didn't quite follow the argument on this point (which is not spelled out very much, except for stating the conclusions), but would have enjoyed learning more about his research in this area. Why is this so? Perhaps it is related to the joys of learning, creativity, accomplishment, and recognition.

To establish greater value creation, he starts with the reader. He poses questions for you to answer, whether you are the CEO or a file room clerk.

1. "What does value mean to your organization?

2. "What does value mean to you?"

3. "What are all the activities your organization is involved in that create value?"

4. "What activities are you engaged in that create value?"

5. "What is your organization's strategy?"

6. "What is your personal strategy in the organization?"

7. "How do you and your organization measure success?"

8. "How do you personally set your own expectations?"

9. "How fast are you at creating value?"

10. "What can you do to improve speed without compromising quality?"

The author identifies four major hurdles that must be overcome to improve economic value: a fuzzy sense of value and what creates it (thinking about market share while profits are killed); self-focused behavior that harms the organization (spending budgets to protect them for the next year); negative internal competition (sales contests that expand volume unprofitably); and functional operation focuses (trying to get costs down in ways that hurt customers).

To overcome these tendencies, Professor Thakor proposes getting the right balance of creativity, collaboration, control and competitive focus in each individual and function. He calls this the Wholonics Model, and provides a map as a way to illustrate the differences between where things are now and where they should be.

For example, procurement, manufacturing and finance focus too much on control and not enough on creativity. Sales, marketing, new product development, and distribution are too much on creativity and not enough on collaboration and control. Human resources needs to facilitate growth and reduce bureaucracy. Each function is treated separately in part of a chapter. This material lends a great deal of perspective to the arguments.

To round out the theme of self-fulfillment, the afterword encourages you to check daily for whether you are having fun, whether your value-creating efforts are being perceived and recognized in the company, and whether you are creating value faster than others in your company. This provides you with a personal scorecard for how you are doing, which can provide meaning to your work even if the organization isn't where it needs to be yet.

This book is quite complementary to The Balanced Scorecard and The Strategy-Focused Organization. While I prefer these two books for an overall look at how to create a stall-busting approach to improving organizational performance, I thought that Becoming a Better Value Creator did a better job of developing the issues from the perspective of the individual. Obviously, a book that combined both perspectives would be even better.

My suggestion is that you read these books in this order: The Balanced Scorecard first, The Strategy-Focused Organization second, and Becoming a Better Value Creator third. You should be better able to integrate the perspectives in these books after reading them in that order. To complete the individual perspective, I also suggest How to Be a Star at Work as the fourth book you read. If you are the CEO or other senior executive, you can skip that last book.

After you have finished with your reading and application of these many valuable ideas, I suggest that you consider how these points apply to your own family. What are all of your trying to accomplish together? How can you be more effective in achieving the results of that mutual support? What needs to be done that is not being done now? Who needs to do what? These perspectives would be good ones to add to a fine book like Relationship Rescue.

Have fun at and with your work!

This volume is one in the University of Michigan Business School Management Series. According to Thakor, sustained value creation depends on a mastery of five "secrets" of great value creators:

1. A clear definition of what value creation means to your organization and to you

2. A clear understanding of the multiple value creation perspectives and activities that exist at the individual and organizational levels

3. A clear understanding of the organization's strategy as well as a clearly defined personal strategy for success

4. A personal measure of success that exceeds organizational expectations

5. A mastery of speed without sacrificing quality

Thakor correctly stresses the importance of understanding what "value" means, both to you and to your organization. (Is your definition of "value" in proper alignment with your organization's definition of it?) Also, he stresses the importance of continually refining your personal strategy as well as continually improving your motivation to derive internal satisfaction from your efforts. Also, he offers a caution and then a recommendation: "No matter how well you are creating value, there is always somebody out there doing something better than you are. Find out what that something is. Learn that what makes these people better at it [hence more valuable] than you. Discover their `rules' and adapt them to your setting to improve your effectiveness."

Most organizations claim that their most valuable assets "walk out the door at the end of each day." Of course, the reference is to people -- human capital. Perhaps no employee is indispensable but some employees are most valuable than others. However harsh it may seem, employees who create no value have no value. Read Thakor's book. It can help you to create greater value for your organization and thereby increase and enhance your own value to that organization...while perhaps, in process, increasing and enhancing your appeal to other organizations. Think about it....