Organizations Books

This book is great "airplane" reading. Each chapter is self contained --- usually about 10 to 15 pages, and written by world renowned experts in their field. Partnering is the common theme, but the authors cover a lot of territory.

This book is timely and relevant to today's environmnet. I especially like the idea that all the authors (as if these people need the money) are donating the royalities from sales to the victims of September 11, 2001.

Great book! Partnering is the way to do business now and in the future. The book is a fine collection of tools and strategies in leadership and management. It's educational, inspiring and engaging at the same time. A must read for anybody who manages fast pace, competitive businesses

This is a book for people who are concerned for building a better future. As someone who has spent a great deal of time studying leadership, I find the focus on doing it better that is found in this book to be quite refreshing. Here we move beyond evolutionary changes to ideas that are quite revolutionary. This is not a book about maintaining the status quo power structures. This is a book about creating new leadership styles where partnership with knowledgeable workers will be needed to ensure organizational success.

The command and control style of leadership is coming to an end. For a leader to succeed in the future they will have to rely on their ability to pull together the talents of many individuals. This will be a leader who respects others, who helps coach and develop real talent, who shares success, and who continuously reinvents her/himself. The book gives us hope for a future where we can be productive without sacrificing our humanity.

The books 30 essays by 42 thought leaders are works derived from a passion for helping others. The inspiration for this book comes from an awareness for new leadership made more apparent by the events of 9/11. All of the royalties from this book will go to help the victims of that tragic day.

A must have for anyone interested in Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology. I'm not sure when the new edition is coming out, though. You may want to look into that.

Dear Sirs,

I have returned the book "Pathology and genetics of tumors of the soft tissues and bones" because I have already bought by amazon.com in my other account (vencio56@hotmail.com). My mistake.

The book is very good (5 stars).
Sincerely,
Eneida Franco Vencio

This is a great book to review bone and soft tissue tumor.

Robert Hogan very quickly makes you feel you are in good hands as he distills a long career as personality researcher and organizational consultant into this very accessible volume. His "rules of the road" are simple: Is the principle useful in the real world of leadership and organizational development? and, Is the principle rooted in solid data?

My guess is that Hogan made a practice of underselling--and then overdelivering to his clients. And this is exactly what this book does. It could probably replace a shelf full of business and organizational psychology books. Instead of a cold academic or a irrationally exuberant treatment of the importance of personality in leadership and team building, Hogan takes a refreshingly direct, honest and conversational approach. In the spirit Jim Collin's "level 5 leadership," he is more interested in being helpful than in shining a light on himself.

While reading the book I kept thinking that I was being guided by a favorite Uncle whose interest in teaching me was driven by a deeper level of caring than is found in the typical relationship of teacher/student or writer/reader.

You can tell that Mr. Hogan is interested in helping his reader get results through a singularly no-nonsense approach. While never mean-spirited, he has very little tolerance for practices and theories that do not follow his two "rules of the road". For example, Hogan is quick to dismiss Jung's model of personality as reflected in the Myers-Briggs typology.

Personally, I believe that Emotional Intelligence, Maslow, and Jungian typologies (which don't quite meet Hogan's rules of the road) continue to have large popular followings because they offer real insights in a warmer and less reductionistic way than the Big Five model (which has in fact been a great boon to personality research). Matter of fact and practical is good--but so are texture, nuance, introspection, and non-reductionistic models of personality.

Some of the greatest models of personality have come from novelists and poets--e.g. Shakespeare on the anatomy of dangers of hubris. Great leadership has an element of artistry--as well as other qualities that don't fit neatly in the Big Five or other lexical taxonomies. So science is a great way of knowing--but we have to recognize that it is a way of knowing that is firmly seated in the brain's left hemisphere--and does not have the symphonic or synergistic qualities of ways of knowing grounded in the right hemisphere. There is essential truth in these ways of knowing that should not be dismissed--but integrated into a greater explanatory whole.

This is a surprisingly good book. My only regret is that I didn't have an Uncle Robert Hogan when I was struggling to learn the ropes of organizational behavior :)

Once, when scholars were certain that personality did not exist, Robert Hogan led the charge against ignorance. The current revival of personality in organizational studies is in no small part due to Hogan's tireless research, writing, and professional presentations. All along his point has simply been that personality matters--as Freud put it, "Character is fate."

In this fabulous and briskly written book, the master marshals data, theory, and clear-headed thinking to present the most persuasive account ever presented on how and why personality determines the success and failure of business, political, and religious organizations. This is no small feat. However, it is topped by how plainly accessible Hogan renders his argument. You will not find any hedging or hawing, no mealy-mouthed consultant-speak trying to have it both ways. Instead, you get a no-holds-barred statement on such important lessons as how one bad apple really can spoil the bunch (personality and teams), who you are is how you lead (personality and leadership), why one jerk at the top can cause misery and losses for many (dark side of leadership), how self-actualization theory is Marxism-lite for Dummies (human nature), and how the individual search for power is the primary force animating all human activity (the secret life of organizations).

While firmly rooted in science, Personality and the Fate of Organizations is an essential guide for the thinking navigator of corporate politics, hierarchies, and realities. As Hogan put it in the context of human evolution, the most dangerous aspect of the environment is other people. This penetrating and fun-to-read treatise provides practical insight into that most powerful--and dangerous--force on the planet. The reader is rewarded with a roadmap for getting along, getting ahead, and finding some measure of meaning and purpose in it all.

Not for the faint of heart or ideologically inclined.

Personality and the Fate of Organizations by Robert Hogan, Ph.D., is a small book with a big message: the personalities of leaders have a dramatic role in the course of human affairs. While the average person might find this an obvious conclusion, academics and researchers have debated one question contentiously: Are leaders more-or-less average people who "rise to the occasion" or is their personality a unique factor in the outcome of their leadership?. Hogan is the author of the Hogan Personality Inventory, one of the few personality tests written and validated for the workplace. He comes down firmly on the side of personality as a key factor in the outcome of an individual's leadership.

"In a tradition extending from Freud and Weber to me," says Hogan, "people argue that leadership is a function of the characteristics of individuals. This means that some people have more talent for leadership than others." In seven chapters, Hogan examines the nature of that talent and its antithesis. He goes through a definition of personality, gives a history of personality psychology, examines leadership, team performance, organizational theory, managerial incompetence, and how to fix the latter. The main text is only 151 pages, but it encompasses topics no less than "The Psychology of Managerial Incompetence" and "The Secret Life of Organizations." Hogan has dedicated his career to understanding the role of personality in the workplace; this book may be his capstone explanation of all he has learned.

Professor Padilla has written a book on the characters and operating principles of a collection of exemplary academic leaders. While this volume is well researched, it exceeds the usual academic exercises in that it is eminently readable, insightful and human. The instructive lessons are clear and generally applicable to students of business management.

I'm the head of a small, non-profit organization so I was not sure whether this book would actually be of much interest. But as one of the reviewers on the book-jacket writes, this book should be very useful to people outside universities as well. It is well-written and very engaging. What makes it especially appealing is the author's ability to take "academese" and convert it into understandable English. His chapter on leadership is one of the most original I have seen and the discussion of "resiliency" is fascinating. He also presents six detailed case studies and each is written essentially to stand alone. The first three chapters lay out a conceptual blueprint and this makes each case easier to interpret. His use of compelling anecdotes and well-researched historical passages really bring the cases to life. Highly recommended.

Even though this is essentially a research book it is very well
written and contains a solid presentation of the leadership process. The chapter summarizing leadership research is the best I've seen and provides an original framework around which to read the case studies. There has been a lot of academic research on leadership over the last twenty years and much of it is incomprehensible and so specific as to be relatively useless but the author's original synthesis of this work
is excellent. The cases studies are not only very entertaining but they follow this basic leadership framework developed in the theory chapter. The chapter on the University as a complex organization is also very good and highly readable. I recommend the book both as an essay on leadership and as an analysis of university presidency.

It has been said that each new generation forgets the mistakes of those that came before it. This book proves this point with respect to the privatization of utilities. The auhor delves into the history of electric and power privatization in industrial countries since 1900, with an emphasis on the US and UK, the two countries with the longest history of mass electricity usage. In this book, the author shows:
1. How the control of power generation, transmission, and usage has shifted back and forth between the public and private (corporate) sphere over the last century.
2. The times of public control saw minimal blackouts or rationing, low and steady rates, high investment in environmentally friendly technology, and high investment in research for more efficient technology.
3. The times of private control saw numerous blackouts and rationing, high and increasing rates, minimal investment in environmentally friendly technology, and low investment in research for more efficient technology.
4. The drive for privatization is always from big corporations who are either large-scale consumers of electricity, or large-scale producers of electricity.
5. The drive for public control always results from the poor service provided by privately-owned utilities.
6. Any time public and privately held utilities operated in the same geographical marketplace, the public utilities ALWAYS offer lower rates and more dependable service.
7. The switch from privately owned utilities to public control is always due to overwhelming public pressure at the grassroots level.
8. The switch to deregulate public utilities is due to propaganda put out by corporations and their sponsored think tanks.
9. The electricity industry by its nature and evolution in America is a prototypical natural monopoly and trying to privatize different segments of it leads to chaos.
10. Over the last decade, both the Bush and Clinton administrations contrived with Enron to force other countries to deregulate their utilities so Enron could buy them up and make profits on them.

Overall, this is a great book. It shows how big corporations, primarily Western ones, have collaborated over the last century to take control of the electric utilities around the world, solely to increase their profits. I highly recommend reading it.

Beder has written the indispensable account of why the American electric power industry is in extreme disarray. This is an account of deregulation, Enron, artificial prices and gross exploitation. It is the book of the moment: timely and relevant to the electric blackouts of August 2003, easy to understand, and really essential. Extremely informative.

Hegel once remarked that the only thing people learn from history is that people have learned nothing from history. To that end, the philosopher no doubt would have been intrigued by Sharon Beder's outstanding book "Power Play." In it, the author shows how the neo-liberal ideologies and financial self-interests that once conspired to create chaos in the electric power industry in the 1930s have been resurrected in our own time to produce similarly disastrous results. Importantly, her analysis helps us understand what needs to be done to restore order to an out-of-control system that garners most of its profits at the public's expense.

In my estimation, Sharon Beder has established herself as one of the most articulate critics of corporate power. As a Professor of Social Sciences, Media and Communications in Australia, Ms. Beder has demonstrated in prior books such as "Global Spin" a remarkable knack for deconstructing propaganda and uncovering the agendas that are often hidden behind corporate messages. I found "Power Play" to be a carefully reasoned, well-supported and convincing piece of research that makes for compelling reading.

The book is divided into five sections. The first deals with the history of power politics in the U.S. for most of the 20th century. We learn how private interests used the media and political influence to promote deregulation, and how the industry's eventual implosion was a major contributing factor in the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression. The second section discusses the push to deregulate in the latter part of the century to the present day. We see how legislation enacted in the 1930s to protect against corporate abuse was eventually rolled back, which in turn set the stage for companies like Enron to suffer a fate similar to that which befell Samuel Insull's energy empire in the 1930s.

The third, fourth and fifth sections deal with deregulation in Britain, Australia and other parts of the world. The global perspective provided by Ms. Beder is useful. Clearly, ideology and financial interests have been the driving forces behind the privatization agenda; interestingly, we learn that the outcomes in various locales have been remarkably similar. Ms. Beder relates how large corporations are often able to exercise market power in order to extort unusually large fees from their customers. The winners are large industrial users and the banks, investors and consultants working on behalf of the energy companies. The losers include taxpayers, farmers, the poor, small businesses and the environment.

In my opinion, although "Power Play" does not explicitly tie the economic inefficiencies of the deregulated power industry with the current economic downturn, it provides ample evidence that the crisis in the power industry significantly contributes to job loss and siphons capital from other productive sectors of the economy. For example, the author explains that privatized energy companies often cut payrolls in order to boost bottom-line profits. Ms. Beder also shows how obscene profits earned by a few large corporations such as Enron often act as a drag on local economies. The leading example of course is California, where escalating prices forced many businesses to shut down. Moreover, the payments that the state was forced to make to greedy suppliers during the energy crisis easily exceeds the state's current budget deficit, causing hardship for many.

Interestingly, "Power Play" was completed prior to the 2003 blackout in the U.S. and Canada. This unfortunate event validates Ms. Beder's work. The author points out that the dynamics of an unregulated market and the quest for instant profits provides a disincentive for producers to maintain equipment and transmission lines, resulting in more frequent failures and service disruptions. Ms. Beder goes on to point out that the expense and risk associated with added capacity is increasingly borne by the public even while profits accrue to private interests; this assertion also appears to have been prescient, as witnessed by the huge subsidies that the U.S. government has recently proposed to pay for upgrades to the country's electric grid for the benefit of many privately-held energy producers.

By cutting through the smokescreen of self-serving corporate propaganda, "Power Play" serves as a wakeup call for citizens everywhere. It helps us understand how we might be able to reverse this trend for the better before more damage is inflicted on us all.

I highly recommend the book! This book is a strong experienced based program that guides you through the Consulting Process. The tools are ready to use; I really enjoy that. I put this book on the same level as "Operational Profitability;Conducting Management Audits." John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Powerful Professionals is well designed for the specific needs of internal consultants. I enjoyed the book thoroughly. It's easy-to-use, providing lots of partical tools and advice. Organized into a user-friendly handbook, it covers everything from establishing your credibility to managing change and resistance.

Written with a healthy does of humor, there are plenty of practical, step-by-step models supported by checklists, worksheets, assessment tools, and examples--rather than long- winded discussions on theory.

I STRONGLY recommend this book for anyone dealing with the day-to-day challenges of an internal consulting organization.

There has been a glut of books on 'how to be a consultant' that have been published in the last few years. I have become frustrated with the increasing quantity and decreasing quality of such books. All that changed with my reading of "Powerful Professionals". Finally, a superb book! "Powerful Professionals" is grounded in experience that I can relate to, and offered excellent, immediately useable advice for me as a professional. I also liked the easy-to-follow formatting and mix of text and graphics. There is also the behind-the-scenes theory for us who like such stuff. Chapter 15 of the book is "Putting It All Together". Well, the author and editor certainly have put together an all-encompassing and all-powerful book for all professionals. Bravo! Books of this quality are not often found by me. But when I do find a high-utility book like "Powerful Professionals", it becomes a jewel in my collection.

This book is ideal for leaders who want to include everyone in the decision making process. It gives multiple ideas and suggestions of how to peacefully achieve your decision making goals.

This book should be read by every supervisor, manager, superintendent, principal and CEO involved with making decisions. It is a simple, yet thorough process of decision making. Pages of structuring devices are provided to help individuals and groups walk through the decision making process. The structuring devices offer non-confrontational, effective methods of examining the mind set of the group, defining the problem, identifying solution criteria, developing solution possibilities, and selecting, then implementing, a solution. Highly recommend!

Lacking confidence in your decision-making abilities? This book will help you achieve a high level of confidence to make faster and more effective practical decisions for your school.

CONTENTS: Preface; List of Tables and Figures; Setting the Direction; Decision Making Defined; Core Steps in Decision Making; Adapting the Core Steps; Use of Structuring Devices; Designing Your Own Road Map for Decision Making; Structuring Devices; Four Illustrative Cases; Team Facilitation Tips and Techniques; Warning Signs on the Road to Decision Making; This Stuff Works;

The process-focused organization differs from traditional organization in three ways: it designs end-to-end business processes; it measures and manages process level results rather than tasks; and it thinks in terms of customer goals, not localized functional goals.

This book distinguishes itself from so many others concern processes in that it presents a clear, well reasoned and structured road map to achieve the features and power of a process-focused organization. The approach also gives recognition to the broader system of the organization.

Gardner makes clear, from the outset, that process improvement, while powerful, is not the complete solution to performance management. Process improvement is not a magic bullet, it has limited applications, and it is not the final answer. Process improvement must be linked to organizational strategy, and consideration must be given to how to integrate process with organizational structures and systems, and how to proactively manage process.

Gardner's has produced a highly readable book that reflects this broad and rich understanding of his subject. The road map presented in this work is unique in reflecting an end-to-end orientation-not the components; it is not issue-based but is centered on the higher levels of organizational capability; and the map provides a pathway with clearly discernible steps, indicating where you are and what's ahead.

The book offers an operating model that describes key operating and structures and relationships; a road map to guide process improvement work; and a transformation strategy that combines the model and road map into a plan for navigating the journey to process focus.

This book is exception in its scope, depth and clear thinking. As a consultant in organization design and change (...) I believe this book will prove highly valuable to any enterprise seeking major, lasting process improvement. 230 pp.

Mr. Gardner's premise that organizations should be managed horizontally by processes instead of the traditional vertical method is long overdue. Once customer value is indentified, a PFO (Process Focused Organization) can concentrate on identifying, developing and tweaking value creating processes that lead to increased market share and improved profits. This is a must have how to book for any manager who wants to make their organiztion number one in their industry.

I can say a lot about this book, I can actually write a book about how good this book is. But I rather you spend your time reading it than my review. Simply put, I have been in this field for over 20-years and read many process books from many so called experts. But none of them come even close. If you are just starting, consider yourself an expert or anywhere in between, you owe it to yourself to buy and read this great book. I actually gave a few to my clients for X.Mas. I would like to personally thank Mr. Robert Gardner for writing this book and sharing his knowledge with us!

Mortaza Zainaleain EE, PMP, SSMBB
Prevail Services™ Profitability Engineering™ Consulting
President, Profitability Engineering™ Infrastructure Architect
Mortaza@PrevailServices.com

I took a grant writing class in college and this was one of the textbooks used. It's a good resource. It gives samples of different types of proposals, tells you how to write them, and also gives a list of resources. Pretty much a self-teaching book, you don't really need a class to use it.

This book offers specific examples, models, and step-by-step instructions on how to write all kinds of grants, from local and federal government programs to grants from private foundations and corporations. More than 300 Web sites are described, as is the use of search engines to develop better proposals. The authors also present scores of concrete writing examples and time-saving tips from successful grantseekers. (summary by South Texas Library System)
The author, Miner, has an online newsletter (Grantseeker Tips) as well, that I've subscribed to for years. Her advice is very practical and to the point. You can't go wrong with this book to guide you.

The general advice provided in this book is invaluable. After reading it cover to cover, I still revisit the main sections every time before writing an important grant. There are key bits of knowledge provided that will serve you well, and like EB White's "Elements of Style," Miner and Miner can be recommended without hesitation. Finally, this book is much more useful than both the "Dummies" grant writing book and "Foundation Center" guide.

One of America's most experienced prospect researchers has written the mother-lode on research in fundraising.

Cecelia Hogan's new book is 390 pages of pure value - for fundraisers, researchers, managers and suppliers. Although written primarily for an American audience, its value lies in its cool, concise, cautious approach to research, from day one to the end of your campaign.

Cecelia makes her mark early in the book with a 20-page treatise on the ethics of research. This moral (but not moralizing) tone pervades the book, reminding us to respect our donors and to focus on using "the first philanthropic dollar raised to efficiently identify the next."

The heart of the book is a series of chapters about research techniques. Covering "research math," building a pool of prospects, screening, tracking and managing research, these sections will be of value to researchers from Belfast to Bologna and from Alaska to Adelaide. The techniques that Cecelia describes are applicable in all of these places, even if the sources cited may be American. And experienced researchers will find plenty of value; I found new techniques, new sources, and, new ways of looking at research in this book.

Included in the book is a series of useful appendices including a glossary and models for the paperwork associated with research, as well as more US sources of information and help.

The book is well edited and produced, leaving me with just one gripe - Cecelia's over-use of the first person plural. We don't need to write like that all the time, Cecelia. Good writing can include a passive tense or two.

Whether you are a fundraiser, a researcher or a manager, buy this book and learn all about prospecting from an expert.

Prospect Research: A Primer for Growing Nonprofits is one of the best resources available for those who are new to prospect research, for those who need a refresher or for development officers looking for research guidance. It provides the basics (who, what, when, why, where & how)in easy-to-understand terms and format as well as sample forms. In addition, it takes the process one step further with explanations and ideas for prospect management and tracking. All the information you need to build and/or improve your organization's prospect research department operation.

After a 7 year absence, I reentered the field of prospect research in 2003 just when this book came out. I can't say enough how much it helped me reacquaint myself with traditional research methods as well as introducing me to the many new information research, management, and analysis processes that technology has inspired.

Not sure if I'll stay in prospect research, but will definitely keep the book!