Workplace Politics

Every get the feeling that your company culture is completely insane? That your organisation is inherently dysfunctional and seems to emphasize pointless drama over getting work done? The good news is that you’re right: Your company’s culture is screwed up. The bad news is that most everyone else’s company culture is throwing sparks too. Culture is the product of the people that you work with, and people are...really quite interesting, given all the ways that well-meaning people can screw things up.

As climate change becomes an international crisis, more and more industries are looking for a sound model for creating successful environmentally friendly companies, and a new generation of young leaders are eager for inspiration and guidance on creating sustainable businesses. Mid-Course Correction Revisited advocates why we need to create prototypical green companies and a new economy - not based on non-renewable resources, but on renewable energy, aggressive recycling, innovative technology, and sustainable business practices.

In The Silo Effect, award-winning journalist Gillian Tett examines the structural development of institutions such as UBS, Sony and the Bank of England. While the world is increasingly interlinked in some senses, it remains profoundly fragmented in others. As organisations become larger and more global than ever before, they are apt to be divided and subdivided into numerous different departments to facilitate productivity. However, there is a trap to the inevitability of these silos.

Provocative political commentator Arianna Huffington yanks back the curtain on the unholy alliance of CEOs, politicians, lobbyists, and Wall Street bankers who have shown a brutal disregard for those in office cubicles and on factory floors.

A New York Times columnist delivers an eye-opening big idea: Embracing mistakes can make us smarter, healthier, and happier in every facet of our lives. In Better by Mistake, Alina Tugend shows that mistakes are everywhere, and suggests that when we acknowledge and identify them correctly, we can improve not only ourselves, but our families, our work, and the world around us.

In The Leap, bestselling author Ulrich Boser shows how the emerging research on trust can improve our lives, rebuild our economy, and strengthen society. As part of this engaging and deeply reported narrative, Boser visits a radio soap opera in Rwanda that aims to restore the country’s broken trust, profiles the man who brought honesty to one of the most corrupt cities in Latin America, and explains how a college dropout managed to con his way into American high society.

Today, the pay gap between chief executive officers of major US firms and their workers is higher than ever before - depending on the method of calculation, CEOs get paid between 300 and 700 times more than the average worker. Such outsized pay is a relatively recent phenomenon, but despite all the outrage, few detractors truly understand the numerous factors that have contributed to the dizzying upward spiral in CEO compensation.

When we start with the wrong question, no matter how good an answer we get, it won't give us the results we want. Rather than joining the throngs who are asking, When will this economic crisis be over? Jim Wallis says the right question to ask is "How will this crisis change us?" The worst thing we can do now, Wallis tells us, is to go back to normal. Normal is what got us into this situation.

The Soul of Capitalism examines how the greatest wealth-creation engine in the history of the world is failing most of us, why it must be changed, and how intrepid pioneers are beginning to transform it. Best-selling author William Greider analyzes how our relentless pursuit of unprecedented affluence has eroded family life, eaten away at our sense of personal and professional security, corroded our communities, impoverished our spiritual lives, and devastated our natural environment.

Racial Emotion at Work is an invitation to understand our own emotions and associated behaviors around race—and much more. With this surprising and timely book, Tristin K. Green takes us beyond diversity trainings and other individualized solutions to discrimination and inequality in employment, calling for sweeping changes in how the law and work organizations treat and shape racial emotions.

What used to be shocking has somehow become the new normal. Sexual predators stalk interns at work. Parents try to buy a place for their kids in college. Leaders compromise morals for political advantage. It happens so frequently that we can no longer dismiss these cases as a few bad apples. Something in the system is rotten. How can someone get ahead and be successful in our modern culture without compromising their morality? What makes a good man or woman in this era of scandal? Respected cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken has the answer: a return to the ancient idea of honor.

Give a Damn!: The Ticket to Cultural Change is for individuals and organizations that need to develop a stronger awareness and understanding of their toxic thoughts, which lead to behaviors and actions that are selfish, irresponsible, and destructive. This occurs globally across all organizations, government, and in the home. This audiobook creates an acute awareness of what has lead us down this path and provides the solution for a simple but also challenging mindset change that is necessary for society to prosper.

Ethics - described briefly as the norms by which acceptable and unacceptable behaviors are measured - has been the concern, and perhaps the great dilemma, of sentient humans since Socrates subjected it to philosophical inquiry almost 2,500 years ago. Socrates believed, without universal acceptance, that the most pertinent issues people must deal with are related to how we live our lives, what actions are and are not righteous, and how people should live together peacefully.

Laptop, Tablet und keinen festen Arbeitsvertrag – das ist es, was die digitalen Bohème ausmacht. Denn die jungen Menschen wollen ein "intelligentes Leben jenseits der Festanstellung" führen. Ebay, MySpace und andere Seiten sind ihr Büros und dadurch verändern die jungen Menschen den Charakter des Internets. Mit diesem Buch wird das Zeitalter der digitalen Nomaden eingeläutet und aufgezeigt, wie sich die Welt der Arbeit durch das Internet verändert hat. Erklärungen zu wirtschaftlichen, technischen und sozialen Entwicklungen des neuen Lifestyle geben die beiden Autoren mehr als genug.

Now is the time for women of color to step into their distinct power and be the transformative force for good at work. With the emergence of the #MeToo, #TimesUp, and #BlackLivesMatter movements, as well as the election of the most diverse and female Congress in history, America is experiencing a referendum on what power and leadership looks like. Women of color are the answer to that referendum and uniquely positioned to assume powerful roles in the country. But first, we have to be honest about the misogyny and racism that women of color experience at work and in their lives.

While most people work ever-longer hours, international statistics suggest that the average time spent on non-work activities per employee is around two hours a day. How is this possible, and what are the reasons behind employees withdrawing from work? In this thought-provoking book, Roland Paulsen examines organizational misbehavior, specifically the phenomenon of "empty labor", defined as the time during which employees engage in private activities during the working day. This study explores a variety of explanations, from under-employment to workplace resistance.

The island of Ireland is famous for its timeless beauty, the variety of its landscape, its quiet towns and lively cities, the poetic and literary genius of so many of its citizens, its music and folklore, and its colorful and bloody history. Businesspeople and visitors who don't know Ireland will find this book an invaluable introduction to the people, the country, and the economic opportunities it offers, while if you think you know Ireland and the Irish, you will find plenty here to broaden and deepen that knowledge, and plenty that will surprise you.

There is far more to Switzerland than beautiful scenery, chocolate, watches, faceless bankers, and spotless cities. The real Switzerland is full of surprises and anything but bland. This small, rugged, landlocked country at the heart of Europe has been a confederation since the first three cantons came together in a defensive alliance in 1291. Four national languages are spoken within its borders. Its present 26 cantons are largely autonomous and retain their individual characters.

A land of mountains, hills, and fertile plains, Romania is a tourist destination waiting to be discovered. It is a rich and complex country: a place whose cities are home to beautiful parks and vibrant cultural scenes and whose people welcome guests warmly into their homes, sharing the best of whatever they have and partying into the night, suffused by Latin joie de vivre. Buffeted over time between three great powers - the West, Russia, and Turkey - Romania betrays the cultural influences of each, and it can be a difficult place to get a handle on.

It’s a safe bet that most of the secretaries on the TV series Mad Men would have attended the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City. The iconic institution was in its heyday synonymous with supplying secretaries to male executives. In Expect Great Things! Vanda Krefft turns the notion of a “Gibbs girl” on its head, showing us that while the school was getting women who could type 120 words per minute into the C-suite, its more subversive mission was to get them out of the secretarial pool to assume positions of power on the other side of the desk.