Lean & Meaningful : A New Culture for Corporate America

Book Description

Does your company provide meaningful work for its employees? Here's a blueprint to help you attract, optimize, and retain top talent. Corporate culture makes a difference, and cultures are changing. The next generation of corporate culture will be dramatically different from the past. Learn why-and how-employers must shift to a more lean operation with a culture that's filled with meaning for everyone. Over 200 organizations are cited, with stimulating examples of how leading edge employers are providing meaning for their workers. Read commentaries from successful CEOs who share their "meaningful" secrets.

Customer Reviews:

Not Simple - Just Meaningful.......2001-05-29

Leave it to Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia to write a book about the post-bloat economy in a way that provokes thoughtful action, not trendy reactions. The book's subtitle "A New Culture for Corporate America" is very apt - they're talking about nothing less than an entirely new way to think about life in our traditional organizations. If you're looking for a simplistic cookbook of new-age tips and tricks, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a book that requires some careful reading and thought, and is well worth it, get hold of a copy. No one knows exactly what organizational life will be like in the next decade, but the framework the authors offer will equip any leader or manager to be ready for whatever comes next.

Beyond Lean Manufacturing and Lean Business.......2000-08-02

Whether you are the director of manufacturing, an operations manager, or a change agent within your organization, this book is for you. Herman and Gioia reflect on the subtle aspects of the lean organization which are often overlooked in many lean initiatives. "Meaningful" addresses the human conditions surrounding the removal of wasteful processes in the organization, options for a flexible workforce, and advice for management considering a move to lean processes. Also helpful to understand the emerging conditions important to the new workforce of the Generation NeXt, and how to keep those critical knowledge workers supportive in a lean organization.

A focus on the human elements of companies.......1999-03-09

For a perspective that focuses entirely on the human components of organic companies, pick up Lean & Meaningful: A New Culture for Corporate America (Oakhill Press, 1998) by Roger E. Herman and Joyce L. Gioia. The authors explore what employees want in an employer, both in terms of benefits (like retirement plans) and atmosphere (like a family-friendly environment). The book also includes an extensive list of resources. CIO Magazine

Book Description

Anarchy makes it easy for terrorists to set up shop. Yet the international community has been reluctant to commit the necessary resources to peacekeeping -- with devastating results locally and around the globe. This daring new work argues that modern peacekeeping operations and military occupations bear a surprising resemblance to the imperialism practiced by liberal states a century ago. Motivated by a similar combination of self-interested and humanitarian goals, liberal democracies in both eras have wanted to maintain a presence on foreign territory in order to make themselves more secure, while sharing the benefits of their own cultures and societies. Yet both forms of intervention have inevitably been undercut by weak political will, inconsistent policy choices, and their status as a low priority on the agenda of military organizations. In more recent times, these problems are compounded by the need for multilateral cooperation -- something even NATO finds difficult to achieve but is now necessary for legitimacy.

Drawing lessons from this provocative comparison, Kimberly Zisk Marten argues that the West's attempts to remake foreign societies in their own image -- even with the best of intentions -- invariably fail. Focusing on operations in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and East Timor in the mid- to late 1990s, while touching on both post-war Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq, Enforcing the Peace compares these cases to the colonial activities of Great Britain, France, and the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The book weaves together examples from these cases, using interviews Marten conducted with military officers and other peacekeeping officials at the UN, NATO, and elsewhere. Rather than trying to control political developments abroad, Marten proposes, a more sensible goal of foreign intervention is to restore basic security to unstable regions threatened by anarchy. The colonial experience shows that military organizations police effectively if political leaders prioritize the task, and the time has come to raise the importance of peacekeeping on the international agenda.

Customer Reviews:

My book: Enforcing the Peace by Kimberly Zisk.......2005-07-22

This book is fundamental in the area of International Peace and Security. Even though it is a book aimed mostly to scholars I think it has a valuable message for all people interested in the reality behind PK.
Zisk Marten compares complex UNPKO's to the 20th century Imperial colonialism. These practices are almost the same, but today's colonialism (carried out through PK, among other mecanisms)is sophisticated and justified under new speeches of power under which it is intended to re-create societies based on western values.
I highly recommend this book.

Promises more than it delivers.......2005-05-22

Professor Kimberly Zisk Marten draws interesting parallels between colonialism and what she terms "modern complex peacekeeping operations". The book's rave reviews and her own introduction hint at unveiling a treasure trove of useful lessons to be learned from the recent (imperial) past of Great Britain and France.
Unfortunately, apart from outlining the parallel, few useful lessons are drawn. Analysis of current or recent operations is there, and generally relevant, but "colonial best practice", for example, is not there.
Also, scholarship is biased to the point of looking distinctly shoddy on French matters. This book pretends to offer insights into two colonial traditions and experiences, yet the French, to judge from the biography, is virtually absent, or seen through the eyes of American scholars : the French experience as seen through foreign scholars. The same, as analysed by French of other non-English speaking academics, would have been much more balanced and fertile.
For example : how come French Western Africa was quiescent under a grand total of 30,000 troops (mainly native), whereas today the same area has more than 150,000 soldiers and yet is at the verge of a major explosion?
Or else : how to explain the remarkable performance of colonial troops in the heyday of empire, especially as they fought the best European armies of the time, and their pitiful performance today ? African troops in the Great War (French side), in Italy 1943 (mountain troops), the German-led "askari" of Lettow-Voerbeck who ran rings around their British pursuers throughout WWI...
In conclusion, this book is something of a disappointment, because it trumpets wonderful and innovative insights, and yet does not deliver much more than a few platitudes and superficial analyses of current peacekeeping operations.
And definitely, the author could have been more modest in pretending to exploit both the British and the French experience : she is much too short and biased on the second count. She should have downgraded the offer to "an occasional comparison with the French experience will be drawn".

Worthwhile but Stops Short.......2005-01-07

This book came highly recommended to me, but I now believe, after reading it, that is was recommended because it contributes to the tarring of America for being an imperial power in the present, while also documenting the almost certain failure of any imperial power in the present that chooses to a) act unilaterally and b) impose its values and form of governance on an uncooperative indigenous population.

On balance, I find the book worthy in so far as it draws parallels between the imperial occupations of the past and those of the present that focus on winning the war but pay no attention to winning the peace. Unfortunately, the book stops precisely where I was hoping it would start: it fails to address the two biggest aspects of winning the peace: a) inter-agency operations that mobilize *all* sources of national power and b) a deliberate concept, doctrine, manning, funding, and capabilities for stabilization and reconstruction, such as the Defense Science Board has recommended and the US Department of Defense is now implementing.

A few notes:

1) The author coins the term "complex peace operations" where the term is not needed--the author means to discuss peace enforcement missions;

2) The author is completely correct and helpful in pointing out that multilateral operations inspire legitimacy, while unilateral operations inspire counterinsurgency;

3) The author focuses on political will with respect to sustained occupation by military forces (we do not have it), but does not engage in what I regard as the more important discussion, which is the need for political will and wit to understand, as General Tony Zinni understands, that the fastest way to reduce violence and restore legitimacy is to introduce water, food, and medicine to the area;

4) The author very helpfully spends time discussing why the German and Japanese reconstruction models are irrelevant to today's failed states;

5) The author praises the military for being able to do humanitarian and other "operations other than war" when the military is well-led and carefully monitored, but misses the larger point that most military professionals and historians will gladly point out: one needs both forces--a big war force put into OOTW operations will lose its skill at big war within two years, while also being incompetent at small war/OOTW for the first two years it is thus engaged;

6) The author suggests, and I believe with good reason based on solid research, that the West is over-reaching when it seeks to impose Western values, Western forms of governance, and even singular governments on ethnic divisions that have stood the test of time--flexibility in accepting multiple forms of self-governance is essential;

7) Finally, and I have seen this myself in Viet-Nam and in El Salvador, and read of it in many other places, the author points out that any time the West intervenes and seeks to select leaders on the basis of its own criteria, it inevitably disregards local realities and ends up creating more friction than it resolves.

The author ends with the suggestion that we focus less on instilling liberal democracies, and more in simply assuring sufficient security such that commerce can be practiced and the arts can flourish.

This is an ably crafted and documented book, but it stops short. It urgently needs a companion volume that collects and integrates lessons from successful interventions. As the book went to press, Haiti was breaking apart for the second time, and I note with interest that the one force that might actually be effective there--the French-speaking French gendarme, is nowhere to be found.

ENFORCING THE PEACE; LEARNING FROM THE IMPERIAL PAST

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ENFORCING THE PEACE; LEARNING FROM THE IMPERIAL PAST
Kimberly Zisk Marten
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IWUBH2

Book Description

Chemistry of Plant Protection, Volume 7, provides critical review articles on new aspects of herbicide resis- tance, serving the needs of research scientists, pesticide manufacturers, government regulators, agricultural practitioners.

Book Description

The theme of this book is the self-generation of information by the self-modification of systems. The author explains why biological and cognitive processes exhibit identity changes in the mathematical and logical sense. This concept is the basis of a new organizational principle which utilizes shifts of the internal semantic relations in systems. There are mathematical discussions of various classes of systems (Turing machines, input-output systems, synergetic systems, non-linear dynamics etc), which are contrasted with the author's new principle. The most important implications of this include a new conception on the nature of information and which also provides a new and coherent conceptual view of a wide class of natural systems. This book merits the attention of all philosophers and scientists concerned with the way we create reality in our mathematical representations of the world and the connection those representations have with the way things really are.

Customer Reviews:

Sophisticated model of complexity.......2005-03-16

The theme that Kampis examines in Self-Modifying Systems is the self-generation of information by the nontrivial change (self-modification) of systems. Such a system is a network of many components, which have the property of being able to transform each other and organising themselves into larger components. It is this feature that makes such component systems closed to efficient cause. Component-systems, then, are not algorithmic, but this is not a reversible equation in that component-systems can, Kampis argues, give rise, in fact, to any particular algorithm. Kampis describes the difference as that between known complexity, that is to say complexity-to-be-realised, and unknown complexity, or complexity-to-be-explained. The first of these is relatively easy to realise, the second being impossible in that "a complex operation operating on components and bringing forth yet unknown and unidentified components cannot be described as an algorithm" (Kampis 1991:239).
Component-systems, therefore, have a high degree of creativity, but they also have characteristics that avoid many of the problems that other forms of nonlinear models.Kampis argues that nothing that such a process gives rise to can be predicted before hand, and no identity can be traced back to an origin. From this, Kampis states that the creation thesis emerges. This thesis can be stated in the following way:
The organisation of the world is continually self-creating; this process is at any given stage incomplete. Information about the future is not only inaccessible but does not exist in any form. Creation is a basic and general phenomenon that cannot be explained logically. (Kampis 1991: 258).
Self-creation occurs in the form of self-modification. A system that exhibits creativity, then, has to be continually redefined because, in the course of time, all variables and their interrelations will change in so far as each component is replaced by another. It is a system which will be defined (and constructed) by the very processes it undergoes. (Kampis 1991: 490).
The book unfolds, then, as a wonderfully sophisticated model to account for the very process of change and the important limitations of prediction the process of change implies. This book deserves to be one of the key texts of autopoiesis.

The implications of self-modifying systems.......2003-10-12

As another reviewer notes, this book will be very helpful to those interested in the complexity research of theoretical biologist Robert Rosen. Whereas Rosen has a tight, highly rigorous focus on his goal in "Life Itself", Kampis paints on a somewhat broader canvas, referencing the work of many other researchers (including Rosen). However, Kampis is similarly detailed and methodical.

Kampis first describes the limits of dynamical models, and state-based approaches, including the limitations inherent in the 'canonical formalism' of mechanics.

He then goes on to introduce 'component-systems'. This is a general formal representation of a system as being composed of some number of components out of an essentially unlimited number of possible components. In component systems, the "rules" for the dynamics of the system are not independent of the components themselves. Self-modifying component systems generate new components and delete others, thereby changing the identity of the system itself. In mathematical terms, a self-modifying system is like a function f that belongs to its own domain and range ("f:f-->f"). The result is that such systems are non-algorithmic, nor are their dynamics describable in a state-based formalism (e.g., Newtonian, Hamiltonian, etc.). This has notable consequences for approaches that attempt to treat such systems as algorithmic, or via modelling their state-based dynamics. By comparison to component systems, cellular automata and similar algorithmic formal systems are entirely trivial.

Kampis devotes many chapters to what I have cursorily mentioned, and there is much, much more in this book that is worth reading. Although there is not alot of math, what is there is important to understand. It would be helpful for the interested reader to generally understand the basic notation of mechanics, first-order differential equations, basic logic, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems, Turing machines, basic set theory, system theory, a modicum of philosophy, and linguistics. Most of these aspects are fairly well-explained, so a diligent reader can pick them up as he goes along.

This is not a book of vague handwaving arguments. It will take some studious effort to read and grasp the concepts and profundity of what he presents. However, it will be well worth the effort, and afterward you will never be able to look at dynamical systems and models, complexity, and self-modifying systems, in the same way.

Although there are alot of similarities between Kampis' and Rosen's works, they are sufficiently distinct in approaches and conclusions that both are well worth reading.

One final note: the "typewriter" font used throughout may be a bit surprising to see in the 21st century, but I found it entirely legible and comfortable once I got used to it.

Self-Reproduction, an oxymoron, must read for complexity.......2002-04-11

George Kampis follows in the ground breaking tradition of Robert Rosen. Examines the notions of reproduction and construction. His scope is wide and through. A must read for anybody interested in Rosen complexity.

Customer Reviews:

Catastrophists Rejoice !.......2002-08-29

Steven Harris taken what might be thought of as pretty boring "science" stuff and written an exciting book about how unstable our stable, or at least what we percieve as stable, world can be. Students of geology might find some of this stuff "old hat" and Harris, rightly so, has targeted his book to the layman.

Focusing on the western United States, he presents a look at natural catastrophies from a geologic standpoint that have happened (focusing on recent geological past events) and how these events could (and eventually will) create chaos to us more recent earth residents. Many readers are probably familiar with the major earthquake danger in California; however, I venture that most are unaware of the types of volcanic dangers presented in this book (and you thought the only real dangers in Yellowstone National Park were bears and RVs).

My only complaints have to do with a lack of good editing. Drawing on such a large bibliography of peer-reviewed scientific literature, one wishes that Harris would have borrowed more of the rigorious editing that is a staple of the science. The chapters of the book read somewhat like individual articles with repetition of some facts (almost verbatum) in almost every chapter (no real "flow" from chapter to chapter). Ditto some of the illustrations. Several of the maps were presented without scales and captions on some illustrations were confusing. With a good re-edit my rating would be 4-stars.

chaos: note that word.......2002-01-08

This highly informative book tends to undermine one's preconceptions of slow geologic processes. It turns out, that geologic change may also proceed quite quickly. Fun to read.

Mountain Press of Missoula publishes so many fine geology books (including the Roadside Geology series). However, this particular book of Stephen Harris raises exciting theoretical considerations.

If you like volcanoes, you must own this book; I am not giving you a choice.

nice.......2001-02-20

I may not be majoring in geology, but I found this book to be an excellant read. I was suprised by some of the information that was presented in this book.

Informative book on geological events for the US........1999-09-22

Mr. Harris covers it all in this book. From earthquakes, volcanoes, and floods. One learns much about how much has happened here in the US, and what could happen next. Good coverage on the earthquake threat. The volcano information is pretty much the same from his earlier book "Fire Mountains Of The West." But new information on why there is so much lava in the Pacific Northwest may surprise you. Just as reading about the great floods that hit out west during the ice age. I like this book, and recommend it.

AGENTS OF CHAOS EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOES, AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS

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AGENTS OF CHAOS EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOES, AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS

Manufacturer: Mountain Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H1VWCM

Book Description

This volume focuses on the characterization of nano-optical materials and optical near-field interactions. It begins with the techniques for characterizing the magneto-optical Kerr effect and continues with methods to determine structural and optical properties in high-quality quantum wires with high spatial uniformity. Further topics include: near-field luminescence mapping in InGaN/GaN single quantum well structures in order to interpret the recombination mechanism in InGaN-based nano-structures; and theoretical treatment of the optical near field and optical near-field interactions, providing the basis for investigating the signal transport and associated dissipation in nano-optical devices. Taken as a whole, this overview will be a valuable resource for engineers and scientists working in the field of nano-electro-optics.

Customer Reviews:

Auden was right.......2007-04-17

This book deserves to be recognized as the "minor classic" W. H. Auden thought it was destined to become. The high camp of much of the proceedings only makes the book more profound in its investigation of the contemporary manners of negotiating affect through objects. In this it looks back to Wilde and Henry James, as it does also in its arch staging of the objectification of a mystified "Europe." Entirely fascinating, urbanely hilarious.

a good romp.......2000-05-26

Who would think that two experimental poets could write a comic novel without stylistic pretensions? There's nothing profound here, just a quick read with plenty of laughs. The title conveys the substance fairly well: Schuyler and Ashbery have created a cast of middle- to upper-class fools for whom they have little respect. This could, of course, be fairly tiresome ("aren't the bourgeosie so silly!"), if it weren't for the authors' keen sense of humor. Think of this as a detailed pitch for a good Woody Allen movie, or a Firbank novel for the mid-twentieth century.

Fools and jesters: With a reprint of Robert Armin's Nest of ninnies. 1608

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Fools and jesters: With a reprint of Robert Armin's Nest of ninnies. 1608
Robert Armin
Manufacturer: Printed for The Shakespeare Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00085CZWS

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Nest of Ninnies
John Ashbery; James Schuyler
Manufacturer: Z Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K0500K

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Nest of Ninnies
John Ashbery; And James Schuyler
Manufacturer: E.P. DUTTON & CO., INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OTJK1C

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A Nest of Ninnies
John Asberry , and James Schuyler
Manufacturer: Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000L6DDUC

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Nest of Ninnies
John Ashbery; And James Schuyler
Manufacturer: Z PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WTD9JI

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Nest of Ninnies
John Ashbery; And James Schuyler
Manufacturer: E.P. DUTTON & CO., INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OKA1G4

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A nest of ninnies
John Ashbery
Manufacturer: Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXJ244

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A Nest of Ninnies
John & SCHUYLER, James ASHBERY
Manufacturer: Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OMPRCA

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