A valuable read for executives and small-business owners looking to establish a healthy company culture with a safe work...
Debut author Schultz and Fielkow’s (Driving to Perfection, 2014) book delves into the process of setting up and maintaining a strong safety culture in the workplace.
One of the most cherished business truisms is that safety and productivity are mutually exclusive goals: improve one and the other will go down in quality. Schultz and Fielkow, in this densely written work, argue that this doesn’t have to be the case and that a well-designed, top-down safety culture can maximize both aspects. They present a plan for developing such a culture and for keeping it strong in the face of inevitable erosion, which the authors describe as “normalization of deviance”—the tendency of employees, over time, to get comfortable with skipping safety precautions. The authors begin by stressing that only a company that already has a healthy overall culture can make safe practices a value rather than a priority; priorities can change, they say, but values are set in bedrock. They also clarify that safety policies show employees that executives are putting their well-being first, which helps them to become more invested in the company and their work. The authors describe in detail the basic requirements for building such an environment, along with challenges to expect. In the book’s second part, they begin with a case study and then go into more specific steps for creating a safety culture, with a focus on how to get employees involved with and committed to the new system. Schultz and Fielkow provide some innovative and clever ways to get frontline staff on board with new safety initiatives (such as a “CEO for a day” exercise) and even suggest ideas for getting employees’ families involved in the company culture. The book’s language can be a bit dry and convoluted (“Engaged people vested in the organizational success is the hardest component for a competitor to replicate”). However, stories from the authors’ own experiences help to enliven the text; Fielkow, for instance, owns a transportation company, and the authors provide a lot of examples of how he implemented ideas outlined in the book.
A valuable read for executives and small-business owners looking to establish a healthy company culture with a safe work environment.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Mill City Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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