Setting Performance Targets

$21.99

Clearly, even in archery, hitting the target is more than just will and effort but rather judgment, ability and the likelihood of hitting the target under environmental conditions. This book discusses not only the science but also the art of target setting.
Targets are an important part of our work life, whether we are setting them or meeting them. Target setting forms part of the budgeting process and the performance management of business units and individuals. Unfortunately the behavioral impacts of target setting on performance are not well understood, and this can lead to serious consequences such as game playing. Target setting is an under-researched area. This book will help you fill the gap in target setting for performance. The pivotal issue in target setting is that it is an art as well as a science. Perhaps more of an art, requiring a balance between the psychologies of the people taking initiatives, the science of estimating probabilities and aligning with strategies, coupled with the effects of incentives. Another feature of this book is how the authors drew on ideas and research across disciplines, which is rarely done in this field. Inside this book, you will be introduced to some of the important methods in target setting such as forecasting, sensitivity analysis, and probability analysis; all of which include practical examples to show how these techniques can be directly applied. In the end, you’ll learn how interrelated the various parts of organizational activities are and how they impact on each other, which is important since target setting must include an understanding of the organizational context (e.g., people, competitive environment, structure, strategy) as well as the impact of incentive compensation and information flows.

Trade Promotion Strategies: Best Practices

$21.99

New opportunities are emerging constantly, as part of the globalization process creating new markets, with new players and challenging current business practices. Creating or exploiting opportunities on an individual basis is not the best practice: it is much more productive (and much less risky) to participate in national Trade Promotion Programs designed and implemented with government assistance. In recent years, Trade Promotion Institutions have developed national strategies and new tools to support the business sector, helping enterprises to find new markets and trade opportunities.New opportunities are emerging constantly, as part of the globalization process creating new markets, with new players and challenging current business practices. Creating or exploiting opportunities on an individual basis is not the best practice: it is much more productive (and much less risky) to participate in national Trade Promotion Programs designed and implemented with government assistance. In recent years, Trade Promotion Institutions have developed national strategies and new tools to support the business sector, helping enterprises to find new markets and trade opportunities. What are these national strategies, how are they designed and implemented? Special attention is given to evaluation tools created to assess results and provide justification for investment expenditures. Best practices will be considered and reviewed on the basis of selected countries having introduced innovative national trade promotion programs, such as Finland, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore.

The Strategic Management of Higher Education Institutions:Serving Students as Customers for Institutional Growth

$21.99

If you are a professional interested in reorganizing or restructuring your higher education or postsecondary institutions, youll need this book. Inside, the author smartly examines the needs of learners in the 21st century, the rise of for-profit highereducation institutions, and the technological innovations impacting postsecondary education. Kazeroony provides examples of administrative processes and how to satisfy regulatory agencies standards to take advantage of a particular marketing niche for attracting students. He addresses the changing environment of higher education, the administrative structure, challenges, and the requirements for successful execution of start-up operations or changing strategies for existing institutions, as well as provides a summary of findings and additional recommendations.

Conversations About Job Performance: A Communication Perspective on the Appraisal Process

$21.99

Organizational appraisals systems are often ineffective and result in unnecessary spending on the part of a company and unnecessary anxiety on the part of employees. Written for practitioners and advanced students, this book presents an alternative approach to the performance appraisal process that focuses on communication rather than evaluation. In this communication-centered approach to performance, the appraisal process is designed to facilitate meaningful and open interaction between employees and their supervisors.

Global Supply Chain Management

$21.99

Thanks to the development of internet- and network-based information and communication systems, virtually every product and service produced today has a supply chain that extends around the globe. For the last twenty-five years, companies such as Wal-Mart, Dell, and Toyota have enjoyed strong competitive advantages in their respective markets as a result of their world-class supply chains. As the supply chain increasingly lengthens, managers at all levels of the organization must understand the unique challenges of working with suppliers and customers located around the world–and the opportunities that can build new competitive advantages. This book will introduce readers at all levels of experience to cutting-edge methods and strategies for global sourcing and global distribution through the discussion of current research and case study vignettes from companies in every corner of the world.

Working with Economic Indicators: Interpretation and Sources

$21.99

Read the full review from Choice Magazine Editors who ‘recommend’ this book in the June issue! Executives and managers hear or read headlines about recent economic data nearly every business day. Most important economic statistics are the products of programs designed to collect and analyze data to report summary results at regular intervals. Properly interpreted, these economic indicators provide useful barometers for different aspects of the economy and identify trends that aid better planning decisions. Economic indicators are available at the national level, state level, and even the regional and municipal level. This text focuses on economic indicators for the overall U.S. economy, identifying major categories of economic indicators and describing the key indicators in each of the categories. The text will also provide guidance for interpreting indicators expressed in terms of an index (which reports values as percentage of a base period value) or in real dollar values (which remove the impact of inflation.) Most key economic indicators are reported promptly on the World Wide Web and provided as formatted time series that can be readily downloaded and analyzed. The text will include links to the sources for key economic indicators as well as websites that maintain calendars of upcoming announcements and consensus forecasts of the indicators shortly prior to a formal announcement. This book is a companion to two other Business Expert Press by the authors that address managerial economics and time series data/forecasting. Together these books will equip the manager and the student with a solid understanding of economic indicators and how to analyze them.

Cross-Cultural Management

$21.99

The book offers an introduction to cross cultural management through an exploration of the major theories that have been developed in the fields of business anthropology and international management. An introduction to the concept of culture will be followed in subsequent chapters by the comparative description of different typologies which will be used to explain various expected behaviours in intercultural business settings. This will be followed by an introduction of the fundamental issues in cross-cultural management: what is culture, how can we describe it, to what extent is it important in international business? And we introduce the main frameworks used in the discipline for identifying and analysing cultural differences. In the second part of the book we introduce the reader to the main frameworks discussed in Part I and to real-life cross-cultural situations in the world of work. We introduce discussions on the application of previously analysed cultural frameworks as a basis for the elaboration of new ideas relating to current issues in organisational behaviour. International organisations normally deal with topics such as the relationships between the employee as a socialised individual and the culture of his/her organisation, managing in a globalised context, the development and management of cross-cultural teams, negotiating interculturally and dealing with subsequent potential conflicts, etc. The final of the book part elaborates on how the globalised economy projects its needs for inclusion and for understanding. From the ethics perspective, we describe the need to find a coherent pattern of norms that are widely accepted and shared in spite of diversity, and how to define and act under the paradox of equality in spite of difference.

Your Macroeconomic Edge: Investing Strategies for Executives in the Post-Recession World

$21.99

Most ‘managerial economics’ textbooks are thinly disguised microeconomics texts: highly theoretical, too dependent on abstract and unproven assumptions, and simply undigestible by busy, practical-minded executives/readers. Furthermore, such texts leave it up to the reader to apply their lessons so as to gain value from the knowledge, and to reinforce that knowledge through practice. The ‘theory of the firm’ does not resonate with most corporate executives. But in fact, economic forces drive the context for all our important business decisions: When and how much to expand or contract; which markets to enter and exit; when to raise or lower prices; and how to invest surplus resources (retained earnings for companies and savings for individuals). This book is an application of economics (both micro and macroeconomics) to one of the central challenges of our age for any citizen in a developed economy: How to invest their resources in a changed economic landscape. It contends that the quarter century from the early 1980s to the late 2000s was a unique historical period, creating an exceptionally benign commercial and investing environment. It will not return once the Great Recession is firmly behind us. The core message of the book is an extended application of economic principles and reasoning, phrased in a form readily digestible to any interested layman. It can be used as a companion to a traditional economics text, or as a stand-alone application-oriented text. The main application explored is of investment decisions of corporations seeking to deploy retained earnings, and of individuals seeking to prepare for the day when they no longer rely on wage income.

A Stakeholder Approach to Issues Management

$21.99

The book will appeal to corporate managers who must manage issues and controversies involving outside groups and organizations The book shows practitioners how to ground their strategic advice on the kind of empirical research that reveals the socio-political dynamics of the issue. It is the first book to approach issues management from a blended application of advances in institutional theory, social movement theory, stakeholder theory and social network analysis.