Leadership Talk: A Discourse Approach to Leader Emergence

$21.99

Traditionally, management theories have taken a psychological approach to leadership, often assuming that it is a personality trait located within an individual. In contrast, the discursive approach to leadership, which is the focus of this book, assumes that leadership is created through communication practices. As a leader, this book will provide you with an in-depth look at an emerging approach to the study of business leadership that focuses on language as a vehicle for communicating leadership. The authors explore a new definition of leadership as the expression of ideas in talk or in action that are recognized by others as capable of progressing tasks or solving problems. The practical implication of this view of leadership suggests that leaders must constantly enact and communicate their relationship to their followers in such a way as to be recognized by them as a leader. Inside, you and future leaders will learn how to approach leadership more effectively as a communication practice that involves and depends upon the response of potential followers.

Management in Islamic Countries: Principles and Practice

$21.99

Up until now, much of the Islamic perspectives discussed and published center around understanding Islamic finance and banking. Given that Islam is an all-encompassing code of conduct and offers insight on all aspects of life, there is clearly a need for more all-encompassing academic content related to topics other than Islamic finance. The recent growth and interest in Islamic finance has left many business CEOs, students, and managers around the world without an inside view of Islamic management–until now. This book offers an Islamic perspective on business ethics, marketing, leadership, and human resource management, and the author explains it all with a true inside understanding. The author also includes insight into the Islamic religion and how that affects business and overall management. From a personal, firsthand experience and perspective, the author provides an authentic picture of Islamic management. This book includes models, exercises and examples, discussion questions, and study questions; and if you’re conducting research into this area, it includes references for additional readings.

Leading Latino Talent to Champion Innovation

$21.99

This book is a study on how to unlock the innovative potential of the US Latino workforce. It goes beyond diversity by looking into how this emerging segment of the workforce views, accepts, and embraces innovation. This book really lends itself to understanding that innovation emanates from human beings, and cultural influences will determine how innovation is defined. Latinos will make up 31 percent of the US workforce by the year 2050, and a significant part of the country’s knowledge workers will come from this demographic.
One of the most influential factors of the 21st century is the Latino community–how the culture views, defines, and helps lead innovation in the United States. But achieving sustainable innovation success is a concept many corporations struggle to attain, often the result of too much effort directed at processes rather than focusing on the source of innovation–its human capital. This book helps you realize that innovation emanates from human beings and people view innovation differently based on their cultural upbringing. Since the 1980s the United States Latino population has been on a steady growth path that has established this group as the largest ‘minority’ in the country, making this community a significant portion of the U.S. workforce for decades to come. The authors help you learn how to prepare, recruit, and position knowledge workers with this cultural background to contribute innovation successes to their firms.

Financing New Ventures: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Angel Investment

$21.99

Many business ventures today are looking to attract external financing, with an emphasis on business angel investment. Inside this text, the author incorporates the views of business angels, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and legal advisors; and draws upon the latest academic thinking on financing new ventures, providing comparisons between business angel and venture capital investing to further inform the reader. The concepts, principles, and guidelines presented can help you and any entrepreneur, business support agency, business student, and others interested in raising external investment and in developing an ‘investable’ business. The book is organized into seven chapters covering: * Fundamental concepts of entrepreneurial venturing and entrepreneurial finance * Market conditions from which investable businesses emerge * The investment process * Deal negotiations * The post-investment relationship between entrepreneur and investor * Recent trends affecting how entrepreneurs raise finance that include strategic exits, ‘super angels,’ and the emergence of ‘crowdfunding’.

Monetary Policy within the IS-LM Framework

$21.99

The majority of economists would admit that money is powerful and that changes in money will impact the economy. Monetary theory analyzes and determines how changes in the supply of money affect the economy. This book details the collection of policies that use monetary tools known as monetary policy. For example, the main monetary authority of a country is its central bank. In the United States it is called the Federal Reserve Bank System (Fed), which is a federation of 12 Federal Reserve Banks. The Fed is responsible for initiating printing of money, monitoring the interest rate, and controlling the supply of money in the economy. Monetary authorities are shielded from executive branch interference by serving 14-year terms. This allows them to act without worrying about political fallout or fear of losing their jobs. The ability to work and function independently from political pressure has been used to claim that the supply of money is exogenous. Inside this authoritative text, the author gives real insight to the IS-LM Framework (Investment Saving-Liquidity Preference Money Supply) and the effects on our economy.

SPeak Performance: Using the Power of Metaphors to Communicate Vision, Motivate People, and Lead Your Organization to Success

$21.99

Every leader needs to move people to action and align everyone’s actions toward the same goal. But how is this best accomplished? Words are a leader’s greatest tool, and metaphors are the most potent combination of words available.
This book will provide you with communication tools that will take your leadership to the next level and beyond. Through the proper use of metaphors, anyone can become a better leader, align his or her team with their organizational values, and lead the organization to success. Metaphors activate vision and mission statements, enliven goals and objectives, and literally align every aspect of an organization in its intended direction.
The knowledge gained from the principles in this book will help leaders develop stronger vision and mission statements that are action oriented, and it will provide a schematic to organize goals and objectives that are relevant and focused on accomplishing the vision.

Customers Inside, Customers Outside: Designing and Succeeding With Enterprise Customer-Centricity Concepts, Practices, and Applications

$21.99

Over the past several years, leading companies have entered a period of major marketing and operational adjustment and convergence, or intersection. It’s a reaction to a critical fact of life: Customers–not organizations– now control the decision-making dynamics and how organizations are perceived. We are witnessing significant multichannel media application (and resultant omnichannel access by consumers), along with more effective and pervasive customer data gathering, analysis, and modeling. If you’re observing these major shifts in your own organization, you’ll need this book. Inside, you’ll learn how to build proactive customer communication, improve relationships, drive positive brand perception, optimize channel selection and message personalization, and enhance employee-related factors (hiring, training, reward, recognition), all leading to superior customer experience and a customercentric culture. In addition, the author has incorporated content on ‘Big Data’ generation and analytics, which you’ll master while scoring a direct hit to the moving target–your continuously changing, and increasingly independent, customer base.

Fiscal Policy within the IS-LM Framework

$21.99

Undoubtedly, what happens to the economy affects the lives of the citizens of a country, and often the lives of people in other countries around the globe. In addition to natural disasters two things affect the economy more than anything else: monetary and fiscal policies. Fiscal policy and monetary policy represent forms of government intervention to influence market performance. Fiscal policy relates to government spending and revenue collection; monetary policy relates to the supply of money, which is controlled by factors such as reserve requirements and interest rates. If there were a universally accepted set of rules that prescribe appropriate actions to bring and sustain prosperity to the economy the study of economics would have been a positive science, as opposed to a collection of normative beliefs. The study of these policies is normative in nature because fiscal and monetary policies do not necessarily impact everyone equally or in the same way. In other words not everybody loses or gains equally as the result of fiscal and monetary policies. Nevertheless, there are non-normative economic theories that explain the expected outcome of specific fiscal or monetary policies. The economists that advocate for fiscal or monetary policies generally agree on the economic consequences produced by each policy when implemented. What differentiates the economists is the degree to which they believe in the effectiveness of the policy, their ability to know the extent of the need that it is intended to address, the proper amount of intervention required in order to effect the desired correction, and the length of the time it would take to see the consequence of the policy. This book covers fiscal policy. It is part of a projected two volume set covering fiscal and monetary policies. The two volumes will be written to be complimentary to but independent of each other.

Metric Dashboards for Operations and Supply Chain Excellence

$21.99

Over the last decade lean and six sigma methods and tools have helped organizations improve to historic productivity levels with the data driven, systematic elimination of waste and improvement of flow. Today many organizations have enjoyed the benefits of Lean and Six sigma initiatives, and are looking more to sustain the gains, and aggressively drive a systematic and on-going approach to improvement and problem solving. The concept of diminishing returns applies here, when in the early stages, organizations were able to find ‘low-hanging fruit’ and to quickly make significant improvements. Now the easy work is done, and organizations need a simple yet systematic approach to continuing their continuous improvement efforts. Operations and supply chain leaders will benefit from this book by developing a clear understanding of why and how metric scorecards and dashboards can be used as a powerful data driven improvement tool. This book illustrates visual management, scorecards, and dashboards for a full range of organizations, and focuses on Operations and Supply Chain Management areas. By covering these tools in these environments in a story book format, organization leaders can begin to understand how these methods and tools can be applied in their organizations.

The Thinking Executive’s Guide to Sustainability

$21.99

We live in an increasingly global economy in which the effects of shrunken economies, broadened communication, and widespread meteorological incidents associated with climate change are leaving virtually no one untouched. As a result, a working knowledge of concepts such as the triple bottom line and sustainability, have become mandatory. Systems -thinking is foundational for grasping these concepts and is based on trans-disciplinary theories deriving in part from biology, physics, economics, philosophy, computer science, engineering, geography, and other sciences. Specifically it is the study of systems, including all life forms, climate phenomena, and even in human learning and organizational processes, that regulate themselves through feedback. The media and the public have become savvy to corporate green-washing, and government regulation, already pervasive in Europe, is imminent in the United States. Business practices are a subsystem of human activity, which is itself a subsystem of the biosphere we all depend upon for services, such as clean air and water, sufficient soils to produce food, and moderate weather. Corporate sustainability practices are in the midst of becoming a required aspect of the social license to conduct business, and the use of a systems framework provides a coherent and eminently sensible way to comprehend the structure and logic that underlies this transition. Green business efforts and stakeholder initiatives undertaken by those without the requisite understanding of sustainability and the trends related to it in the world of commerce risk adverse press, activist pressure, regulatory constraint, added expense, reduced revenue, and lowered valuation. This book offers a practical, relevant, and easily grasped overview of sustainability issues and the systems logic that informs them, supported by empirical research and applied to corporate rationales, decision-making, and business processes. Intended for business professionals seeking concise, reliable, and current knowledge and trends, it will support them in leading their organizations’ corporate sustainability, social responsibility, and citizenship efforts so they can remain competitive and successful.