The Big Book of Icebreakers or The Big Book of Customer Service Training Games

The Big Book of Icebreakers: Quick, Fun Activities for Energizing Meetings and Workshops

Author: Edie West

Leading a meeting? giving a presentation? Heading a workshop? Icebreakers are great for lightening up the atmosphere at the beginning of a meeting or event, and encouraging everyone to participate fully. This collection of 50 icebreakers is organized around common businesssituations and is designed to help leaders start every session, meeting, presentation, or workshop with a burst of energy and fun. Includes icebreakers for sales meetings, team building, complete strangers, introducing a topic, staff meetings, groups over 20, outdoor settings, and more. this latest book in the popular Big Book of Business Games series is the most fun yet!

Edie West (Fairfax Station, VA) is a trainer and speaker. She also creates and markets products for speakers, teachers, facilitators, and trainers that engage the audience in listening and learning. Edie is the author of 201 Icebreakers.

Table of Contents:

Introduction.

Icebreakers for Staff Meetings.

Icebreakers for Sales Meetings.

Icebreakers for Complete Strangers.

Icebreakers for Groups of 20 or More.

Icebreakers for Team Building.

Icebreakers for Pure Fun.

Icebreakers for Introducing a Topic.

Icebreakers for Outdoors.

Icebreakers for Self-Disclosure.

Icebreakers for Stuffy, Conservative Types Who Hate Icebreakers.

Icebreakers While Waiting to Start.

Icebreakers for Everyday Living.

Icebreakers for the Super Intelligent.

Interesting book: Grand Canyon Wild or Boston 2010 Entertainment Book

The Big Book of Customer Service Training Games

Author: Peggy Carlaw

Help your employees to excel in dealing with the public with this stimulating, fun-filled collection of customer service training games. Designed not only to teach important skills but also to spark enthusiasm and a high level of involvement in the participants, these games utilize entertaining and instructive techniques such as role-playing, charades, brainstorming, and debate. As a result of these exercises, employees will learn how to create a rapport with the customer, how to focus on the unique needs of individual customers, how to maintain a positive attitude, and more.

Designing Brand Identity or Bottomfeeder

Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands

Author: Alina Wheeler

This innovative approach -- blending practicality and creativity -- is now in full-color!

From translating the vision of a CEO and conducting research, through designing a sustainable identity program and building online branding tools, Designing Brand Identity helps companies create stronger brands by offering real substance. With an easy-to-follow style, step-by-step considerations, and a proven, universal five-phase process for creating and implementing effective brand identity, the book offers the tools you need, whether a brand manager, marketer, or designer, when creating or managing a brand. This edition includes a wealth of full-color examples and updated case studies for world-class brands such as BP, Unilever, Citi, Tazo Tea, and Mini Cooper.

Alina Wheeler (Philadelphia, PA) applies her strategic imagination to help build brands, create new identities, and design brand-identity programs for Fortune 100 companies, entrepreneurial ventures, foundations, and cities.

New interesting textbook: Singing for Your Supper or The Kitchen Gardens at Heligan

Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood

Author: Taras Gresco

An eye-opening look at aquaculture that does for seafood what Fast Food Nation did for beef.

Dividing his sensibilities between Epicureanism and ethics, Taras Grescoe set out on a nine-month, worldwide search for a delicious—and humane—plate of seafood. What he discovered shocked him. From North American Red Lobsters to fish farms and research centers in China, Bottomfeeder takes readers on an illuminating tour through the $55-billion-dollar-a-year seafood industry. Grescoe examines how out-of-control pollution, unregulated fishing practices, and climate change affect what ends up on our plate. More than a screed against a multibillion-dollar industry, however, this is also a balanced and practical guide to eating, as Grescoe explains to readers which fish are best for our environment, our seas, and our bodies.

At once entertaining and illuminating, Bottomfeeder is a thoroughly enjoyable look at the world’s cuisines and an examination of the fishing and farming practices we too easily take for granted.

Publishers Weekly

In this whirlwind, worldwide tour of fisheries, Grescoe (The Devil's Picnic) whiplashes readers from ecological devastation to edible ecstasy and back again. In disturbing detail, he depicts the "turbid and murky" Chesapeake Bay, where, with overharvested oysters too few to do their filtering job, fish are infested with the "cell from hell," a micro-organism that eats their flesh and exposes their guts. He describes how Indian shrimp farms treated with pesticides, antibiotics and diesel oil are destroying protective mangroves, ecosystems and villages, and portrays the fate of sharks-a collapsing fishery-finned for the Chinese delicacy shark-fin soup: "living sharks have their pectoral and dorsal fins cut from their bodies with heated metal blades.... The sharks are kicked back into the ocean, alive and bleeding; it can take them days to die." But these horrific scenes are interspersed with delectable meals of succulent Portuguese sardines with "fat-jeweled juices" or a luscious breakfast of bluefin tuna sashimi, "cool and moist... halfway between a demi-selBreton butter and an unctuous steak tartare"; the latter is a dish that, due to the fish's endangered status, Grescoe decides he won't enjoy again. The book ends on a cautiously optimistic note: scientists know what steps are needed to save the fisheries and the ocean; we just need the political will to follow through. Grescoe provides a helpful list of which fish to eat: "no, never," "depends, sometimes" and "absolutely, always." (May)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School

A thorough investigation of the fishing industry. Grescoe's research carried him to major fishing ports across the globe, from the Chesapeake Bay to the Indian Ocean, where he spent time with and interviewed fishermen, fishmongers, chefs, restaurateurs, and scientists. Each chapter focuses on a different dish-"Shrimp Curry," "Bluefin Tuna Sashimi," "Fish and Chips"-telling the history of the dish as well as the legal, ethical, and health issues surrounding the seafood used to make it. The author then explains his own choices of what to eat and what not to eat. But what really drives the book is his love of cuisine. Whether it's something as ordinary as fish sticks or an exotic meal of jellyfish, he writes about it all with gustatory enthusiasm. The book concludes with a useful appendix listing alternative resources, questions to ask when buying seafood, a list of common fishing terms, and lists of seafood broken into categories so readers have a clearer idea of what is acceptable to eat. While it may not have the widespread appeal of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation (Houghton, 2001), Grescoe's entertaining and informative book will arm anyone interested in a dietary change.-Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA

Table of Contents:

Introduction 1

1 The Rise of the Goblin: New York City - Pan-Roasted Monkfish 15

2 In the Kingdom of the Oysters: Chesapeake Bay and Brittany - Oysters 42

3 Panic at the Chippy: England - Fish and Chips 70

4 Small Pond: Marseilles - Bouillabaisse 96

5 Fish She Is Very Small: Portugal and France - Sardines 123

6 Wave of Mutilation: India - Shrimp Curry 147

7 Buddha Jump Over the Wall: China - Shark Fin Soup 176

8 Sorry, Charlie: Japan - Bluefin Tuna Sashimi 191

9 An Economy of Scales: British Columbia - Grilled Salmon 221

10 Fast Fish, Slow Fish: Nova Scotia - Fish Sticks 254

Conclusion 274

App Tools for Choosing Seafood 283

Acknowledgments 299

Sources 301

Index 315

Women and Money or The Science of Success

Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny

Author: Suze Orman

The #1 New York Times bestselling author's groundbreaking new book investigates the complicated relationship women have with money.

Suze Orman equips women with the financial knowledge and emotional awareness to overcome the blocks that have kept them from making more out of the money they have. In chapters such as "You are Not on "Sale," "No Shame, No Blame," and "The 8 Qualities of a Wealthy Woman" Suze delivers her signature mix of insight, compassion, and soul-deep recognition. At the heart of the book is "The Save Yourself Plan" - a streamlined, five-month countdown that delivers genuine long-term financial security. But what's at stake is far bigger than money itself; it's about every woman's sense of who she is and what she deserves, and why it all begins with the decision to save yourself.

New interesting book: You Are Thinking of Teaching or Capital Power and Inequality in Latin America

The Science of Success: How Market Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company

Author: Charles G Koch

Praise for THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS


"Evaluating the success of an individual or company is a lot like judging a trapper by his pelts. Charles Koch has a lot of pelts. He has built Koch Industries into the world's largest privately held company, and this book is an insider's guide to how he did it. Koch has studied how markets work for decades, and his commitment to pass that knowledge on will inspire entrepreneurs for generations to come."
—T. Boone Pickens

"A must-read for entrepreneurs and corporate executives that is also applicable to the wider world. MBM is an invaluable tool for engendering excellence for all groups, from families to nonprofit entities. Government leaders could avoid policy failures by heeding the science of human behavior."
—Richard L. Sharp, Chairman, CarMax

"My father, Sam Walton, stressed the importance of fundamental principles—such as humility, integrity, respect, and creating value—that are the foundation for success. No one makes a better case for these principles than Charles Koch."
—Rob Walton, Chairman, Wal-Mart

"What accounts for Koch Industries' spectacular success? Charles Koch calls it Market-Based Management: a vision that nurtures personal qualities of humility and integrity that build trust and the confidence to enhance future success through learning from failure, and a culture of thinking in terms of opportunity cost and comparative advantage for all employees."
—Vernon Smith, 2002 Nobel laureate in economics

"In a very thoughtful, creative, and understandable way, Charles Koch explains how he has used the science of humanbehavior to create a culture that has produced one of the world's largest and most successful private companies. A must-read for anyone interested in creating value."
—William B. Harrison Jr., Former Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

"The same exacting thought, rooted in the realities of human nature, that the framers of the U.S. Constitution put into building a nation of entrepreneurs, Charles Koch has framed to build an enduring company of entrepreneurs—a company larger than Microsoft, Dell, HP, and other giants. Every entrepreneur should study this book."
—Verne Harnish, founder, Young Entrepreneurs' Organization, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, CEO, Gazelles Inc.

Table of Contents:

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Chapter 1. Evolution of a Business.

Chapter 2. The Science of Human Action.

Chapter 3. Vision.

Chapter 4. Virtue and talents.

Chapter 5. Knowledge Processes.

Chapter 6. Decision Rights.

Chapter 7. Incentives.

Chapter 8. Lessons Learned.

Appendices.

Partial List of MBM Models.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

Twilight in the Desert or The Fifties

Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy

Author: Matthew R Simmons

Twilight in the Desert reveals a Saudi oil and production industry that could soon approach a serious, irreversible decline. In this exhaustively researched book, veteran oil industry analyst Matthew Simmons draws on his three-plus decades of insider experience and more than 200 independently produced reports about Saudi petroleum resources and production operations. He uncovers a story about Saudi Arabia’s troubled oil industry, not to mention its political and societal instability, which differs sharply from the globally accepted Saudi version. It’s a story that is provocative and disturbing, based on undeniable facts, but until now never told in its entirety. Twilight in the Desert answers all readers’ questions about Saudi oil and production industries with keen examination instead of unsubstantiated posturing, and takes its place as one of the most important books of this still-young century.

Table of Contents:

1	The birth of a nation	5
2	The history of major Saudi Arabian oil discoveries	23
3	Saudi Arabia's road to oil market dominance	43
4	The veil of secrecy over Saudi oil reserves and production	69
5	Saudi Aramco	101
6	Oil is not just another commodity	129
7	Ghawar, the king of oilfields	151
8	The second-tier oilfields	181
9	The best of the rest	199
10	Coming up empty in new exploration	231
11	Turning to natural gas	245
12	Saudi oil reserves claims in doubt	265
13	Facing the inevitable	281
14	Reading between the lines of the latest news from Aramco	309
15	Aramco invokes "fuzzy logic" to manage the future of Saudi oil	325
16	In search of crisper truths among the confident Saudi claims	333
17	Aftermath	341

The Fifties

Author: David Halberstam

The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the ten years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon, but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; U-2 pilot Gary Francis Powers; Grace Metalious, who wrote Peyton Place; and "Goody" Pincus, who led the team that invented the Pill.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Library Journal

The Fifties were more than just a mid-point decade in a century; they were to be the crucible in which the rest of the 20th century was forged. Halberstam (The Next Century, LJ 1/92) here touches every thread in the warp and woof of the national fabric. This is the true drama of history: President Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur, the Eisenhower years, Senator Joe McCarthy's red-baiting, the early U.S. involvement in Indochina, the H-bomb, the purging of atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Supreme Court ordering the integration of schools, troops in Little Rock to enforce it, the Montgomery bus boycott, the rise of Martin Luther King, Russia's sputnik launch, and Castro's revolutionary Cuba. Halberstam also explores major social and cultural changes--the advent of national television, fast-food restaurants, the flight to the suburbs, huge cars with fins, the phenomenon of Elvis Presley, the contraceptive pill, and much more. A superb book; recommended for all libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/93.-- Chet Hagan, Berks Cty. P.L. System, Pa.

Kirkus Reviews

In The Best and the Brightest, The Powers That Be, and The Reckoning, Halberstam proved that he can master intimidating subjects with aplomb—and in this massive tome on a convulsive decade in American life, he meets with equal success. Such a sprawling panorama can't be depicted coherently without selective use of material, and some of Halberstam's omissions are open to question. While rightly lingering over McCarthyism and the development of the atomic bomb, he skims over Communism's advances in Eastern Europe and China in the late 40's, leaving an inadequate sense of why Americans yielded so readily to national-security hysteria during the period. Halberstam also fails to explain fully America's role in reviving the postwar economies of Japan and Western Europe. And why is there nothing on the advances that put air travel in reach of the average American? Nevertheless, Halberstam keeps his narrative tightly focused by concentrating on the era's human instruments of change, including some famous (Eisenhower, Elvis, Brando, Kerouac, Milton Berle, et al.) and others more obscure (Kemmons Wilson and Dick and Mac McDonald, founders of, respectively, Holiday Inn and McDonald's). In this often "mean time" of redbaiting, change still managed to burst out, with the invention of the Pill, the moves by Japan and Germany to undercut GM's preeminence in the auto industry, and the assault on legalized segregation. Halberstam finds at the heart of this decade of social, political, and economic innovation a deep split between an acceptance of change and a yearning for earlier and simpler times, and he examines thoroughly how TV altered various aspects of Americanlife—its recreation habits, its advertising, and, inevitably, its politics, through the medium's coverage of the Little Rock crisis and the JFK-Nixon debates. Compulsively readable, with familiar events and people grown fresh in the telling. (Thirty-two pages of photographs—not seen) (First Serial to American Heritage)

Economics or Positioning

Economics

Author: Walter J Wessels

Covers many subjects including plotting and understanding graphs, market equilibrium and the nature of the price system, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and international trade.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Essentials of Economics
1	What is Economics All About?	1
2	How to Use Graphs in Economics	18
3	Supply and Demand: Part One	28
4	Supply and Demand: Part Two	45
	Macroeconomics: Aggregate Supply and Demand
5	Measuring National Output	59
6	Inflation and Unemployment	72
7	Aggregate Demand and Supply: The Key to Macroeconomics	87
8	Aggregate Demand in the Private Sector: The Keynesian Model	101
9	Aggregate Supply and Getting to Full Employment	123
	Macroeconomics: Fiscal and Monetary Policy
10	Fiscal Policy: Government Spending and Taxation	138
11	The Supply of Money	152
12	Money and Aggregate Demand: Keynesian Model	165
13	Money and Aggregate Demand: Monetarist Model	181
14	Inflation and Unemployment	195
15	Rational Expectations and Other Models of the Business Cycle	214
	Microeconomics: Consumer and Cost
16	Elasticity	234
17	The Theory of Demand	250
18	Cost and Output	265
	Microeconomics: Competition and Monopoly
19	Competitive Supply	282
20	Markets, Competition, and Growth	304
21	Monopolies	319
22	Between Monopoly and Competition	335
23	Efficiency and Regulation	354
	Microeconomics: What People Earn
24	Factor Demand and Productivity	368
25	Wages, Labor Markets, and Unions	386
26	Rent, Interest, and Profits	404
	Microeconomics: Government and the Economy
27	Public Choice and Externalities	418
28	Government Spending and Taxation	436
	International Trade
29	International Trade	451
30	Exchange Rates and the International Monetary System	470
	Appendix
	Index	514

Read also Ghost Train to the Eastern Star or Streetwise Ireland Map Laminated Country Road Map of Ireland Folding Pocket Size Travel Map

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Author: Al Ries

A handsome edition of the original 1981 text, this 20th Anniversary Edition makes available to business and marketing professionals-including tens of thousands of Ries and Trout groupies, worldwide-the work that forever changed the way marketing strategy is done. This new edition features commentary from the authors that offers fresh insight into why "positioning" a product in a prospective customer's mind is still the most important strategy in business, and includes numerous examples of campaigns that followed, or didn't follow, Ries and Trout's thinking.

What People Are Saying

David Bohnett
Ries and Trout taught me everything I know about branding, marketing, and product management. When I had the idea of creating a very large thematic community on the Web, I first thought of Positioning....
—(David Bohnett, Chairman and Founder of GeoCities)

The End of Food or Who

The End of Food

Author: Paul Roberts

The best-selling author of The End of Oil turns his attention to food and finds that the system we've entrusted with meeting one of our most basic needs is dramatically failing us.

With his trademark comprehensive global approach, Paul Roberts investigates the startling truth about the modern food system: the way we make food, market and consume it, and even think about it is no longer compatible or safe for the billions of consumers the system was built to serve.

The emergence of large-scale and efficient food production changed forever our relationship with food and ultimately left a vulnerable and paradoxical system in place. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide are "over-nourished," according to the World Health Organization, and are at risk of obesity-related illness, while roughly as many people are starving. Meanwhile the natural systems all food is dependent upon have been irreparably damaged by chemicals and destructive farming techniques; the pressures of low-cost food production court contamination and disease; and big food consumers, such as China and India, are already planning for tightened global food supplies, making it clear that the era of superabundance is behind us.

Vivid descriptions, lucid explanations, and fresh thinking make The End of Food uniquely able to offer a new, accessible way to understand the vulnerable miracle of the modern food economy. Roberts presents clear, stark visions of the future and helps us prepare to make the decisions -- personal and global -- we must make to survive the demise of food production as we know it.

Publishers Weekly

This potentially interesting investigation into the challenges of global food production and distribution is marred by the burial of its argument at the end of the book. Beneath a history of food (old news to any reader of Michael Pollan), factoid avalanches and future-tense fretting, Roberts (The End of Oil) makes a familiar plea for rethinking food systems. When the author illustrates his points with actual players, the narrative becomes affecting and memorable: a French meat packer shows how retail powerhouses dictate prices; a Kenyan farmer demonstrates how "hunger-ending" technologies are often poorly suited to the climates, soils and infrastructures in malnourished regions. Unfortunately, these anecdotes are overshadowed by colorless recitations of Internet research and data culled from interviews. Roberts worries about our "vast and overworked [food] system" and proffers the usual solutions: eat less (land-based) meat, farm more fish, support regional (not just local) agriculture and pressure food policy makers to fund research into more sustainable farming methods (including genetic modification). Despite the undeniable urgency of the issue, Roberts's arguments are as commonplace as his prescriptions. (June 4)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Reviews

From Harper's contributor Roberts (The End of Oil, 2004), another dire warning of hard times ahead. This time the author scrutinizes the modern food system, examining its history from prehistoric big-game hunting through the rise of industrialized food production to the retail revolution in which large grocery companies control the supply chain. The result, he asserts, is a low-cost, high-volume model that has reduced the nutritional value of processed food and increased such health problems as obesity and diabetes; it offers superabundance to a few while millions of others go hungry. Roberts argues that the present system is critically vulnerable not only to escalating energy costs and declining supplies of land and water but to the threats of climate change, soil contamination and food-borne diseases. He paints a horrific picture of how all these factors could come together in what he calls " a perfect storm of sequential or even simultaneous food-related calamities" that begins with wheat rust in Uganda and cascades into a global crisis involving droughts, floods, unemployment, mass migrations and a deadly epidemic. To understand how the system operates, the author visited food giant Nestle in Switzerland, a meat-packing plant in France, an agricultural fair in China's Shandong Province and an Albertsons market in Washington state, among other sites, and he consulted with politicians and scientists involved in protecting and expanding the food supply. In his search for solutions, Roberts examines genetically modified foods, organic and integrated polyculture farming, aquaculture and the growing locavore movement ("eat food grown locally"), all of which hold promise but none of whichhas all the answers. The key to change, he declares, lies with an informed and activist public, which is precisely what his book aims to create and energize. A revealing, deeply dismaying overview of how the world's food is produced and marketed. Agent: Heather Schroder/ICM

Book review: Fat Proof Your Family or Herbs and Nutrients for the Mind

Who: The A Method for Hiring

Author: Geoff Smart

In Who, Geoff Smart and Randy Street provide a simple and straightforward solution to every manager's number-one problem: unsuccessful hiring.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Who, Not What

1 Your #1 Problem 3

2 Scorecard: A Blueprint for Success 19

3 Source: Generating a Flow of A Players 47

4 Select: The Four Interviews for Spotting A Players 67

5 Sell: The Top Five Ways to Seal the Deal 123

6 Your Greatest Opportunity 147

For More Information 173

Biographies of Captains of Industry 175

Principles of Corporate Finance or The New Strategic Selling

Principles of Corporate Finance

Author: Richard A Brealey

Principles of Corporate Finance is the worldwide leading text that describes the theory and practice of corporate finance. Throughout the book the authors show how managers use financial theory to solve practical problems and as a way of learning how to respond to change by showing not just how but why companies and management act as they do. The text is comprehensive, authoritative, and modern and yet the material is presented at a common sense level. The discussions and illustrations are unique due to the depth of detail blended with a distinct sense of humor for which the book is well known and highly regarded. This text is a valued reference for thousands of practicing financial managers. Richard A. Brealey and Stewart C. Myers welcome Franklin Allen as a new coauthor to this Eighth Edition. Sometimes the addition of a new coauthor means that one of the existing authors proposes to take a back seat. That is not the case with this team. Dr. Allen’s addition represents a genuine increase in capacity and brings fresh expertise and ideas to an already tremendously successful textbook and partnership.

Book about: Asymmetrical Warfare or The Opium Season

The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies. Revised and Updated for the 21th Century

Author: Robert B Miller

This modern edition of the business classic confronts the rapidly evolving world of business-to-business sales with new real-world examples, new strategies for confronting competition, and a special section featuring the most commonly asked questions from the Miller Heiman workshops.

Its Your Ship or 8th Habit Personal Workbook

It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy

Author: D Michael Abrashoff

"The most important thing a captain can do is to see the ship from the eyes of the crew." This belief has successfully guided D. Michael Abrashoff, the captain of one of the U. S. Navy's most modern and lethal warships. Abrashoff has revolutionized how to handle such challenging problems as excessive costs, low morale, sexual harassment, and constant turn-over. Business managers will benefit from Abrashoff's guiding belief that focus should be on empowering your people rather than on chain of command. By shifting organizing principles from obedience to performance, managers will be rewarded with remarkable productivity. As Abrashoff explains, the more people enjoy the process, the better the results. Good leaders listen to the people under their command-and use their ideas to improve operating procedures.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Before leaving the U.S. Navy to become the CEO of Grassroots Leadership Inc., Captain Abrashoff commanded the USS Benfold, a ship armed with the latest technology available. To create a crew of confident and inspired problem-solvers, he used the slogan "It's your ship" to motivate them to take responsibility for their actions and improve their performance. In It's Your Ship, Abrashoff describes how he used proactive communication and sailor input to make the USS Benfold a model of naval efficiency and a key player in the U.S. Persian Gulf fleet. Copyright © 2004 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Look this: Through the Dark Woods or Herbs against Cancer

8th Habit Personal Workbook: Strategies to Take You from Effectiveness to Greatness

Author: Stephen R Covey

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Services Marketing or Organization Modeling

Services Marketing

Author: Christopher H Lovelock

Significantly revised, restructured, and updated to reflect the challenges facing service managers in the 21st century, this book combines conceptual rigor with real world examples and practical applications.
Exploring both concepts and techniques of marketing for an exceptionally broad range of service categories and industries, the Sixth Edition reinforces practical management applications through numerous boxed examples, eight up-to-date readings from leading thinkers in the field, and 15 recent cases.
For professionals with a career in marketing, service-oriented industries, corporate communication, advertising, and/or public relations.

Booknews

A text for use in MBA and executive MBA courses, designed to complement material found in traditional marketing principles texts. Offers a strong managerial orientation and strategic focus in an integrated approach to studying services that places marketing issues within a broader general management context. This fourth edition contains four new chapters, seven new readings, five new cases, and more coverage of consumer behavior, people management, and Internet- based services. Lovelock gives seminars and workshops. He was on the faculty of Harvard Business School for 11 years. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Interesting book: Gestão Estratégica:Criação de Vantagens Competitivas

Organization Modeling: Innovative Architectures for the 21st Century

Author: Joseph Morabito

The revolutionary guide to architecting your entire organization!

• Modeling your entire organization for maximum effectiveness
• Architecture-in-the-large and architecture-in-the-small
• Harnessing tacit knowledge and learning
• Practical guidelines for implementing your models

Now, go beyond modeling your software and your processes: model your entire organization for maximum competitive advantage. Organization Modeling: Innovative Architectures for the 21st Century introduces the revolutionary discipline of object-oriented organization modeling, combining today's most sophisticated approaches to IT modeling with the latest advances in organization and management frameworks. Discover powerful new tools for modeling-and transforming-your organization's environment, goals, processes, information and knowledge resources, structure, technology, even culture. Coverage includes:

• Why it's dangerous to think of today's IT models as "business models"
• How to create and align small-scale "organization molecules" into effective enterprise-wide architectures
• Envisioning organizational patterns
• Integrating data, knowledge, and information

Whether you're an executive, IT planner, analyst, software professional, or student of management, if you want to improve your organization's effectiveness, you finally have a disciplined, systematic framework for doing so: Organization Modeling.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
Ch. 1	Organization Modeling	1
Pt. 1	Organizing OM	9
Ch. 2	An Introduction and Critique of Organization Theory	14
Ch. 3	Designing Organizations	26
Ch. 4	A New Approach to Organization Modeling	43
Ch. 5	The Layered Organization	62
Ch. 6	Organization Molecules	78
Ch. 7	Aligning Organization Molecules	94
Ch. 8	The OM Design Process	109
Ch. 9	Organizational Patterns	124
Pt. 2	Building a 21st Century Organizational Architecture	155
Ch. 10	Directionality and Culture	158
Ch. 11	Process Formulation	169
Ch. 12	Data, Knowledge, and Information	199
Ch. 13	Knowledge Formulation	230
Ch. 14	The 21st Century Learning Organization	248
App	A Brief Review of Information Modeling	275
	Bibliography	281
	Index	286

Banking Risk Management in a Globalizing Economy or Mind Set Management

Banking Risk Management in a Globalizing Economy

Author: Panos Angelopoulos

Banking is now an active asset-liability risk management enterprise, attributable in large part to the globalization of commerce. The authors of this descriptive yet practical, applications-oriented book examine the sources and management of traditional and nontraditional banking risks, then the conventional on-balance sheet and the modern off-balance sheet risk management methods. The authors offer experienced as well as novice practitioners an easily accessable way to understand and cope with the banking risks. The book will also be useful as a supplemental text in college-level courses on money and banking and on the operation of financial markets in general.

Booknews

Angelopoulos, a Greek credit analyst and consultant to the Ministry of Education on developing courses in banking and stock markets, and Mourdoukoutas (economics, Long Island U., New York) introduce the risks for banks in a world in which consumers can shop the Internet for banking services. They explain how to manage, measure, monitor, and control risks, emphasizing the use of financial derivatives to control the interest rate, exchange rate, and credit risks as the three major banking risks at the core of banking business. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Books about: Data Structure and Other Objects Using C or AutoCAD 2002 Tutorial

Mind-Set Management: The Heart of Leadership

Author: Samuel A Culbert

You can follow any business guru you want, be it Peter Drucker or Tom Peters. You can adopt any new management concept, from reengineering to "empowering people." But Samuel A. Culbert has one caveat: no matter what managerial "religion" you choose--and there are many sound ones--before you can lead, manage, or team up effectively, you must comprehend the mind-sets that direct the people with whom you are interacting. In Mind-Set Management, Culbert provides a model for thinking about other people--about their self-interested motives and about their biased views of work events--as he shows managers at all levels how to use psychology instead of manipulation in giving valid, even great, advice.
The essence of leading and managing, says Culbert, is "staging the conditions for others to be effective," which today entails giving advice and feedback, not issuing directives. This is particularly true with today's "empowering" management styles. But, as most managers know all too well, advice is often resisted, resented, and ignored. The problem, Culbert contends, is that managers don't have the other person in focus: When they formulate advice, they think they are attuned to the other person, but in fact the person they have listened to most is themselves. Mind-Set Management will help you focus on the person you want to advise, explaining what you need to learn and to know in order to give advice that is great because it is advice that actually gets used. It will prompt you to ask yourself (and will help you answer) such questions as: Why do people insist on seeing events with their own particular biases and distortions? Why do they resist my best ideas and advice about howthey can function most effectively? Why can't I get people to change how they reason and think? Why do people have so much difficulty putting internal politics aside? What's needed for people to trust one another and listen to advice? Why are some people blind to the obvious logic behind the feedback and advice they receive? Culbert has packed the book with vivid case illustrations and stories that people, whether CEOs or project staff, will identify with--weaving the concepts and stories together to present evidence that makes the lessons personally compelling. With these lessons, you will find yourself reading essential, previously unseen dimensions of what is critical in the other person's thinking. You will be better able to see where other people's interests lie and how they view the corporation and the task at hand, and you will be able to give great advice, advice that will be followed because it serves the interests of the person who receives it even as it advances the company's goals.
Today there are many new and progressive ideas about how to manage more effectively, but without the psychological component that Samuel Culbert provides in Mind-Set Management, you are simply putting old wine in new bottles--as what seems "new" quickly becomes business as usual. Thus this is an important, groundbreaking work. Indeed, Warren Bennis, in the Foreword, calls it "one of the lasting contributions to our understanding of corporations, the psychology of people who work in them, and perhaps most of all, a contribution to understanding ourselves."

Table of Contents:

1	The New Management Models: What They Say and What's Needed to Pull Them Off	3
2	The Artifact of Mind Insight	25
3	The Outsider's Perspective or "If you're from out of town, you must be an expert."	45
4	Giving Advice and Feedback Are Inherently Political Activities	64
5	Mind-Set Sensitivity: The Importance of Knowing How the Other Person Reasons and the Importance of the Other Person Knowing That You Know	84
6	Understanding What Personal Competence Means: The Alignment Model of Empowerment	105
7	Discerning Alignment Strategies and the Mind-Sets That Derive from Them	124
8	Gaining Control by Relinquishing It	149
9	Getting People Interested in the Feedback You Have to Give	167
10	Mismatches in Levels of Feedback Sent and Received	183
11	Different Levels of Influence and Advice and the Categories of Interaction They Create	203
12	Breakthrough Learning	218
13	Assessing the Feasibility of Achieving Breakthrough-Learning Results	230
14	Perspectives to Keep in Mind When Participating in Breakthrough-Learning Interactions	253
15	Breakthrough Learning: Case Study and Exam	264
16	Performance Evaluation: The Capstone Event in Giving Feedback and Advice	275
17	Breaking Out of the Program	294
18	How the Artifact of Mind Insight Instructs Us to Act	312
	Epilogue	323
	Glossary	327
	Index	335

Marketing in Travel and Tourism or New Jersey Dreaming

Marketing in Travel and Tourism

Author: Victor T C Middleton

Now in its third edition, the best-selling text, Marketing in Travel and Tourism, explains the principles and practice of marketing as they are increasingly being applied in the global travel and tourism industry. Building on the success of previous editions, the authors have completely revised the text to reflect the changes in the travel and tourism industry in the 21st century.

International examples and case studies drawn from recent practice in several countries are used throughout the text. Case studies emphasising the role of ICT include: Microburners, Travel Inn (budget hotels), RCI Europe, the Balearic Islands, and ICT and the role of the Internet in international NTO strategies.

With its comprehensive content and user friendly style, Marketing in Travel and Tourism third edition takes the reader from an initial definition of the subject matter through to the application of marketing in the travel and tourism industry, discussing crucial components such as planning strategy and the marketing mix, making it an indispensable text for both students and practitioners alike.

Explains the concepts and principles of marketing
Extensive use of case histories and examples
A classic work of reference

Table of Contents:

The meaning of marketing in travel and tourism; Understanding the marketing mix in travel and tourism; Planning strategy and tactics for travel and tourism marketing; Using the principal marketing tools in travel and tourism; Applying marketing in the travel and tourism industry; Case studies of marketing practice in travel and tourism; Epilogue: prospects for travel and tourism marketing.

Interesting textbook: Globalized Islam or Best Laid Plans

New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture, and the Class of '58

Author: Sherry B Ortner

Pioneering anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner is renowned for her work on the Sherpas of Nepal. Now she turns her attention home-ward to examine how social class is lived in the United States and, specifically, within her own peer group. In New Jersey Dreaming, Ortner returns to her Newark roots to present an in-depth look at Weequahic High School's Class of 1958, of which she was a member. She explores her classmates' recollected experiences of the neighborhood and the high school, also written about in the novels of Philip Roth, Weequahic High School's most famous alum. Ortner provides a chronicle of the journey of her classmates from the 1950s into the 1990s, following the movement of a striking number of them from modest working- and middle-class backgrounds into the wealthy upper-middle or professional/managerial class.

Exploring Macroeconomics or Trade and Industrial Policy under International Oligopoly

Exploring Macroeconomics

Author: Robert L L Sexton

The 4th Edition of Robert Sexton's EXPLORING MACROECONOMICS is now available in a modular format. The 4th Edition offers the macroeconomics content in 5 modules - in other words, it costs less than a traditional macroeconomics text. Buy a product that provides more value for your dollar! You no longer have to buy the same material twice your instructor will not get through during the term. You are no longer paying for unused material -- and no longer carrying a heavy text!

Table of Contents:

1. The Role and Method of Economics
2.Six Powerful Ideas for the Economics Way of Thinking. APPENDIX: Working with Graphs
3.Scarcity and the Economizing Problem
4.Supply and Demand
5.Elasticities
6.Consumer Choice and Welfare. APPENDIX: Consumer Choice Theory
7.The Public Sector
8.Introduction to Macroeconomy
9.Measuring Economic Performance
10.Economic Growth in the Global Economy
11.Aggregate Demand. APPENDIX: Aggregate Expenditure Model
12.Aggregate Supply and Macroeconomic Equilibrium
13.Fiscal Policy
14.Money and the Banking System
15.The Federal Reserve System and Monetary Policy
16.Issues in Macroeconomic Theory and Policy
17.International Trade
18.International Finance.

Book review: Création des Équipes Efficaces :un Guide pour les Membres et les Chefs

Trade and Industrial Policy under International Oligopoly

Author: Sajal Lahiri

The existence of firms with different levels of efficiency within a country plays an important role in this in-depth analysis of industrial and trade policies in a multi-country trade-theoretic framework. Sajal Lahiri and Yoshiyasu Ono examine various industrial policies, R&D subsidies and trade policies under conditions of imperfect competition in a product market created by the presence of Cournot oligopolistic interdependence in production. The book covers commodity trade (assuming full employment) and foreign direct investment (assuming unemployment) making it of interest to researchers, advanced students and policy makers.

Illusions of Prosperity or Industrial Revolution

Illusions of Prosperity: America's Working Families in an Age of Economic Insecurity

Author: Joel Blau

Faith in the free market--the idea that, for instance, profit-seeking managed care companies will improve the health care delivery system--has become a basic tenet of public policy debate. But as Joel Blau demonstrates in this eye-opening book, so-called "free market" programs have been a dismal failure, heightening inequality, lowering the median standard of living, and steadily eroding the quality of our social and political life.
In Illusions of Prosperity, Blau launches a far-reaching assault on idea that "the market" knows best. Blau writes that while the share of the national income held by the bottom four fifths of the population (the poor and broad middle class combined) has continued to decline, the top fifth gained 97 percent of the increase in total household income between 1979 and 1994. "Few experiments," Blau comments, "yield such clear outcomes. Although many had hoped to benefit from the new market economy, this affluent fifth is the only segment of the population that truly has." Blau looks at recent reforms in NAFTA, education, job training, welfare, and much more, showing that the new social policies have made matters worse, because reforms that rely on the market can't compensate for the market's deficiencies. Instead, he calls for a stronger, more caring government to counter the debilitating effects of the market, and he urges the development of the broadest possible political alliances to ensure economic security.
Sure to raise controversy, Illusions of Prosperity turns today's conventional wisdom inside out, making a profound case for the importance of a strong government in a world where markets do not have all the answers.

Library Journal

Blau's uneven polemic asserts that the current "market" approach to social ills helps only the top 20 percent of society while the rest suffer. He proposes increased federal government intervention as the solution, championing national healthcare, vastly expanded day care, stronger unions, and worker participation. Blau (social work, SUNY at Stony Brook), who looks at America through a Western European Socialist lens, feels that as long as business controls hiring and investments, education will not help most Americans. He acknowledges that his views are not in the majority but notes correctly that the pendulum could swing. Liberals may like his ideas; conservatives will cringe. Both will find this a tedious, occasionally condescending read--a lonely call for a return to big-government liberalism that most libraries will find more effectively argued in periodicals like the New Republic or the Nation. Neither lively enough to be called a screed nor convincing enough to be recommended.--Patrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll. Lib., La Crosse Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Interesting book: Administración de recursos Humana

Industrial Revolution

Author: Pat Hudson

The period c. 1760 to 1830 used to be seen as a watershed in the transition to modern industrial society. More recently historians have disputed the existence of fundamental change in economic, social, or political life at this time. The British industrial revolution is quietly disappearing from the history books. Hudson challenges this development, arguing that the process of revision has gone too far: continuity has been emphasized at the expense of change and many historically unique features of the economic and society of the period have been unjustly neglected. This new edition retains the successful structure of the highly praised original but extends the author's defense of the dynamism of the period with greater coverage of social and cultural changes, trust and networks as well as innovation, trading, and financial developments. The text is fullu updated to take account of major new research during the past decade.

Economic Justice in an Unfair World or Strategic Transformation and Information Technology

Economic Justice in an Unfair World: Toward a Level Playing Field

Author: Ethan B Kapstein

Recent years have seen a growing number of activists, scholars, and even policymakers claiming that the global economy is unfair and unjust, particularly to developing countries and the poor within them. But what would a fair or just global economy look like? Economic Justice in an Unfair World seeks to answer that question by presenting a bold and provocative argument that emphasizes economic relations among states.

The book provides a market-oriented focus, arguing that a just international economy would be one that is inclusive, participatory, and welfare-enhancing for all states. Rejecting radical redistribution schemes between rich and poor, Ethan Kapstein asserts that a politically feasible approach to international economic justice would emphasize free trade and limited flows of foreign assistance in order to help countries exercise their comparative advantage.

Kapstein also addresses justice in labor, migration, and investment, in each case defending an approach that concentrates on nation-states and their unique social compacts. Clearly written for all those with a stake in contemporary debates over poverty reduction and development, the book provides a breakthrough analysis of what the international community can reasonably do to build a global economy that works to the advantage of every nation.

Table of Contents:

1	Economic justice in an unfair world	1
2	Fairness in trade	45
3	Allocating aid	86
4	Justice in migration and labor	114
5	Harnessing investment	147
6	Toward a level playing field : a policy agenda	175

Go to: Terrorism or Human Behavior and the Social Environment

Strategic Transformation and Information Technology: Paradigms for Performing while Transforming

Author: Marilyn M Parker

Focusing on the realities of global competition and the impact on businesses and information technology (I/T) and its organizations, this dynamic, progressive book highlights the significant changes in the competitive environment and within the enterprise, illustrating how each directly impacts I/T, and how I/T can impact the enterprise change mechanisms.Analyzes major uncertainties an enterprise must face and the resulting new business paradigms required for successful business transformation that imply new directions, responsibilities, and environments for I/T. Discusses the impact of new business paradigms and initiatives surrounding enterprise transformation, and the consequences for I/T applications and activities. Examines new responsibilities and roles of I/T, its accompanying change of charter and organizational infrastructure. Introduces a three phase Strategic Transformation methodology for planning. Identifies and discusses new business paradigms and the resulting change of I/T paradigms. For business and technology professionals.

Ohio Real Estate Law or Regionalism in East Asia

Ohio Real Estate Law

Author: Carol Irvin

Undoubtedly, the most comprehensive and completely updated guide available anywhere. OHIO REAL ESTATE LAW is packed with the latest information on legislative changes and discussion of the newest forms supported by an online integrated learning system with illustrated case scenarios, storyboards, and practical assignments throughout delivering a complete, blended-learning tool.

Books about: The Myth of a Christian Nation or The Culture of the New Capitalism

Regionalism in East Asia

Author: Fu Kuo Liu

Regional co-operation and integration have emerged as key issues for East Asia following the financial crisis. This book explores these issues, and examines the degree to which a new paradigm is emerging. It reviews the evolution of the concepts and practices of regionalism in East Asia, and considers the factors which are shaping new patterns of regional co-operation and integration. It includes discussions of historical developments, economic co-operation, socio-political factors, and defence and security. It considers the role of those states, including China and Japan, which have distinctive approaches to international relations, and assesses the role of regional international bodies such as ASEAN.

Table of Contents:

	List of contributors
	List of abbreviations
	Preface
	Prologue: Whither regionalism in East Asia?
Pt. I	The critical review of regional concepts and theories of regionalism	1
1	East Asian regionalism: Theoretical perspectives	3
2	The post-Cold War development of regionalism in East Asia	30
3	Economic cooperation in East Asia: Revisiting regional concepts and the subregional case of ASEAN	52
Pt. II	Regional cooperation in practice in East Asia and encountering regional theories	69
4	East Asian regionalism and the evolution of a fragmented region: A conceptual approach towards the political sector of security	71
5	Regionalism and subregional cooperation: The ASEAN experience	85
6	Regionalism and regional governance in Northeast Asia	100
7	Northeast Asia: Developmental political economy and the prospects for regional economic integration	119
Pt. III	The new direction of East Asia regionalism	139
8	The impact of the financial crises of East Asian regionalism	141
9	The concept of 'Greater China' and East Asia	153
10	Sovereignty at bay? Business networking and democratic politics of informal integration between Taiwan and Mainland China in the 1990s	176
11	Regionalism through interregionalism: East Asia and ASEM	197
12	Conclusion: The renewal of regionalism and an East Asian new order	220
	Bibliography	231
	Index	250

Health Care Finance or White Farms Black Labour

Health Care Finance: Cost, Productivity, and Strategic Design

Author: Steven R Eastaugh

Health Care Finance: Cost, Productivity and Strategy Design is a thorough and balanced exploration of what is happening in the rapidly changing health care marketplace. New payment incentives, which stimulate change in the marketplace are analyzed. Tools for success include better financial planning productivity improvement, better scheduling systems, total quality management, cost effectiveness, and cost—benefit studies. The range of coverage is wide and detailed, making this book essential reading for health care professionals, health care finance students, and health economics students.

Booknews

Examines the various cost-containment proposals and other financial strategies that have been advanced in the 1990s against the backdrop of the empirical research available to date. The author covers payment incentives, integrated systems, marketing and pricing, quality improvement, HMOs, competition, tax- exempt and for-profit systems, access to capital and debt financing, and future policy options. Intended for managers, policy makers, health care providers, and graduate students studying to enter the industry. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Acknowledgments
Ch. 1	Payment Incentives, Integrated Systems, and Cost Management	1
Ch. 2	Specialization, Accounting, and Standard Costing	17
Ch. 3	Paying the Doctor	35
Ch. 4	Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Benefit Analysis	55
Ch. 5	Marketing and Pricing	75
Ch. 6	Productivity Improvement: Managing Effective Cost Controls	103
Ch. 7	Quality Improvement	125
Ch. 8	HMOs, Competition, and Managed Care	141
Ch. 9	Long-Term Care: Issues and Options	155
Ch. 10	Tax-Exempt and For-Profit Systems	179
Ch. 11	Evaluation of Financing Alternatives	191
Ch. 12	Access to Capital and Debt Financing	213
Ch. 13	Future Policy Options: The Bumpy Road Ahead	235
	Index	249

New interesting book: The Modern Presidency or No Place to Hide

White Farms, Black Labour: Agrarian Transition in Southern Africa, 1910-1950

Author: Jonathan Crush

Paper Edition. The essays in this collection explore various aspects of the lives and experiences of black farm workers who were driven off their own land and forced to labor on white farms instead.

Public Relations Writing or Whats in a Name

Public Relations Writing(Series in Mass Communication and Journalism): Form and Style

Author: Doug Newsom

Write with understanding and purpose with PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING: FORM AND STYLE! With a practical approach, this communication text uses the principles and theories of public relations to provide you with the tools you need to improve your writing skills. Examples, illustrations, and end-of-chapter exercises give you the opportunity to see public relations in action. The book-specific website saves you time by providing you with exercises, tutorial quizzes, and web activities.

New interesting book: Principles of Accounting or Media Organisations in Society

What's in a Name?: Advertising and the Concept of Brands

Author: John Philip Jones

This is a completely rewritten and updated version of one of the true classic books in the field of marketing and advertising -- once described as "pure gold" by advertising guru David Ogilvy. What's in a Name? Advertising and the Concept of Brands analyzes brands from the point of view of modern marketing theory. It deals in detail with the role of advertising in creating, building, and maintaining strong brands -- the lifeblood of any long-term marketing campaign. The work is empirically based and is supported by the best research from both the professional and academic fields. The authors describe the birth and maturity of brands and dissect the patterns of consumer purchasing of repeat-purchase goods. This new edition of What's in a Name? besides including all-new research findings and examples, adds new coverage of the short-term, medium-term, and long-term effects of advertising on sales of brands. The book concludes with new recommendations on how to develop and expose better advertising.

Table of Contents:

	List of Tables and Figures
	Foreword: Advertising and Brand Planning
1	Introduction	3
2	Brands: What They Are and Why They Emerged	19
3	Factors That Shape a Brand During Its Conception and Birth	45
4	Factors That Shape a Brand During Its Growth and Maturity	73
5	The Mature Brand and the Consumer: The Nature of Repeat-Buying Theory	107
6	Advertising Research: A Digression on Recall	136
7	How Advertising Influences Sales	163
8	How Advertising Builds Brands	188
9	Giving a Brand Legs: Brands as Collectible Entities	214
10	The Contribution of Advertising Strategy to Brand Building	230
11	From Advertising Strategy to Advertising Campaign	257
12	How to Develop and Expose Better Advertising	270
	Index	291
	About the Authors	309

Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations or Improving Organizational Performance

Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations

Author: Hallie Preskill

How does evaluative inquiry contribute to your organizational learning? How do you practice evaluative inquiry to maximize individual and team learning? Offering you a way of thinking about and conducting evaluative inquiry in every kind of organization, Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations provides a data-based approach to organizational learning and change. By focusing on the use of evaluative inquiry processes within organizations rather than across large-scale, multisite programs, authors Hallie Preskill and Rosalie T. Torres are able to bridge the gap between what research "says" about individual, team, and organizational learning and what it "says" about evaluation. The authors lay the foundation and context for evaluative inquiry by including:

- How organizations are changing.

- What it means to learn at the individual, team, and organizational levels.

- The four learning processes that facilitate evaluative inquiry.

Through the use of an illustrative case, the authors guide you through the three phases of evaluative inquiry - from focusing the inquiry to developing action plans. Also included are interviews from four different organizations: Land O'Lakes, Colorado Department of Education, Ford Motor Company, and Presbyterian Hospital and Healthcare Services. These interviews allow you to "hear" how participants perceived and experienced these procedures. This exciting volume concludes with additional considerations when practicing evaluative inquiry, including an exploration of the evaluator's role and challenges to implementing evaluative inquiry in today's organizations.

Writtenfor evaluators, managers, consultants, and trainers, Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations shows you how to integrate evaluative inquiry into your organization's work processes so that its members are better able to make their organizations successful.

 

Booknews

Provides a data-based approach to organizational learning and change, focusing on the use of evaluative inquiry processes within the organization rather than across large-scale, multisite programs. Illustrative cases demonstrate three phases of evaluative inquiry, from focusing the inquiry to developing action plans. Interviews with managers at four different types of organizations reveal how participants experienced these procedures. For evaluators, managers, consultants, and trainers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

	List of Strategies, Exhibits, and Figures
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction
1	Evaluative Inquiry and Organizational Change	1
2	Learning in Organizations	17
3	Evaluative Inquiry Learning Processes	51
4	Focusing the Evaluative Inquiry	71
5	Carrying Out the Inquiry	97
6	Applying Learning	131
7	Building the Infrastructure for Evaluative Inquiry	153
8	The Practice of Evaluative Inquiry	183
	Questions for Facilitating Evaluative Inquiry	193
	References	201
	Index	211
	About the Authors	217

Book about: The Move to Community Policing or The Business Case for Enterprise Class Wireless LANs

Improving Organizational Performance: A Practical Guidebook for the Human Services Field

Author: Gary V Sluyter

A practical guide to recently developed management principles, Improving Organizational Performance takes the reader beyond the basics of the TQM fad to the core concepts that undergird it. The book provides a basic reference and field guide for mental health service organizations that are interested in learning about and applying sound management principles. In addition to basic theory, it presents procedures for putting quality practices in place, using examples from the field to illuminate points, and including a complete case study to help organizations learn the quality improvement team process. Improving Organizational Performance is an effective tool for improving performance for managers in mental health, human services, and social services.

Booknews

Provides a basic reference and field guide for managers of mental health, human services, and social service organizations. Includes basic theory as well as practical information: specific procedures for implementing quality practices, examples from the field, and a case study to help organizations learn the quality improvement team process. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

International Business or Business Cycle Theory

International Business

Author: Stuart Wall

 

International Business provides an accessible and theoretically rigorous introduction to the subject. Starting with an analysis of external environmental factors, the book moves to examine the functional and operational issues faced by international businesses. Throughout the text, more subtle organisational and cultural isues, increasingly crucial to success, are given strong prominence.

The throroughly updated second edition provides new cases and FT articles, encouraging the reader to explore the practical applications of the key concepts. There is also an increased emphasis on international strategic directions to highlight the importance of long-term business planning. A coherent structure is supported by a strong pedagogical framework, with further substantial resources available on the book's website at www.booksites.net/wallrees.

Ideally suited for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and modules in International Business, the book will also appeal to 'non-specialist' students from disciplines outside business and management.

Key Features
• Emphasis on culture, ethics and the environment
• New Chapter 8: International strategic issues
• New and revised case material and FT articles
• Broad coverage of key environmental and operational factors
• Strong pedagogical structure enabling and active and open-learning approach
• Companion website provides resources for both students and lecturers

Stuart Wall is Subject Leader in Business and Economics at Ashcroft International Business School, Anglia Polytechnic University and has actedas a consultant on international business issues for the OECD. Bronwen Rees is Senior Research Fellow, also at Ashcroft International Business School, and has been a Visiting Fellow at both Cranfield School of Management and Judge Institute, Cambridge University.

Look this: L'Ergothérapie Réussie

Business Cycle Theory

Author: Lutz G Arnold

Business cycle theory is a broad and disparate field. Different schools of thought offer alternative explanations for cycles, often using different mathematical methods. This book provides a compact exposition of the main theories since Keynes--Keynesian economics, monetorism, new classical economics, the real business cycles theory, and new Keynesian economics--using a unified mathematical approach.

Table of Contents:

1	Introduction
2	Keynesian Economics
3	Monetarism
4	New Classical Economics
5	Real Business Cycles
6	New Keynesian Economics
7	Lessons About Business Cycles
	References
App. 1	Stochastic Second-order Difference Equations
App. 2	The Over-investment Theory
App. 3	A Goodwinian Model
	Index

The Audience the Message the Speaker or The Rise and Fall of Abacus Banking in Japan and China

The Audience, the Message, the Speaker

Author: John Hasling

This brief, core introduction to public speaking combines a concern with classic rhetoric with a strong focus on ethics, diversity, and the latest technology. The Audience, The Message, The Speaker emphasizes the speaker's responsibility to convey succinct, meaningful information that is well organized, reliable, and clearly expressed for the relevant audience. The new edition features new sections entitled "Analyzing the Audience in a Post 9/11 World," "Making PowerPoint Presentations," and "Researching on the Internet."

New interesting textbook: American Shamans or The Seattle Sutton Solution

The Rise and Fall of Abacus Banking in Japan and China

Author: Yuko Arayama

Bankers in Japan and China are masters of accounting, not risk management, and American-style rescue packages won't solve their banking crises. Cleaning up balance sheets and purging non-performing loans won't work either, say Arayama and Mourdoukoutas. The problem goes deeper. It stems from high growth environments and tight government regulation. The result has been to limit competition in Japan and eliminate it in China. And that led to the control of management behavior, which weakened incentives for Japanese and Chinese bank decision makers to manage, hands-on, their traditional and nontraditional banking risks. They may be experts with the abacus but they have little experience with or understanding of the other more important aspects of banking. A challenging, provocative, readable study and analysis it is, an essential resource for academicians and policymakers in business, government, and international finance and investment.

Table of Contents:

Beyond Nonperforming Assets: Abacus Banking
The Rise and Fall of Abacus Banking and the Banking Crisis in Japan
The Rise of Abacus Banking in Japan
The Fall of Abacus Banking in Japan
The Banking Crisis
The Rise and Fall of Abacus Banking and the Looming Banking Crisis in China
The Rise of Abacus Banking in China
The Fall of Abacus Banking in China
The Looming Banking Crisis in China
Conclusions

Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure or European Modernity and Beyond

Service Quality Management in Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure

Author: Jay Kandampully

Does your staff deliver the highest quality service possible?

Customers today expect a very high overall level of service in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Competition in these fields will thus be driven by strategies focusing on quality of service to add value, as opposed to product or price differentiation.

Service Quality Management in Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure highlights concepts and strategies that will improve the delivery of hospitality services, and provides clear and simple explanations of theoretical concepts as well as their practical applications! Practitioners and educators alike will find this book to be invaluable in their businesses and in preparing students for the business world.

This essential book provides you with clear, comprehensive explanations of theoretical concepts and methods that will give you the competitive edge in this fast-changing field. Topics covered include:

• services management
• marketing
• operations management
• human resources management
• service quality management

Service Quality Management in Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure brings together an array of pertinent materials that will measure and enhance customer satisfaction and help you provide superior hospitality services, and groups them in easy-to-use clusters for quick reference.

Booknews

For managers and educators, a guide to measuring and improving customer satisfaction in a hypercompetitive market. The three editors and 16 contributors are academics in hotel, restaurant, and tourism management, business management, and human resource management in the UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand. The work is an effort to provide a holistic, interdisciplinary view of what service quality is and how it can be managed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

	About the Editors
	Contributors
	Preface
Ch. 1	Concepts of Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure Services	1
Ch. 2	Unique Characteristics of Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure Services	5
Ch. 3	Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent to Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure Services	51
Ch. 4	The Impact of People, Process, and Physical Evidence on Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure Service Quality	67
Ch. 5	Understanding the Role of the Service Encounter in Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure Services	85
Ch. 6	Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Value: An Examination of Their Relationships	97
Ch. 7	Competitive Advantages of Service Quality in Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure Services	111
Ch. 8	Approaches to Enhance Service Quality Orientation in the United Kingdom: The Role of the Public Sector	123
Ch. 9	Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems	143
Ch. 10	Measuring Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction	159
Ch. 11	Managing Service Failure Through Recovery	193
Ch. 12	Empowering Service Personnel to Deliver Quality Service	223
Ch. 13	Service Guarantee: An Organization's Blueprint for Assisting the Delivery of Superior Service	239
Ch. 14	Managing and Marketing Internal and External Relationships	255
Ch. 15	Cross-Cultural Issues in Service Quality	269
Ch. 16	Technology and Its Impact on Service Quality	281
Ch. 17	Delivering on Service: What Are the Questions and Challenges for Tomorrow's "Virtual University"?	297
	Index	319

New interesting textbook: Planification Financière Personnelle

European Modernity and Beyond: The Trajectory of European Societies, 1945-2000

Author: Goran Therborn

The European community has evinced dramatic changes since the conclusion of the second World War; both individually and collectively, its nations have experienced continuous shifts in political, cultural, and economic climes. Has this process resulted in greater solidarity among European nations--and with others on the globe--or has it only strengthened disparities? To what extent has the period 1945-2000 produced fundamental differences or revealed areas of continuity? Through his broad-ranging analysis of the profile of contemporary European societies, Göran Therborn assays the development and outcome of such crucial issues as mass consumption, collective memory and identities, modes of collective action, and the two great steering projects of the times: socialism in the East and European union in the West. Combining theoretical depth with empirical data, this volume will be essential reading for all students of the politics and sociology of Europe and of contemporary industrial societies.

The Evolution of Economic Thought or The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific

The Evolution of Economic Thought

Author: Stanley Bru

The Evolution of Economic Thought, 6/e presents the history of economics and the philosophies that drive the economic way of thinking. It stresses the importance of understanding contemporary economics, by grasping new ideas, evidence, problems and values that call for reconsideration of basic disputes and major contributions of the past. The textbook explains the ideas of the great economic thinkers and their logical connections to the world of today and tomorrow. Updated pedagogial features provide clear insight into issues like antitrust perspectives and game theory. Introducing ideas like Robert Solow's pioneering model to discuss recent renewed emphasis on growth theory and technological change, the author sheds historical light on modern debates and thoughts. Stanley Brue once again carries on the legacy of Jacob Oser, the book's creator, by offering a scholarly and timely presentation of the history of economic thought.

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The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific

Author: Geoffrey Irwin

The exploration and colonization of the Pacific is a remarkable episode in human prehistory. Early sea-going explorers had no knowledge of Pacific geography, no instruments for measuring time and none for exploration. Forty years of modern archaeology, experimental voyages in rafts, and computer simulations of voyages have produced an normous range of literature on this controversial subject. This book represents a major advance in knowledge of the settlement of the Pacific by suggesting that exploration was rapid, purposeful and undertaken systematically, and that navigation methods progressively improved.

Table of Contents:

	List of figures
	List of tables
1	An introduction to the Pacific and the theory of its settlement	1
2	Pleistocene voyaging and the settlement of Greater Australia and its Near Oceanic neighbours	18
3	Issues in Lapita studies and the background to Oceanic colonisation	31
4	Against, across and down the wind: a case for the systematic exploration of the remote Pacific	42
5	The colonisation of Eastern Melanesia, West Polynesia and Central East Polynesia	64
6	The colonisation of Hawaii, New Zealand and their neighbours	101
7	Issues in the colonisation of Micronesia	117
8	Voyaging by computer: experiments in the exploration of the remote Pacific Ocean	133
9	Voyaging after colonisation and the study of culture change	174
10	The rediscovery of Pacific exploration	205
	Bibliography	223
	Index	232

Prof Communicatn Intrnl Settin or Human Resource Management

Prof Communicatn Intrnl Settin

Author: Ron Scollon

In today's global business environment it is necessary to communicate successfully across cultural boundaries of languages, styles, and values. Professional Communication in International Settings provides a practical way to help individuals deal with a variety of cultural practices by systematically developing their own capacity to learn culturally appropriate behaviors and actions.

Proposes a new approach to intercultural communication.

Includes training material that illustrates how to effectively develop intercultural communication.

Represents the outcome of thirty years of consultation experience as well as six years of research in Hong Kong, Finland, and Beijing.

Look this: The Breast Cancer Survival Manual or Midlife Mamas on the Moon

Human Resource Management: A Customer Oriented Approach

Author: Diann R Newman

Human Resource Management: A Customer Oriented Approach addresses the needs of human resource management in the hospitality industry. Drawn from industry research and developments in real organizations, the book presents a comprehensive and practical discussion of the human resource issues unique to the hospitality industry. Dedicated to identifying and addressing customer needs, developing outstanding service, and maintaining total quality service; the book presents the role of HRM activities and provides applications of those functions to improving service, productivity, and profit. It presents total quality management in a practical manner so readers can apply these ideas in the workplace. And it emphasizes diversity, ethics, discrimination, and the ways hospitality managers address these issues. A valuable reference for any manager in a hospitality business seeking to improve the functioning of that organization.

Booknews

A text on human resource management in the hospitality industry, covering communication and decision making, human resource management activities, and the role and importance of customers. Covers recruiting and selecting associates, motivation, the international customer, total quality service, and developing an effective career plan. Learning features include chapter summaries, key terms, review and application questions, self-feedback exercises, cases with questions, and answers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Management	3
Ch. 2	Who Are You?	29
Ch. 3	Communicating Effectively	63
Ch. 4	Effectively Managing Change and Conflict	93
Ch. 5	Developing Your Decision-Making Skills	123
Ch. 6	Recruiting, Selecting, and Orienting Associates	157
Ch. 7	Training, Developing, and Appraising Associates	189
Ch. 8	Motivating Associates	219
Ch. 9	Creative Effective Associate Relations	247
Ch. 10	Identifying and Addressing Customer Needs	283
Ch. 11	Understanding the International Customer	313
Ch. 12	Developing Outstanding Service	341
Ch. 13	Maintaining Total Quality Service	365
Ch. 14	Future Challenges	399
Ch. 15	Developing an Effective Career Plan	431