Environmental Politics and Institutional Change (Reshaping Australian Institutions)

Book Description

Environmentalism is one of the major issues of our time. A key question is how responsive are Australian institutions to the challenges posed by environmental issues? This book focuses on how effectively political institutions and organisations are able to address concerns about the deterioration of the environment. The book considers the key players in environmental debate and policy-making: social movements, interest groups, political parties, the media, the parliaments and the bureaucracy. It contains much rich empirical material. This stimulating and original book makes an important contribution not only to environmental politics, but to the ways in which institutions can become more effective and responsive to social forces. It will be of interest not only to political scientists and sociologists, but to environmental activists and policy-makers themselves.

No-Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs

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Did the reader from Los Angeles read the book?
More Than Insightful
a band collar?
My G-g-g-eneration
Great Read

No-Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs
Andrew Ross
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0465071449
Release Date: 2002-12-17

Book Description

An academic iconoclast explores the new "no-collar" workplace--the most recent and radical step in our quest to create the perfect job--and finds important lessons about the future of work in an uncertain economy.

No-Collar is the first book to place the much-feted New Economy workplace in the context of industrial history and the struggle to win a humane work environment. From Horatio Alger to the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Americans have extolled the virtues of hard work as a source of meaning and identity as well as livelihood. Drawing on his yearlong study of two Silicon Alley companies, as well as on interviews with a range of employees in other Internet industries, Andrew Ross offers a dramatic report on how the self-directed "no-collar" life stacks up against earlier work utopias.

Though urban knowledge workers enjoyed unprecedented autonomy and bargaining power, and their bohemian artisan style evoked a pre-industrial craft ethos, the volatile economy exposed even the rank-and-file to 24/7 schedules, emotional churning, and the kinds of pressure typically borne only by senior managers. With his characteristic mix of laser-sharp analysis and deft storytelling, Ross asks: How humane can, or should, a workplace be? In documenting the quixotic life of these neo-bohemian workplaces, No-Collar records a unique moment in American history and reveals what the landscape of work will look like for decades to come.

Customer Reviews:

Did the reader from Los Angeles read the book?.......2003-02-03

It doesn't appear that the reader from Los Angeles read this particular book; it seems he/she simply took this space as an opportunity to rant about Andrew Ross and other vaguely related issues. Ross's book is a nuanced look at the peculiar culture of the new media workplace, just as the golden years began to fade. Considering that Ross was not actually an employee of Razorfish, the main company in his case study, his perspective is surprisingly sensitive. After spending the dot-com golden years in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I was prepared to scoff at an outsider's interpretation of what the new media workplace was like, and how it felt to be an employee of that workplace. I was further prepared to roll my eyes at his choice of exploring New York's new media world rather than making the trip to the heart of it all, the San Francisco Bay Area. But in the end I was impressed: he explains his reasons for choosing New York, and they make sense. And he hits the nail on the head in terms of what was most odd and most interesting--as well as most consequential--about the feel-good, creative, ambitious new media work environment. The book grows significantly more "readable" after the first few chapters give way to more anecdotal scene-setting and conversations with Razorfish employees.

More Than Insightful.......2003-01-31

Ross is always worth reading, and this book might just be his best so far. If it's not, it's certainly the best hands-on analysis of what the New Economy was like for the grunts in the office, and for those us who do knowledge work. No one else took the time he did (over a year) to go inside companies and talk to employees on the daily grind, week in week out. I'm mostly convinced by his conclusions about the perils of the humane workplace, though there's lot more to this book than that. The best thing is that he puts it all in the larger context of historical patterns of work in corporate America. No one, that I know of, has done that. And it's a great read, too.

a band collar?.......2003-01-30

An entertaining and informative read about a time that will be remembered right along side tulip mania. No Collar differs from many business books because it gives valuable insights through the use of the powerful medium of story telling. The writer spent a good deal of time inside the company he focuses on and gives a compelling first hand account.

The lessons and ideas to be learned from this book are not spelled out like in many management books. The reader must read between the lines and come to his/her own conclusions.

One essential lesson to be learned from this account of a company during the inernet explosion and subsequent implosion is the necessity of corporate values and a vision.(built to last) While there is nothing wrong with striving to construct a workplace utopia, clear goals and direction are essential for any company. These ideas are not mutually exclusive from optimum working conditions and do not have to come at the expense of creativity.

My G-g-g-eneration.......2003-01-24

"Cheeky writing style" or whiny Oedipal subject? Ross is always looking for the great white parent to blame for our cultural and sociological problems, it's lazy criticism and politically counterproductive. Instead of becoming an activist or making a radical break from the institutions he claims to condemn, Ross installs himself in academia and proceeds to deliver bite after toothless bite to the hand that feeds him.

While I agree that corporate culture had become more unfair and more corrupt in the past generation, shuttling between the NYU campus and the hyperdesigned offices of Razorfish is hardly an effective way to bring attention a grossly unfair system. Why instead doesn't the author engage in a truly difficult critical task: taking a long look in the mirror.

It's trite for Ross to trot out the oldsters' usual rant of "The Kids Are All Wrong." It's Ross and the millions and millions of other aging Baby Boomers who need to answer the difficult questions, not a bunch of twenty two year old Web designers in Manhattan. I would argue that my "naive" generation, the one responsible for the so-called "digital revolution" understands the risk of independence (including the risk of entering a new industry and the risk of being an entrepereneur) and therefore has a better understanding of liberalism in its classic sense.

Why doesn't Ross ask himself why his generation is responsible for the Left's current state of exhausted complacency? Baby Boomers now comprise the bulk of the academic Left. Writing about youth and the digital industry may make it easier to sell a book, but it's much more troubling to me that the generation that came of age during Vietnam and the last truly popular liberal movements now likes to finger point at the prior and succeeding generations from the comfort of the faculty lounge. Why is that the pointing finger never seems to land on oneself? Baby Boomers have the numbers and the rhetoric. Where's the will? I guess things aren't quite as pressing when you're not expecting a draft registration form in the mailbox....

Great Read.......2002-12-29

Great read. The author elucidates not only an industry but an age. The 1990s were exceptional and this book discusses several aspects of what contributed to that decade. He delves into labor issues, management styles, the informal workplace, real estate, artists-workers, and more. Ross also gives a peak inside two companies and provides a range of personalities from those workplaces. And, the intelligent yet cheeky writing style is worthy of note.

Bright Lights Grow Fainter: Livelihoods, Migration & A Small Town in Zimbabwe (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Stockholm Studies in Human Geography, 10)

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Bright Lights Grow Fainter: Livelihoods, Migration & A Small Town in Zimbabwe (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Stockholm Studies in Human Geography, 10)
Agnes Andersson
Manufacturer: Almquiest & Wiksell Intl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Small towns are growing in Africa. Located at the interface between the rural and the urban they seem to offer opportunities for households and individuals to combine resources in ways that can keep poor people afloat in the current era of dramatic transformation of their conditions for livelihood. Liberalization and structural adjustment in combination with the disastrous effects of the Aids pandemic have put heavy pressures on the conditions of poorer sections of the population. Major adjustments in livelihood strategies are obviously required. Among these are new patterns of mobility and new provisioning relations which are also bound to lead to changes in the settlement patterns.

Book Description

For organizational and personal change to happen and be sustainable, there must first be a system of thought balanced against action. Williams and his concept of "congruence" provide an alternative to the often chaotic, unbalanced ways in which change is currently understood and its accomplishment attempted. He challenges the organizational model of compartmentalized structures, offers a persuasive refutation of the fashionable paradigm of organizational transformation (one based on dominance and control), and argues a provocative notion that innovation is actually the successful result of reworking what has not worked before. A new look at the processes that create organizational movement, Williams' latest book is a guide for leaders, managers, consultants, and corporate practitioners, and a new way for students, teachers, and researchers to rethink the entire change process. Williams has found through his own experience that people focus too closely on the "action" behaviors of organizations and too little on the thinking behind them. The result is that gaps open up and create pitfalls in our efforts to achieve excellence in human and organizational performance. Williams suggests that organizations innovate themselves into failure. To counter this, he provides a true systemic approach to enhancing organizational performance, a system of what he visualizes as "congruence," a way to fit thoughts to actions. It is as much a way of thinking, says Williams, as it is a method toward goals--goals that are clear and essential to the survival of any organization. Drawing liberally upon his own expertise as a teacher, consultant, and therapist, he helps others to appreciate the successes that can be realized when balance and the alignment of thought and action are achieved, and when the search for change becomes a planned, focused, and systemic endeavor.

Customer Reviews:

A POWERFUL EXPLORATION OF HUMAN ORGANZIATION!.......2005-05-20

The author, an organizational psychologist, consultant, and professor, states that the challenge in this book is to explore a concept of congruence relating to effective organizational and managerial performance.

This is a book about organization, business options and strategies, and innovation, but the overarching theme is congruence. Williams points out that people spend 78% of their lives within organizations and this reality makes clear the need for a sound conceptual base for the integration of people and systems.

This book focuses on a body of knowledge that balances and requires the bringing together of many disciplines to create a theory of congruence and transformation (of both organization and the individual).

It is a treasure trove of knowledge and insights, bound to inform, stimulate, and delight anyone who seeks a multidimensional understanding of human organization. Open to any page and you are likely to become absorbed in the rich content that Williams presents.

The book is deep and rich with substance. It is sure to appeal to those of who are always hunting for those hard-to-find books that go below the surface of facile bullet-points or 'how-to' steps, with little or no mention or concern for the 'why's' or context. As a organization consultant (FutureOrganization.com) I was quickly drawn into this book. I found this book packed with first-rate thinking, cover-to-cover. Very highly recommended.

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Culturrific!
Matthew Hudson
Manufacturer: eBookstand
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0971973105

Book Description

Originally written as a thesis for his PhD, Matthew has adapted his extensive research into a no-nonsense, practical work that can be used by any business or organization today to help them transform their current culture into a terrific service one. After getting your "license to drive" this book will show you how to load the bus and follow the true Roadmap to a Terrific Service Culture!

eLeadership : Proven Techniques for Creating an Environment of Speed and Flexibility in the Digital Economy

Average customer rating:

Save Your Time and Money ! ! !
The tools of tomorrow
Good points gained from a rapid reading
It's a Dipper!
UC GSB Adjunct Professor of Strategic Management

eLeadership : Proven Techniques for Creating an Environment of Speed and Flexibility in the Digital Economy
Susan Annunzio
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743204387

Amazon.com

Susan Annunzio's eLeadership is designed for savvy Old Economy managers who recognize that things like telecommuting and T-1 lines are in their futures, but who aren't exactly sure how to integrate such aspects of the techno-revolution into their organizations without sacrificing control and their current positions. Change-management specialist Annunzio says that established structures and cultures must first be transformed, and the key is a flexible but fast-paced leadership style rooted in a five-step process that "will show you how to attack your environmental problems, how to model and encourage the right behavior, and how to make your words and actions match--so you can speed up your organization, inspire your young, cynical, or dispirited employees, and move forward into the New Economy." The crux of her plan is the 20/60/20 Rule, which calls for using the top 20 percent of a workforce to influence the middle 60 percent and diminish the power of the bottom 20 percent. In detailing this and other principles (Ask the Unaskable, Speak the Unspeakable; Make Loud Statements; Communicate Irreverently; Celebrate Heroes), Annunzio incorporates real-life examples and practical checklists to help ease a transition that will fundamentally alter any business that employs them. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

What if the rules that made you successful were the cause of your current problems?

What if the name of the game was personal fulfillment rather than power and wealth?

What if the biggest threat to your company's future was employee dissatisfaction?

What if success in the digital economy depended on refreshing your work environment?

What if you could eliminate friction between baby boomers and younger workers?

What if the answer was eLeadership?

From one of the world's leading management consultants comes a dynamic new style of leadership that will enlighten and inspire executives to rethink and retool their companies for the eWorld.

Transforming today's overwhelmed corporate executive into an eLeader requires launching a revolution in the workplace. But the payoffs -- personal and professional -- can be extraordinary. With business practices changing on a daily basis, companies must create environments of speed and flexibility that will engage today's employees and allow radical ideas to thrive, because only those companies that move first and innovate fast will reap the financial rewards the digital economy has to offer.

In eLeadership, author and consultant Susan Annunzio takes you beyond typical management-speak, offering a real blueprint for leading this revolution. Readers will learn to inspire, encourage, and retain staff at all levels. Annunzio teaches new ways to:

Create a twenty-first-century vision for your company
Promote environments that succeed in the eWorld
Think about what a company is and what it should look like
Ignite passion for saving America's traditional businesses

Through dozens of real-world examples of eLeadership in action, Annunzio shares the five critical steps to heroic leadership, and shows how to close the gap between the baby boomers and the younger Generations X and Y to create a more productive working environment.

As this timely book shows, the greatest opportunity to make a difference in corporate America today may be in attacking traditional priorities in unconventional ways.

Download Description

With business practices changing more rapidly than ever, it is imperative that companies figure out a way to keep their businesses stable and their employees happy. Susan Annunzio, a principal of Sibson & Company, the successful global management consultancy firm, discusses the challenges of eLeadership and examines effective real-life models to demonstrate how companies are waging this battle. Readers will learn new ways to motivate staff when employees are not seen everyday; new ways to create a vision and corporate culture; and new ways to think about what a company is and what it should look like. Annunzio shares the five critical steps to heroic leadership and also shows how to close the gap between the baby boom and the younger X and Y generations so that they can work together effectively. Turning today's overwhelmed corporate manager into an eLeader requires launching a revolution in the workplace. But the potential rewards, both personal and professional, are great. Because, as this timely book shows, the greatest opportunities to make a difference in corporate America today may be in these traditional priorities of saving jobs and resurrecting companies.

Customer Reviews:

Save Your Time and Money ! ! !.......2004-04-15

I thought this book was awful for three reasons.

First, the author spends way too much time discussing how to placate the 20-somethings in the workforce today. Managing a workforce isn't that difficult. Identify what motivates workers, and then establish opportunities to help workers achieve goals. Managers shouldn't be in the business of catering to the whims of their immature staffers. Managers should be leading by example.

Second, the author is extremely vague about the companies she worked with and the accomplishments achieved. The author should have provided a list of concrete examples - company names, their problems and the solutions to those problems. Instead the author dances around the specifics and speaks in broad generalizations. It leads me to believe the author was called into failing companies and made recommendations akin to rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.

A company can have the best management in the world. But if nobody is buying its products and services, the company is doomed to failure. Companies need to figure out what customers want, and then give it to them. Unfortunately, too many e-businesses were trying to convince customers to buy products or services they didn't want and didn't need.

Finally, the author's speaking voice reminds me of nails scraping over a chalkboard. Very squeaky and irritating. Her voice lacked any sense of confidence. This lack of confidence was compounded because she failed to list specific businesses that may have benefited from her advice.

Most speakers do a better job in person. I would like to hear the author in a live presentation to see and hear the difference. I recognize that the book was written at the tail end of the dotcom boom and released in the midst of the dotcom bust. In the heyday of the dotcom revolution, what worked early on did not always apply down the road.

I also noticed that Nextera, "the leading global management consultancy firm" that the author use to work for, has sold off all of its operating units, and is looking for a partner to help relieve the net operating loss of $43 million as of December 31, 2003. Nextera's failure raises a series of questions such as:

Did Nextera not listen to it's own consultants?
Did Nextera follow its own consultants' advice and still fail?
Did Nextera's advice to other companies help or hurt those companies?

Then again, perhaps all the good consultants left the company before the financial problems started. I have searched the web some sort of rebuttal or follow up commentary from the author, but have not found anything.

The Bottom Line: I cannot recommend this book. Read Patricia Seybold's newsletters and publications to see what is and is not working in the technology field.

The tools of tomorrow.......2002-02-22

This book illustrated to me what needs to be done to be a leader in the new economy.Management really needs to read this book and implement some of its philosophies. People in most companies are not always satisfied with what they do and old techniques simply don't always work anymore. Organization managers need to accept this fact and commit themselves in making a change. After reading this book, I can clearly see that the company that I work for has a long way to getting where it needs to go and time is of essence.

Good points gained from a rapid reading.......2001-07-18

eLeadership is written not for new companies but for established companies whose formerly effective business rules are now causing them problems. Change-management specialist Susan Annunzio provides a five-step process for transforming established cultures and structures to enable flexible and fast-paced leadership. The author starts off with observations about the differences between the Baby Boom generation and the X and Y generations. This does serve to focus executives' attention on improving communication between diverse backgrounds, though it inevitably overgeneralizes.

A core part of her book revolves around the 20/60/20 rule. The top 20 percent of the workforce are the change leaders and high-potential performers at every level of the organization. These are the people who can be spurred to ignite change throughout the enterprise. The bottom 20 percent are the complainers and enemies of change. The middle 60 percent can be influenced by either the top or bottom groups, so Annunzio's strategy is to show executives how to use the top 20 percent to influence the middle group while diminishing the power of the obstructive bottom group. The best chapter is probably chapter 4: "Ask the Unaskable, Speak the Unspeakable". Through real-life examples and clearly articulated strategies, this chapter shows how to break through fear and open communications throughout the enterprise, allowing real change to begin. Most of the value of this book can be extracted by careful attention to this chapter while skimming the rest for the key points. The easy style of writing and the author's restraint in book length makes gleaning the core points rapid and painless. If you are part of a company where everyone feels trapped with old rules but where no one dares break out of the mold, this is a fine book to read and put to use.

It's a Dipper!.......2001-02-10

I finished this lovely little book about 10 days ago. Is the book any good? Well, I have already been using some of what I found in there with my clients and my employees, both to good effect. That would be a yes! :)

One of the things I really like about the book is that it is a "dipper". I can browse through and stop at almost any page, dip in and pick up an illustrative real life story that reminds me of things I could do, suggests new things I might do or confirms things I am doing. This book is both a great reminder and an inspiring boot in the ***.

UC GSB Adjunct Professor of Strategic Management.......2001-02-10

I finally got to read your book. Well done! Your steady use of interesting cases illustrated your points extremely well. It's applicable to far more situations than leading change in "e" business. The approach you advocate would work well in any company in today's talent short environment. Here's hoping the publisher's marketing efforts obtain the widest audience possible. The book deserves it.

Gender and Population in the Adjustment of African Economies: Planning for Change (Women, Work and Development)

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Gender and Population in the Adjustment of African Economies: Planning for Change (Women, Work and Development)
Ingrid Palmer
Manufacturer: International Labour Office
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Development & Growth | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Demography | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Land Reform under Structural Adjustment in Zimbabwe: Land Use Change in the Mashonaland Provinces

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Land Reform under Structural Adjustment in Zimbabwe: Land Use Change in the Mashonaland Provinces
Sam Moyo
Manufacturer: Nordic Africa Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Land Use | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

This study represents a first systematic effort to document Zimbabweâ€™s new land uses during the years of economic crisis, the role of the state in promoting them, the differentiation associated with them, not only between black and white farmers, but also among them, and the implications of all these for the political economy of the Zimbabwean land question. The fact that some of the new land uses avoid redistribution of clearly under-utilised large scale commercial farms suggests that the Zimbabwean land question will remain a live political issue for a long time.

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