A clear-cut, convincing case for managers to appreciate and work with informal employee organizations.
A comprehensive analysis of the social underpinnings of workplace organizations and the best methods for channeling the resulting behavior toward particular goals.
Whenever people spend time together, as they do in a workplace, they tend to arrange themselves in groups that greatly influence their actions. These informal employee organizations convey and maintain social status, establish behavioral standards, and support or oppose a variety of organizational norms, values and objectives. Like Robert L. Cross and Andrew Parker in The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations (2004), Shaw shows how these informal networks can powerfully drive their members, even to the point of constituents voting against their own best interests. One such example, among the many Shaw offers, is of factory workers who rejected a management proposal in which “their workday would be reduced without any reduction in wages whatsoever.” Unlike the more academic Martin Kilduff and Wenpin Tsai, in Social Networks and Organizations, Shaw demonstrates his mastery of the material by delving into the nuances of human behaviors mediated by these social networks, including strategic listening, goal setting, developing shared visions, communicating openly and responding to problematic situations with an “action step” approach. Shaw goes on to provide a cogent discussion of the inevitable formation of these social networks in all business organizations. The networks are by nature emotional rather than rational, Shaw says, which allows fear—of loss, of change—to play a decisive role in determining employee responses to any management initiative. As such, Shaw gives full shrift to the power of emotion and advocates steadfast managerial attention to the subtle, perhaps even hidden issues within an organization that govern employee responses to situations, pressures and directives for change. According to Shaw, by means of open communication, management can gradually reduce its employees’ penchant for fear-based reactions and align the interests of the informal employee networks more accurately with those of the formal organization. He also offers a process by which management can win greater support for its goals by working with the networks to elicit their input and create a shared vision so that ultimately, “the combined visions of the participants can be integrated into a single, comprehensive plan for the company.”
A clear-cut, convincing case for managers to appreciate and work with informal employee organizations.Pub Date: March 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481207522
Page Count: 222
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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