Book Description
This textbook brings modern I/O analysis to the undergraduate level. Consistent with modern analysis, the authors focus explicitly on the nature of strategic interaction and make extensive use of game theoretic tools. At the same time, they never lose sight of the policy motivation behind much IO analysis. Formal analysis is combined with many practical applications, and the presentation does not assume familiarity with calculus, rather it relies on the ability to work through algebraic equations.
Customer Reviews:
Not very clear.......2007-08-10
I had a very hard time following what's going on because the language is not very clear and too verbose. The book focuses on the beauty of language rather than how to express the ideas in a clear and understandable manner. Makes simple stuff a lot harder than it should. Translating equations into words is sometimes confusing, and the concepts are too ideal that they can hardly apply to the real world situations.
do not touch.......2006-12-26
the book is filled with typo. Given that this is third edition, the author doesn't seem to pay much attention to the hw. I was a TA for this class, and it took me some times to figure out what i did wrong because the hw questions are wrong. The theories in this book can only be applied in the context of the book's examples; some of these theories are not general and can't be applied in a broad sense.
Induvitably excellent book!.......2003-11-04
Above all, it enraptured me with its practical orientation,
which really builds the economic sense at the reader. Numerous, straight superior and often also heartbreaking examples make theory well comprehensible. There doesn't lack nor more complex mathematical assecession for more serious study. 1A
Induvitably excellent book!.......2003-11-04
Above all, it enraptured me with its practical orientation,
which really builds the economic sense at the reader. Numerous, straight superior and often also heartbreaking examples make theory well comprehensible. There doesn't lack nor more complex mathematical assecession for more serious study. 1A
Customer Reviews:
Good and not a "heavy" book.......2000-03-29
I'm a undergraduate economic student and have tried a good sort of books in this matter, and I finally get one that fits very nice to my needs. This book touches all the aspects of the subject without being very hard to understand or too boring to read, and that is hard to find in book about industrial organization! Another good point is that the book is very new and have useful and contemporary examples. A liked very much!
Book Description
Running an effective and efficient IT organization goes beyond just having the right technology in place. IT organizations must have effective ways to meet increased workloads, manage staff levels, and to collaborate more effectively with business units. Building Opserational Excellence provides valuable insight for organizing IT people and processes, showing you how to improve end-to-end management of critical resources.
This book guides you through techniques of analysis, assessment, and change management that help create the center of excellence. It also offers techniques for implementing meaningful metrics to drive and demonstrate the business value of IT.
Although you can find many reports and briefs on the topics of infrastructure and operations excellence, this book provides a single source of industry- approved, affordable information.
Customer Reviews:
Good descriptions of goals, little on how to move people.......2003-03-10
The basic premise of the book is that an efficient organization segments their operations into communicating, but largely distinct entities. These entities are then transformed into centers of excellence (COEs), by defining the tasks of the group, acquiring the appropriate skills by either hiring or training, and implementing the appropriate managerial style. Without question, these goals are the correct ones and will improve the efficiency of any company when implemented.
The problems are of course in the difference between stating the appropriate goals and actually implementing them. Inertia due to entrenched practices or a fear of change is a very powerful force that is difficult to overcome. The authors spend very little time on exactly how one should act to overcome these problems. Without a plan to meet and conquer these difficulties, such goals often never progress beyond the realm of the ideal.
Many different types of COEs are described at the end of the book. Each entry contains a short description of the process, a ranking from one to ten of the level that the process can be automated, a ranking from one to ten of the stability of the process, and highlights concerning staffing, automation technology, best practices, metrics, process integration and futures. These explanations are very helpful in describing the parameters to shoot for when constructing a process.
This book is good as a descriptive listing of ways to improve the efficiency of departments that use IT. Unfortunately, reality is often much more complex than simply stating a plan, and there is very little beyond the statements of the goals.
Highly refined approach to attaining IT Ops capability.......2002-06-23
The objectives of this book are to achieve an operational posture that is based on mature processes and an organizational structure that is efficient and delivers value to the business.
The authors take a pragmatic approach by making the distinction between best practices from an industry-wide perspective and selective use of best practices to ensure that only those that make sense in the pursuit of your organization are chosen. The three fundamental steps that are addressed by this approach are (1) determine your current operational posture, (2) define quality goals and (3) examine the gaps between where you are and where you want to be. The book is organized to lead you through these three steps in great detail, starting with a definition of best practices (Chapter 1) and laying the foundation by defining tasks and processes and how to move from task- to process-driven methods (Chapter 2). Gap analysis are process refinement are the topics of Chapter 4, which will provide the level of operational maturity to move to the most efficient model proposed in the book called centers of excellence (COE). The collection of COEs are comprised of groupings of core processes that are found in mature IT organizations. By grouping these processes in COEs you can achieve end-to-end service delivery as well as economy of scale. On paper it looks logical, but in practice it is not easy to achieve. In addition if COEs are not carefully structured there can be gaps of responsibility and accountability, which the authors note and provide advice about how to prevent these gaps. Chapter 5 provides a thorough discussion of metrics, while Chapter 6 ties together the concepts in the previous chapters.
The most valuable parts of this book are Chapter 7, which is a complete catalog of core processes ranging from application optimization to workload monitoring (31 processes in all) and Chapter 8, which gives eight COE catalogs. The processes in Chapter 7 are depicted with two scales ranging from 1 to 10 for automation and stability, with the following 8 characteristics: (1) tasks, (2) skills, (3) staffing, (4) automation technology, (5) best practices, (6) metrics, (7) process integration and (8) futures. The COE catalogs are slightly different and are structured as follows: (1) attributes, (2) processes, (3) skills, (4) automation, (5) best practices, (6) metrics, and (7) futures.
While I think this is a 5-star book that makes an important contribution to IT operational excellence, it isn't without a few flaws. I noticed a few minor problems as the book leads you through a typical process-oriented structure to a COE-based one, such as system administration not being placed in one of the COEs. This is a possible editing error in the book. I also thought that the 1 to 10 scales for automation and stability were defined too ambiguously and the scales are too fine grained given the arbitrary definitions assigned. Many of the illustrations were too busy and misleading. However, the material in this book is so well thought out and supported by compelling value propositions that the flaws are easy to overlook. Overall this book represents a major contribution to the small--but growing--body of knowledge about IT operations management.
Average customer rating:
- A serious approach to employee control
|
Governing the Firm: Workers' Control in Theory and Practice
Gregory K. Dow
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521522218 |
Book Description
Most large firms are controlled by shareholders, who choose the board of directors and can replace the firms management. In rare instances, however, control over the firm rests with the workforce. Many explanations for the rarity of workers' control have been offered, but there have been few attempts to assess these hypotheses in a systematic way. This book draws upon economic theory, statistical evidence, and case studies to frame an explanation. The fundamental idea is that labor is inalienable, while capital can be freely transferred from one person to another. This implies that worker controlled firms typically face financing problems, encounter collective choice dilemmas, and have difficulty creating markets for control positions within the firm. Together these factors can account for much of what is known about the incidence, behavior, and design of worker- controlled firms. A policy proposal to encourage employee buyouts is developed in the concluding chapter. Gregory L. Dow is Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. He previously taught at the University of Alberta and Yale University, and has served as a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales, the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics, and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. Professor Dow is Associate Editor on the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and has published numerous articles on labor-managed firms and other topics in economic theory in leading journals such as the American Economic Review and the Journal of Political Economy.
Download Description
Most large firms are controlled by shareholders, who choose the board of directors and can replace the firm's management. In rare instances, however, control over the firm rests with the workforce. Many explanations for the rarity of workers' control have been offered, but there have been few attempts to assess these hypotheses in a systematic way. This book draws upon economic theory, statistical evidence, and case studies to frame an explanation. The fundamental idea is that labor is inalienable, while capital can be freely transferred from one person to another. This implies that worker-controlled firms typically face financing problems, encounter collective choice dilemmas, and have difficulty creating markets for control positions within the firm. Together these factors can account for much of what is known about the incidence, behavior, and design of worker-controlled firms. A policy proposal to encourage employee buyouts is developed in the concluding chapter.
Customer Reviews:
A serious approach to employee control.......2006-05-15
Dow makes a thorough survey of the literature and establishes a solid theoretical framework for workers' control. In the end of the book after nearly 200 pages, he finally presents a formula for transferring control (and ownership) away from capital suppliers and to labor suppliers. It is a thoughtful book though perhaps existing more in the realm of theory than actual practice. The case for capital controlling the firm while not theoretically exclusive, remains empiracally dominant and I don't think he provides a strong enough argument why worker control is better.
In any case, a very thoughtful book with some insightful ideas, highly recommended!
Book Description
With escalating demands upon research and assessment growing more varied, surveys are now used to assess and drive organizational change by examining company performance, customer and employee satisfaction, empowerment, and key aspects of corporate culture.
With Organizational Surveys, you'll learn how to:
Drive change with surveys
Use 360* feedback
Set expectations of results
Deal with ethical concerns
Facilitate feedback, action-planning, and follow-through . . . and much more!
No other book approaches this collection's range and specificity, or its emphasis on actual practice in organizations. It's your indispensible toolbox for assessment and change!
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive - but needs an update to accommodate internet surveys and other methodological developments........2006-01-19
I purchased this 418pp volume in 1998 and recently re-read this book to reacquaint myself with the rich material. What Kraut has done as an editor is to select 35 pertinent papers that discuss Organizational Surveys under three main heading:
1) Purposes and uses.
2) The Survey process.
3) Special applications - such as linking survey results to "hard" figures such as productivity and performance.
The book is packed with sage advice, both academic and practical. For example it counsels researchers to work closely with insiders in order to get the most useful surveys, and it spends many pages discussing the questions of implementing the recommendations and the whole issue of raising employee expectations by even conducting surveys.
But what a lot has occurred in the 10 years since this book was edited. I find on re-reading that several cutting-edge ideas (linking internal results to customer satisfaction measures) are fairly standard now; and of-course the advent of web-based online surveys has had a major effect upon the practicability and style of conducting employee research. Online surveys, with their wonderful capacity to capture open-enders, really enable researchers to glue their quant findings much closer to qualitative styles of research including focus groups (given scant coverage here) and ethnography: the act of observing how the organisation does things. In essence, I don't feel the collection of papers deals quite adequately with the central question: what is it that makes organizational research and surveys different from other kinds of research.
One key difference is the question of culture, and the way sub-units within an organisation may act as distinct and cohesive "tribes" capable of affirming, or subverting the overall objectives of the organisation by applying their sense of values, sense of fairness and sense of direction to their day-to-day involvement. Fascinating stuff - but this volume only discusses such issues in a generic manner.
In short, the publishers might be prompted to consider a new updated edition. This book was state of the art 10 years ago, but its relevance is diminishing. I still give it four stars (just) because of the quality of the writing and the value of its insights - but the book is no longer solid gold. There's rust appearing on the bodywork, and readers will need to find other volumes to accompany this one. That's not a bad approach because the subject-matter has evolved quickly.
Was good to the last chapter...then was a downer........1998-12-10
Book covers a wide variety of survey topics very well. I underlined a great many thoughts. One thought that occured to me was that I was on my way to doing Organizational Surveys. But at the end was warned "I would be a 'bounder' if I read a few books and started practicing." It seems this book's final conclusion is that you need to join the Union to do surverys, ie. be a phd or working under one. The book was still a great value.
Book Description
Real executives talk about how Six Sigma changed their organizations for the better
Backed by the real-world experience of executives who successfully implemented Six Sigma, this book shows how this powerful, data-driven quality improvement methodology can improve the learning cycle and financial and corporate reporting, as well as strategic planning, customer demand issues, and more. Case studies and interviews provide real-life best practices that make the implementation process that much easier for managers. The authors are Six Sigma experts affiliated with PricewaterhouseCoopers and here present an innovative examination of this powerful and popular methodology.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent strategic resource.......2004-03-25
This book provides a valuable strategic framework with which to implement Six Sigma within a company today. Unlike most books on Six Sigma, which focus on the granular details of six sigma implementation, this book focuses on implementation from a strategic perspective; in other words, on how a company's top leadership team must be intimately involved in making Six Sigma work by creating an internal "climate of alignment" to make Six Sigma initiatives suceed. From my perspective, a critical resource for today's CEOs and their top leadership teams!
Not recommended.......2004-03-01
Unless you are the CEO of a company and have total control over implementing a Six Sigma program, I wouldn't recommend this book. It doesn't go much into the meat of Six Sigma, but is focused around developing a Six Sigma culture within your organization. It is also very redundant, repeating the same themes over and over throughout the book. A good editor could have reduced this book to 50 pages. Not recommended.
Excellent Six Sigma Leadership Book!.......2003-04-25
Well written from the strategic view of Six Sigma and where it fits into your existing corporate methodologies, process efforts and strategic initiatives. The center chapters of the book (3 through 5) are extremely rich in content. The PriceWaterhouse pedigree is obvious in the writing style and view point. Well done!
Steeped in practical examples and avoids statistical jargon.......2002-12-01
A lot of the Six Sigma books and articles I have read appear to assume you greatly miss your college statistics class. This book focuses on issues, ideas and examples relevant to senior management, while referencing some of the tools and techniques that will be essential to execute successfully. Let's face it -- senior executives need examples to create the sense of urgency and "what can be" through Six Sigma; there are plenty of books, consultants and training firms who can take you from that commitment through execution. I highly recommend this book for managers who want to understand why they should seriously consider Six Sigma or similar approaches (TQM, CQI, etc.) to improve their company's or business unit's effectiveness in meeting their customer's needs and efficiency vs. competitors.
Packed with Knowledge!.......2002-10-12
Thanks to endorsements from managerial heavyweights like Jack Welch, most people in business are by now familiar with Six Sigma as a process for measuring and reducing product defects. In Strategic Six Sigma, however, Dick Smith, Jerry Blakeslee and Richard Koonce demonstrate that the Six Sigma methodology can and should be applied to the highest levels of strategic planning. Simply put, the authors illustrate how the rigors of Six Sigma can improve your performance in terms of overall strategy, growth and customer satisfaction in the same way that it streamlines operations on a production floor. We...strongly recommend this book to business leaders, executives and managers, all of whom will benefit from its hands-on advice for integrating the tenets of Six Sigma into corporate strategy.
Average customer rating:
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Social Identity at Work: Developing Theory for Organizational Practice
S. Haslam
Manufacturer: Psychology Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 184169035X |
Book Description
Social identity research is very much on the ascendancy, particularly in the field of organizational psychology. Reflecting this fact, this volume contains chapters from researchers at the cutting edge of these developments and presents findings from a range of key international research programs. The result is a text that will be essential reading for students and researchers in social and organizational psychology, as well as many others who are interested in social identity and group behavior at work.
Book Description
This book has rightly been described as a "classic" in the history of organizational theory. First published in 1965 it was then compared in significance to the Hawthorne studies; it was a major contribution to the devlopment of contingency theory and our understanding of the relationship between technology and organizations. The book stood in marked contrast to the traditions of scientific management. Combining detailed empirical research and a pioneering analytical framework it suggested that technology and production systems played acrucial role in shaping effective organizational structures. In doing so Woodward offered lasting insights into issues of levels of hierarchy and spans of management control - issues that today might be discussed in terms of "delayering" and "process re-engineering". Not surprisingly Woodward's work was a springboard for much subsequent research and many of her specific observations have been widely debated and challenged. Yet, as Sandra Dawson and Dorothy Wedderburn write in their Introduction, "the main thesis of the book is well known...however, this is a book where to know its main thesis is no substitute for reading the book itself. Joan Woodward's ideas remain one of the cornerstones of our knowledge of our organizations."
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Working Across the Gap: The Practice of Social Science in Organizations
Lisl Klein
Manufacturer: Karnac Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Occupational & Organizational
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ASIN: 1855753820 |
Book Description
Lisl Klein’s experience of applying the social sciences in organizations must be unique. Her work is grounded in research but much of her professional activity has been in application, combining the methods and findings of research with an understanding of dynamics in working with organizations. Moving between research and practice, she has, for nearly forty years, pursued the aim of rendering the social sciences useful and practical in organizational life.
This collection of papers brings together wide-ranging material that is highly relevant to today’s world, while also providing a useful historical overview of the field. The links between research, policy, and practice are brought vividly to life, the many examples creating a thread that connects theory with operational reality.
Lisl Klein provides an insightful and significant theory of practice, developed through vignettes of her work and experience that make this a very readable and engaging book. After a historical introduction, the volume is divided into five sections: organization research and diagnosis; examples of activities in the field; bouncing against the context; concepts, reflections, and methods; and relating scientific and professional development.
The book will be of value to a wide range of readers, including managers engaged in organizational change and development, as well as human resource professionals, organizational researchers, and consultants. It will be valuable to students of social science studying organizational behavior at postgraduate and undergraduate levels and to management students at undergraduate and MBA levels.
Average customer rating:
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Public-Private Partnerships: Theory and Practice in International Perspective (Routledge Studies in the Management of Voluntary and Non-Profit Organizations)
S. Osborne
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0415212685 |
Book Description
Public-private partnerships are an increasing aspect of the delivery of public policies and services across the world. This book offers theoretical perspectives on their anlysis as well as a range of case studies of their management from around the world. It also offers a number of frameworks for the evaluation of their management. Osborne has brough together experts from a number of different fields and enhances both our conceptual understanding of public-private partnerships and our comparative knowledge of their performance in an international perspective.
Books:
- Innovation and Growth in the Global Economy
- Interest Rate Models - Theory and Practice: With Smile, Inflation and Credit (Springer Finance)
- Introduction to Management Science
- Introduction to Ore-Forming Processes
- Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach (with Economic Applications Online, Econometrics Data Sets with Solutions Manual Web Site Printed Access Card)
- Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach (with Economic Applications Online, Econometrics Data Sets with Solutions Manual Web Site Printed Access Card)
- Investment Science
- Knowing and Serving Diverse Families (2nd Edition)
- Leading at the Speed of Growth: Journey from Entrepreneur to CEO (Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership)
- Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy
Books Index
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