The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization
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Fifth discipline

Must read

The World is Knowledge Intensive

Thought Leadership, and Breakthrough ideas

Highly Reccomended!

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization
Peter M. Senge
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385517254
Release Date: 2006-03-21

Book Description

Completely Updated and Revised

This revised edition of Peter Senge’s bestselling classic, The Fifth Discipline, is based on fifteen years of experience in putting the book’s ideas into practice. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition. The leadership stories in the book demonstrate the many ways that the core ideas in The Fifth Discipline, many of which seemed radical when first published in 1990, have become deeply integrated into people’s ways of seeing the world and their managerial practices.

In The Fifth Discipline, Senge describes how companies can rid themselves of the learning “disabilities” that threaten their productivity and success by adopting the strategies of learning organizations—ones in which new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and people are continually learning how to create results they truly desire.

The updated and revised Currency edition of this business classic contains over one hundred pages of new material based on interviews with dozens of practitioners at companies like BP, Unilever, Intel, Ford, HP, Saudi Aramco, and organizations like Roca, Oxfam, and The World Bank. It features a new Foreword about the success Peter Senge has achieved with learning organizations since the book’s inception, as well as new chapters on Impetus (getting started), Strategies, Leaders’ New Work, Systems Citizens, and Frontiers for the Future.

Mastering the disciplines Senge outlines in the book will:

• Reignite the spark of genuine learning driven by people focused on what truly matters to them
• Bridge teamwork into macro-creativity
• Free you of confining assumptions and mindsets
• Teach you to see the forest and the trees
• End the struggle between work and personal time

Customer Reviews:

Fifth discipline.......2007-09-29

I have not read the book yet, but it came to me very fast. I was pleased with the service and I enjoy using Amazon.

Katrius

Must read.......2007-09-17

Any manager who wishes to develop the organization he works for must read this book. It is an excellent introduction to systems thinking within any type of organization.

The World is Knowledge Intensive.......2007-09-06

In addition to being a fan of Peter Senge, I'm also a great fan of the ultimate management guru, Peter Drucker, who got me thinking about "the learning organization" in his book, The Age of Discontinuity, when he said: "The world is becoming not labor intensive, not material intensive, not energy intensive, but knowledge intensive." I believe it, and thus, I was very receptive to Senge's thoughts in this book.

The central premise of my latest book, The Three Pillars of Sustainable Profit & Growth The Three Pillars of Sustainable Profit and Growth is this: the only sustainable advantage any firm can achieve in the future is the quality of the human talent it is able to recruit and retain. The knowledge they bring with them, and continue to acquire, is the key to their company's future growth and success.

Senge put it this way: "The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage."

Bottom line: I believe that managing knowledge in the contemporary business world is just as important as managing money. Successful companies of the future will clearly be seen as learning organizations, which Senge aptly defined as "a group of people who are continually enhancing their capability to create their own future."

Thought Leadership, and Breakthrough ideas.......2007-08-27

I found this book highly simulating but required heavy study to transfer the ideas into the working environment. I found the framework was incomplete especially around the issues of creating a learning environment. Senges' framework for Systems is best described in terms of 'systems dynamics' which leads onto a more developed theory by others on system complexity and emergence.

He describes what might be an end state without detailing how to get there, the later follow up field book on tools and methods now fills this gap neatly. Both books together are perfect.

This book sets out theory very well, it also provides Thought Leadership, Breakthrough ideas and Inspiration. Its well written and enjoyable.

Highly Reccomended!.......2007-06-05

Peter Senge provides a well organized analysis and discussion of 5 techniques and "disciplines" necessary for a successful organization. This is a highly recommended read for managers and those wishing to advance and build their organization. Peter Senge helps the reader understand how to build a successful learning organization using clear and everyday examples that are easy to understand. He starts by explaining the four proposed disciplines necessary to grasping his final and most important discipline, "Systems Thinking." While reading the book, many ideas Senge puts forward seem like common sense. However, as the saying goes, "common sense isn't so common" rings true here. Peter Senge shows that most people are unaware of these seemingly obvious ideas and disciplines proved in his many years of research. Everyone could learn a thing or two from this book and should try and read it if at all possible!

Average customer rating:

Tools for creating a Learning Culture
enlightening concepts about leadership
The Fifth Discipline
A follow up to the legend
A second dose of Inspiration...

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
Peter M. Senge , Art Kleiner , Charlotte Roberts , Rick Ross , and Bryan Smith
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385472560
Release Date: 1994-06-20

Book Description

Senge's best-selling The Fifth Discipline led Business Week to dub him the "new guru" of the corporate world; here he offers executives a step-by-step guide to building "learning organizations" of their own.

Customer Reviews:

Tools for creating a Learning Culture.......2006-09-11

Peter M Serge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

To quote the first few paragraphs at beginning of book:

Among the tribes of northen Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, "I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, "I am here." The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It's as if, when you see me bring me into existence.

This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which from Zulu, literally translates as: "A person is a person because of other people."

"I bow in honor and reverence that place within you where to the Universe resides, when you are in that place within you, and I am in that place within me, there is One." ~namaste

The five disciplines are at the CORE of a Learning Organization

1) Personal Mastery: expand your personal capacity and ability

2) Mental Models: see how our internal pictures of the world shape action and decision

3) Shared Vision: group commitment

4) Team Learning: group ability is greater than the sum of individual talents

5) System Thinking:

"When we try to bring about change in our societies, we are treated first with indifference, then with ridicule, then with abuse and then with oppression. And finally, the greatest challenge is thrown at us: We are treated with respect. This is the most dangerous stage." --A. T. Ariyaratne (Speech made at International Community Leadership Summit, Winrock, Arkansas, March 1983. This quote paraphrases and expands upon a well-known statement made by Mahatma Gandhi in his book Satyagraha in South Africa, 1982, 1979, Canon, Me.: Greenleaf books)

"An [organization] is not a machine but a living organism." --Ikujiro Nonaka /****
Fundamentals of epistemology: what is knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and what constitutes learning.
understanding is achieved after internalization.
Without experience, we cannot truly understand.
Internalization: transformation from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves.
Innovation is a process to capture, create, leverage, and retain knowledge.
What is your belief? A belief about images of the world - you may call it a mental model - is a very subjective thing

information is the flow of a message, while knowledge is created by accumulating information. Thus, information is a necessary medium or material for eliciting and constructing knowledge.

The second difference is that information is something passive. When we switch on a TV set, information comes regardless of my commitment. But knowledge comes from my belief, so it's more proactive.

And the organizational knowledge or intellectual infrastructure of an organization encourages its individual members to develop new knowledge through new experiences.

This dynamic process is the key to organizational knowledge creation - that is, socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge), combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge) [...].

[...]

Three Guiding Ideas

1) The Whole. When you are pointing a finger at the problems, notice how many fingers are pointing back at you. If you fixed the symptoms and ignore the root causes, the problems have not gone away. Another way to look at this is treat the person, not the disease. Of course treat the disease if the patient is dying, but know that the patient will get sick again because the "root causes" are stil there.

2) Community. The self is "a point of view." "The essence of being a person is being in a relationship [with] other people." You will not believe this, but each person before you is there for a reason. The reason this person is there at this moment is for you to learn something about yourself. If you ignore the person, do not ignore or forget the lesson.

3) Language. The map is not the territory. We cannot contain every bit of information that comes to us in the world, so we have to create a "map of the territory" and then refer to the map for our information. By changing a person's map, we change their reality. Language is the map, not the reality.

enlightening concepts about leadership.......2005-10-26

It seems to me that The Fifth Discipline (the previous publication of the series) is more attacting to me. The second book can be more precise and concise in content. Generally speaking I still like these two books as a foreign reader.

The Fifth Discipline.......2003-02-08

This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.

The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.

Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.

This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.

A follow up to the legend.......2003-01-27

The Fieldbook attempts at making the esoteric concepts of the fifth discipline more down to earth and contains a treasure trove of strategies, tools, methods and explanations on how to make the learning organization into a reality.

Thus people who have read The fifth discipline will gain the most from this book. It's a must read for people who want to make their organizations transition into a 'learning organization'

A second dose of Inspiration..........2002-02-09

Senge's second serving of the Learning Organization is filled with practical tips and real-life examples from companies and organizations that have embraced the teachings of the Learning Organization successfully.

The Book is a collaboration of several writers who do a superb job of unraveling the web that is the learning organization. At times, it may seem to the reader that the book is a labyrinth of disjointed concepts and ideas. However, if you have read `The Fifth Discipline' you will find no problems following the concepts introduced. In fact, you will even understand why the writers have chosen to introduce them in that fashion. If you have not read "The Fifth Discipline', do not despair, it will take a little longer to get `the whole picture'.
The Book is divided into 8 main sections:

1) Getting Started addresses the basic concepts and ideas of the Learning Organization.
2) Systems Thinking (the fifth discipline) - Many people have argued that Senge should have delegated the fifth discipline until the end, however, without Systems Thinking, your vision is disjointed and incomplete.
3) Personal Mastery covers the area of individual development and learning. The chapters here are among the most valuable in the area of self-growth and self-improvement.
4) Mental Models - These are the pictures that you have in your head which represent reality.
5) Shared Vision - You've seen the whole picture, you've developed and you understand how you see the world. Now you need to find a common cause with the rest of the people in your organization, something that you all work for.
6) Team Learning - As you work with other people in teams or groups, you need to pass the stuff that you have learnt and the wisdom you've acquired to others. At this stage, the learning is no longer that of the individual, but the group.
7) Arenas of Practice - (Self explanatory)
8) Frontiers - Where do we go from here.

Book Description

Unlike many similar books currently on the market, this reference does not prescribe a single approach to phonetical disorders. Therapists are now given a choice of methods with this eclectic perspective on the nature, assessment, and treatment of this type of communication impairment. Current research data, coverage of dialect and information on the use of technology in clinical phonology is included in this updated version of the classic in the field of phonology. The authors have eloquently synthesized the literature so that readers can view clinical phonology from a broad perspective. Designed for speech pathologists.

Customer Reviews:

Overpriced.......2006-09-01

I found the 5th Edition to be overpriced. The 4th edition offered the same information and much cheaper!

hard book .......2005-10-17

THis book is extremly detailed and the words are written in a tightly compacted format.

THe book gives you too much information to absorb within each chapter

The Little, Brown Compact Handbook, Fifth Edition

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Condition and Delivery
Great Reference!
The Little Brown Compact Handbook
Well Done
A great resource

The Little, Brown Compact Handbook, Fifth Edition
Jane E. Aaron
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Plastic Comb

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Business Communication: Building Critical Skills with BComm GradeMax

ASIN: 0321104951

Book Description

Concise and accessible, The Little Brown Compact Handbook helps writers find what they need and then use what they find. One of the best-selling tabbed handbooks on the market, it provides complete, authoritative coverage of writing, research and grammar, with detailed discussions of critical thinking and argument, using computers and the Internet for writing and research, the latest guidelines for citing sources correctly in MLA, APA, CMS, CSE and COS styles, and writing in the disciplines. Accompanied by the CompSolutions Plus Interactive Ebook of the text, The Little Brown Compact Handbook retains all the hallmarks that has made it a bestseller over the years while continuing to meet the needs of a new generation of writers. Provides complete, authoritative coverage of the writing process, research and grammar, with detailed discussions of critical thinking and argument, using computers and the Internet for writing and research, the latest guidelines for citing sources correctly in MLA, APA, CMS, CSE and COS styles, and writing in the disciplines. For anyone needing a reference geared to writing and/or researching papers.

Customer Reviews:

Condition and Delivery.......2006-12-19

The book was sold as used,and I was expecting a few marks on the book. The book I received was in NEW condition. There were no markings on the book,the pages were not"dog eared", and the cover pages was still shinny. In fact I had to remove the gummy substance left behind by the original price tag. GREAT VALUE! for the money.

The delivery was faster that I expected, I received it within four days.

I highly recommend AARON MARTIN as a seller, and look forward to doing business with him in the future!

Great Reference!.......2006-02-16

This book is invaluable to any University or College student, or anybody that writes at all for that matter.

Great book!

The Little Brown Compact Handbook.......2006-02-05

This book is indispensable in helping the student create quality and error-free formal class papers. The LBCH is easy to read, divides aides by category, and gives examples of the help the student is searching for. I recommend this book to any new student entering college.

Well Done.......2005-09-14

Thank you Amazon! Great Product, great price, making my college books very reasonable.

A great resource.......2005-09-06

I ordered this book because it was on a list of required texts for a class I am currently enrolled in. I wish I had this book years ago; it would have helped a great deal in high school and in the time since then in college and even in helping my younger brother to write his reports. Not only does it give the basic mechanics of writing but it also completely explains the MLA, APA, and Chicago styles of documentation. Each section has a thumb tab and an index for ease in finding needed info.

Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education

Average customer rating:

Schools should all be learning organizations
Length appeared overwhelming--but well worth it
A great resource book for educators
Well Researched Current Education for all Student's Success
Helps Design the School of the Future

Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education
Peter M. Senge , Nelda H. Cambron McCabe , Timothy Lucas , Art Kleiner , Janis Dutton , and Bryan Smith
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385493231
Release Date: 2000-09-12

Book Description

Created by bestselling author and MIT senior lecturer Peter Senge and a team of educators and organizational change leaders, this new addition to the Fifth Discipline Resource Book series offers practical advice for educators, administrators, and parents on how to strengthen and rebuild our schools.

Few would argue that schools today are in trouble. The problems are sparking a national debate as educators, school boards, administrators, and parents search for ways to strengthen our school system at all levels, more effectively respond to the rapidly changing world around us, and better educate our children.

Bestselling author Peter Senge and his Fifth Discipline team have written Schools That Learn because educatorsâwho have made up a sizable percentage of the audience for the popular Fifth Discipline booksâhave asked for a book that focuses specifically on schools and education, to help reclaim schools even in economically depressed or turbulent districts. One of the great strengths of Schools That Learn is its description of practices that are meeting success across the country and around the world, as schools attempt to learn, grow, and reinvent themselves using the principles of organizational learning. Featuring articles, case studies, and anecdotes from prominent educators such as Howard Gardner, Jay Forrester, and 1999 U.S. Superintendent of the Year Gerry House, as well as from impassioned teachers, administrators, parents, and students, the book offers a wealth of practical tools, anecdotes, and advice that people can use to help schools (and the classrooms in them and communities around them) learn to learn.

You'll read about schools, for instance, where principals introduce themselves to parents new to the school as "entering a nine-year conversation" about their children's education; where teachers use computer modeling to galvanize student insight into everything from Romeo and Juliet to the extinction of the mammoths; and where teachers' training is not just bureaucratic ritual but an opportunity to recharge and rethink the classroom.

In a fast-changing world where school violence is a growing concern, where standardized tests are applied as simplistic "quick fixes," where rapid advances in science and technology threaten to outpace schools' effectiveness, where the average tenure of a school district superintendent is less than three years, and where students, parents, and teachers feel weighed down by increasing pressures, Schools That Learn offers much-needed material for the dialogue about the educating of children in the twenty-first century.

Customer Reviews:

Schools should all be learning organizations.......2004-08-07

Senge became famous for his book on learning organizations. In this book, he and his co-authors apply those concepts and ideas specifically to educational institutions. While much of their focus is on K12, the ideas and process are applicable to higher education as well. So many management books are really fads with superficial value, but Senge's books are very practical and valuable. This book in particular demonstrates a great deal of passion on the part of the author's for their topic.

Length appeared overwhelming--but well worth it.......2004-03-14

Having been given the instructions to select a book of vision for a reading group in a graduate class, I didn't expect to choose one of over 500 pages. The length, however, is indicative of the power this book has for changing minds about schools and the way to structure them for learning. I found myself often reading passages aloud to other educators and anyone who would listen. Instead of stifling my curiosity, the book inspired me to dig deeper on the five disciplines. A great book for creating a vision of education that includes schools where students are learning. I may purchase another one to loan out!

A great resource book for educators.......2001-08-31

This is an essential book for anyone interested in education. Its comprehensive coverage gives much background, even at the risk of being distracting when you want to follow-up on the leads to so many interesting source-books and links. Though you are told to dip in anywhere, you must read the first section, esp. "The Industrial Age System of Education" by Senge and "A Primer to the Five Disciplines" (Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning and Systems Thinking) (pp. 27-93).

The authors consider this book a "prequel" to their other books about learning organizations (p.7). That's true. Though this is the most recent book, you can start with this one and go on to the others for further depth. Some repetitions may only serve well for mastery.

The whole book is very readable and informative. Concepts are clearly explained. It follows the same excellent editing format as The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and The Dance of Change.

When you get too enthused by so many ideas and success stories of innovations, heed the advice for "The Strategy of Organizational Change". "Focus on one or two new priorities for change, not twelve. Most school systems are already overwhelmed with change. They don't need a new initiative; they need an approach that consolidates existing initiatives, eliminates "turf battles," and makes it easier for people to work together toward common ends." (p.25)

There are just too many passages that you wish to quote. The book is a treasure mine. However, for those (esp. busy administrators) who find the volume too daunting or verbose (592 pages!) and still want to get a handle on launching into transforming their schools into learning organisations, I would recommend, "Ten Steps to a Learning Organization" and start with the simple questionnaire given there.

Well Researched Current Education for all Student's Success.......2001-03-13

If you are an educator, parent or administrator, this handbook will enable you to obtain the crucial, leading edge knowledge in learning styles, multiple intelligences, personal neuro-physiology that enables one to "know thyself." Self-esteem and self-awareness, cognitive learning, including the necessary skills to make one prepared for "life at 21 years old," are also main considerations when teaching students to capitalize on their individual strenghts and wisdom.

Schools that Learn also emphasizes the importance of mastery, synergizing curricula presented, and authentic assessment vs. basing students knowledge purely on standardized test-taking.

This helpful manual is extremely important for educators, administrators, and parents, to read as it combines the aforementioned information and applies it to "building strengths that will be useful in career decision making."

Finally,Schools that Learn emphasizes the importance of keeping a "spirit-filled" outlook while learning, the extreme helpfulness of a mastermind group, accelerated and lifelong education, and of course giving back what you have learned to the community. This "cause and effect" is often forgotten in busy professtional lives, but truly ensures success for those who "get it."

Helps Design the School of the Future.......2000-11-03

SCHOOLS THAT LEARN is both a visionary and practical guide for how schools must evolve to meet the needs of students in the next 20 years. The use of multiple authors and perspectives mirrors some of the changes our schools must make to meet the needs of a new age. As Professional Development Director at a diverse Jesuit high school in San Francisco, I recommend this book to any educator, K-college. Senge's work will help prepare students for an era requiring a strong traditional academic foundation coupled with the need for creativity, and the social, emotional, and intellectual skills to work in high performing teams needed to rebuild our world.

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A writer's reference
Excellent Reference
Good Book Good Quality
A Writers Reference
Excellent Reference Book

A Writer's Reference, Fifth Edition
Diana Hacker
Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Plastic Comb

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Customer Reviews:

A writer's reference.......2007-10-01

This book is required for my online English Composition and it has been helpful for online editing and critiquing. Best part is that Amazon shipped it fast so I got it in one day!

Excellent Reference.......2007-10-01

I am currently enrolled in graduate school, and the professors are very strict with written reports and proposals. The Writer's Reference is an excellent tool to use as a guide in APA, MLA, and Chicago style format. I have to use the APA format for school and the information within the guide is easy to read and very user friendly. I am doing very well with my written assignments and I truly love Ms. Hacker's reference materials she is excellent with details. I recommend this as a must buy for any grad student.

Good Book Good Quality.......2007-09-24

I was very pleased with how fast I received my book. I needed it for my English class and it was in great condition. I would definitly buy here again.

A Writers Reference.......2007-09-10

I purchased this book for our daughter for college. It was in excellent shape and we were very pleased with our purchase

Excellent Reference Book.......2007-09-09

This was another required book for my English 101 class. It's a great reference book even if you don't need it for your English class. I recommend it to anyone who wants to write and cite properly. Definitley will not resell this book!

Ethics in Human Communication (Fifth Edition)

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Clear and Compelling
This book caused a deeper probe into Communication Ethics

Ethics in Human Communication (Fifth Edition)
Richard L. Johannesen
Manufacturer: Waveland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1577662113

Book Description

Highly praised through four editions for its comprehensiveness, this valuable synthesis of key perspectives in communication ethics has become a standard in the field. Johannesen's discussions of theory and practice have application in a wide range of communication contexts--interpersonal, small group, public, and mass. Without altering the structure and focus of the acclaimed previous edition, Johannesen integrates new topics--including morality/integrity, Ross's prima facie duties, postmodernism and the self as ethical agent, employee perceptions of workplace ethics, transcultural values, and Internet ethics--with enduring, vital perspectives. Today's readers can assimilate these thought-provoking insights to create their own judgments and choose their own options in a variety of communication experiences. Johannesen positions questions to stimulate critical thinking throughout the topical discussions. He also offers an appendix that contains relevant case studies, providing excellent illustrations for the concepts previously discussed, as well as a comprehensive list of articles, books, videotapes, and Web sites for further exploration.

Customer Reviews:

Clear and Compelling.......2000-12-12

I scanned dozens of books on ethics and communication ethics before settling on this one as my basic text for the New Media Ethics course I teach for The New School in New York City. Johannesen's book is perfect for the intelligent layperson who needs a thoughtful, clear, and comprehensive introduction to ethics, and more specifically, ethics in communication. Highly recommended for students, professors, or anyone that wants a deeper understanding of some of today's difficult ethical challenges, and a set of approaches to resolving them.

This book caused a deeper probe into Communication Ethics.......1999-12-17

I read this book for one of my college courses and it was very interesting, insightful, and complete. Dr. Johannesen weaves into his book many different aspects of ethical communication to include responsibility, politics, culture, small group, interpersonal, religious, as well as feminist contributions. His writing style is easy to follow, yet professionally done. He includes all members of the ethical communication "dream team" and provides clear interpretation of their texts. After reading his book, I signed up for an independent study at my college on the ethical attributes of communication in the workplace. In a time when ethical communication is needed most, this book provides an excellent foundation for considerations into our communication with others. A must read for anyone who communicates.

The Allyn & Bacon Handbook (MLA Update), Fifth Edition

Average customer rating:

May I give 6 stars?
You can never go wrong

The Allyn & Bacon Handbook (MLA Update), Fifth Edition
Leonard J. Rosen , and Laurence Behrens
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0321202465

Customer Reviews:

May I give 6 stars?.......2002-04-24

My teacher at my tutoring school has this book. He said the Allyn & Bacon is his second brain where he stores his important Grammer and Usage techniques. I was interested with what he said; so I bought one myself from Amazon. This was the only reason I bought this book.

However, after I had received this book, I found this to be quite useful for the SAT II writing test. It would be a great reference guide whenever I need help with word usages, paragraph formats, punctuations, critcal thinking techniques, etc.

This book is wonderful. If I can give more than 5 stars, I would.

You can never go wrong.......2000-03-19

The Allyn&Bacon Handbook is the most invaluable reference book I have ever come across. Originally purchased for guidance on formal composition, the book has helped me with everything from letter writing to revision. It contains valuable information on just about every writing topic. This book is an excellent companion for anyone taking an English course.

Average customer rating:

What am I missing?
Brilliant ideas, but sadly still rarely implemented
A Visionary Leader's Call to Action
Management Speak 101
When Senge released this book, it helped change the way we viewed organizations

The Fifth Discipline
Peter M. Senge
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization

ASIN: 0385260946
Release Date: 1990-08-01

Amazon.com

Peter Senge, founder of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT's Sloan School of Management, experienced an epiphany while meditating one morning back in the fall of 1987. That was the day he first saw the possibilities of a "learning organization" that used "systems thinking" as the primary tenet of a revolutionary management philosophy. He advanced the concept into this primer, originally released in 1990, written for those interested in integrating his philosophy into their corporate culture.

The Fifth Discipline has turned many readers into true believers; it remains the ideal introduction to Senge's carefully integrated corporate framework, which is structured around "personal mastery," "mental models," "shared vision," and "team learning." Using ideas that originate in fields from science to spirituality, Senge explains why the learning organization matters, provides an unvarnished summary of his management principals, offers some basic tools for practicing it, and shows what it's like to operate under this system. The book's concepts remain stimulating and relevant as ever. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

An MIT Professor's pathbreaking book on building "learning organizations" -- corporations that overcome inherent obstacles to learning and develop dynamic ways to pinpoint the threats that face them and to recognize new opportunities. Not only is the learning organization a new source of competitive advantage, it also offers a marvelously empowering approach to work, one which promises that, as Archimedes put it, "with a lever long enough... single-handed I can move the world."

Customer Reviews:

What am I missing?.......2007-08-07

Maybe this book was revolutionary when written, but the concepts seem pretty obvious now. If you have ever worked in any medium- to large-sized organization, you have likely experienced plenty of quality improvement meetingspeak. If so, I don't think this book will seem particularly earthshaking.

To me, the book often seems to have a quasi-religious new age tone. "If you master the 5 disciplines, you will achieve a higher level of meaning in your life," etc.

I didn't feel the book was well written. It managed to be repetitive without being that clear about it's main points. Honestly, after finishing the whole book, I had to look back to find out which Discipline was the 5th! It turns out that it's "Systems Thinking," but Senge actually lists that one 1st when first presenting the 5 disciplines. How didn't his editor pick up on that?

I'm giving the book 3 stars because there are some useful insights and some intriguing parables (originally written by others) mixed in the text. It wasn't completely useless, but I found it painful to get through.

Brilliant ideas, but sadly still rarely implemented.......2007-06-07

This is quite an impressive book. It introduces the art of "organizational learning," which is the ability of a large group to learn and adapt. It is not sufficient for individuals in the group to learn; the entire group must learn, or its competitive advantage and survival are at risk.

This art is broken down into five main groups, or disciplines:

1) Personal Mastery: Individuals should set personal growth goals, and the organization must help them achieve them... even if that increases the risk of losing that individual

2) Mental Models: People need to understand what assumptions they are making about the system, and the people within it. Our observations may be 100% correct, but our judgments are frequently wrong.

3) Shared Vision: Empowering people will lead to disaster unless there is a true vision that binds the group together. Don't mistake a mission statement for shared vision: they're not even close.

4) Team Learning: You must have rules to encourage useful "dialog" and discourage useless "discussion". Make sure your teams feel safe to submit their opinions, so the optimal solution can be reached via consensus.

5) Systems Thinking: The Fifth Discipline, and what pulls everything together. You need to step away from the current problem and take a big picture view to see feedback loops, cause-and-effect delays, and other side-effects of system events. These are what turn small mistakes into huge problems... or small changes into huge benefits.

This second edition includes interesting anecdotes... for example, both the Total Quality Management movement and the Society for Organizational Learning made big waves when introduced, but very few people successfully put the theory into practice. Why? The author argues that our educational system is too insistent that there is always a "right" solution to every problem... and this is the solution that makes the teacher/boss happy.

As long as the teacher is always "right", and the boss is always "right," and we'll be completely blind to new ideas. What we need is new perspectives so we can design and implement more effective solutions. Frequently, the most optimal solution is doing the exact opposite of what the boss told you to do. Of course, doing this frequently gets you an F, or a poor performance review, so only the fearless can get away with it.

Sadly, I doubt these ideas make serious inroads into academia or the private sector without a massive retraining program... but I admire Senge for trying!

A Visionary Leader's Call to Action.......2007-04-22

Besides being a brilliant system thinker, Peter Senge is a terrific human being. I once had the privilege of attending a seminar on leadership taught by Peter, and it literally changed my life.

Much of the brilliance, conviction, and humanity of Peter Senge shine through in his writing. The Fifth Discipline, arguably his most famous work, is no exception.

Yes, this is a book about organizational learning. But, more than that, "The Fifth Discipline" is a book about the power and necessity of visionary leadership in today's ever changing, ever shrinking, interconnected world.

A true visionary himself, Senge writes in this book of the need for each us to take the lead in making the world a better place by striving for personal mastery, using better mental models as well as system thinking (the fifth discipline) to see and comprehend the big picture more clearly, collaborating with others to develop a shared vision of a better group, organization, or, by extension, nation or world, and engaging in ongoing dialogue to foster our continuous learning.

We need to heed this advice, which is as applicable today as it was when Senge first wrote it, and arguably more imperative. If you aspire to be one of the leaders of tomorrow, you need to read and apply the lessons of this book.

Robert E. Levasseur, Ph.D., author of "Leadership and Change in the 21st Century"

Management Speak 101.......2006-11-02

Unreadable...Maybe he has some good ideas in this book, but I wouldn't know. I found his writting style completely unreadable. I found myself having to read chapters over and over trying to recall what I just read. The whole book felt like I was trapped in a never ending meeting full of middle management. Painful. I couldn't help feel like I was reading some lame new-age self help book.

If you are already in middle management or above, you will probably think this book is fantastic as it reads just like you talk.

But if you are in lower management or below and you see what's wrong with most company's mid and upper management, then you will find this book worthless.

When Senge released this book, it helped change the way we viewed organizations.......2006-10-26

I read this book when it first came out and as I have revisited it, I am struck with the solid foundation that it has created for learning organizations. I have invested substantial time in studying human and organizational learning and this book has had a major impact on informing my practice. I am most interested in community leaning in any community setting from an experiential framework and this book certainly supports my work. I believe Senge has a new release of the book out but I do not know what has been updated as I have not read the new text. If you have not read the book, buy the new text and use as the foundation for creating a learning organization.

Developing Library and Information Center Collections: Fifth Edition (Library and Information Science Text Series)

Average customer rating:

Very heavy reading

Developing Library and Information Center Collections: Fifth Edition (Library and Information Science Text Series)
G. Edward Evans , and Margaret Zarnosky Saponaro
Manufacturer: Libraries Unlimited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Introduction to Reference Work, Volume I

ASIN: 1591582199

Book Description

This latest edition continues to cover all phases of collection development--from needs assessment, policies, and the selection process (theory and practice) to publishers, serials, protection, legal issues, censorhip and intellectual freedom. Each chapter has been extensively revised to reflect changing practices, policies, and technologies. To this end, some chapters--electronic materials, government information, audiovisual materials, and resource sharing--have been almost completely rewritten. In addition, electronic serials, introduced in the 4th edition, has been combined with its print counterpart into a single chapter. New to this edition is a CD containing supplementary material; a companion Web site ( ) is maintained to ensure URLs referenced throughout the text are kept up-to-date. As the authors put it in their introductory chapter, "whatever environment one works in, collection development is an exciting challenge that requires lifelong learning." Students and practicioners alike will benefit greatly from this state-of-the-art text.

Customer Reviews:

Very heavy reading.......2007-06-10

The book is full of information so it is reather heavy reading. The book also contains lots of useful website addresses.

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