Aicpa Audit and Accounting Manual 2000: Nonauthoritative Practice AIDS (Aicpa Audit and Accounting Manual, 2000)

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Business consultants Ronald Purser and Steven Cabana argue that it's time for democracy to replace bureaucracy at work. In The Self-Managing Organization, they warn that high-tech, knowledge-based businesses perform best with the flexibility, creativity, and information sharing that come with more freedom on the job. "We need the real medicine now: democracy at work," write the authors, consultants to such companies as Motorola and Procter & Gamble.

Building on research by social scientists at the Tavistock Institute in London in the 1950s, Purser and Cabana explain the theory and provide examples of two self-managing techniques for improving work: Participative Design and the Search Conference. The Participative Design method asks workers themselves to determine what's wrong at the company and suggest solutions. And the Search Conference method has workers develop new business strategies to help the company succeed. The Self-Managing Organization thus offers provocative ideas to business managers and students. --Dan Ring

Book Description

The disappointing results achieved by reengineering, total quality management, and team-based empowerment programs dictate that a quantum change is needed in the way organizations are designed and managed. This groundbreaking book by organizational change experts Ronald Purser and Steven Cabana reveals how innovative companies are unleashing huge productivity gains by transforming the work of teams, designing them into a fully self-managing organization. Purser and Cabana show how authorizing employees to design, control, and coordinate their own work and workplace has enabled some firms to reduce manufacturing cycle times by 50 percent, cut costs in half, and most important, share knowledge more widely in the organization.

The authors demonstrate through in-depth case studies how democratic decision-making works today in such pioneering companies as Microsoft, Motorola, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Charles Schwab, Sequa Chemicals, Syncrude Canada, and Celgard. They provide detailed instruction in the core principles and methods of self-management, showing why employee participation is key to strategy creation and corporate redesign, and how relocating the responsibility for value-added work into the hands of the people who actually touch the product or provide the service eradicates the need for external supervision and costly bureaucratic overhead.

Self-management is the wave of the future not only because it improves economic performance, but also because it puts dignity, care, and meaning back into work. A step-by-step blueprint for designing and developing a self-managing organization, Purser and Cabana's findings are required reading for every forward-thinking manager.

Customer Reviews:

"Two Fundamental Choices of Organizational Design".......2001-04-22

"We soon realized that many companies which adopted such methods were caught in the middle between two competing organizational paradigms: the bureaucratic and democratic. In our analysis, these methods failed to transform the DNA, or fundamental design principle, that informs how organizations are structured and managed...When we understood that these two diamectrically opposed traditions for designing and managing organizations were competng for dominance, it became clear to us why managrs and employees were often being bombarded by mixed messages and a confusing mishmash of structures, management styles, and techniques. The bureaucratic and democratic design principles are based on different logics; each constitutes a distinct class with a specific genetic order...When these logics are mixed together in efforts to shore up the failings of bureaucracy, empowerment and reengineering efforts often fizzle because the basic tenets of a traditional hierarchy have not been uprooted...This book describes the principles and methods for designing the self-managing organization. We show how companies in any industry can change and evolve to become fully self-managing organizations"(from the Preface).

In this context, Ronald E. Purser and Steven Cabana, in Chapter 8, outline fundamental choices of two competing organizational design paradigms as following:

I- Bureaucratic Structure: Coordination and control of work tasks is done by supervisor.

1. Mind Set...*People have specialized skills and are easily replaced. *The work (technical system) is designed first. The people (social system) must adopt and fit in. *Workers are cogs in the machine of the enterprise, a commodity. *Total specialization of everything. *Within a complex organization, simple jobs are created. *Tthe building block of the organization is one person- one task. *Competitive structures, processes and reward systems are the best way to produce high performance.

2. People Act As If...*The environment our enterprise exists in is stable and unchanging. *There is little to learn at work; success comes from reacting resourcefully to problems. *Procedures are sufficient to guide behavior. Change interferes with productivity and can often be postponed. *Responsibility, and blame can be shifted to others; we are separate and therefore I can win at your expense. *We don't need to coordinate work closely with other functions. Their problems are their problems. *Unspoken assumptions need not to be explored. Simple solutions to problems are adequate.

II- Democratic Structure: Coordination and control of work is done by those doing the work.

1. Mind Set...*People possess many skill sets and can do many jobs/functions. *The needs of the work (technical system) are balanced with the needs of the doers of the work (social system). *People are learners. Machines and information systems can extend the skill set of employees to many functions. *As little as possible is specified, leaving the rest to the skill and discreation of the workers. *Complex jobs are created within a simple organizational structure. *The building block of organization is the self-managed work team. *Cooperative structures and reward systems are the best way to produce high performance.

2. People Act As If...*The environment our enterprise exists in is constantly changing. *Skepticism and doubt are valuable and enable continuous learning. *Outcomes are best reached with flexibility built into the approach. *I am fully responsible for any work I agree to perform. *Every task is part of some larger whole. I can't win at your expense. *Everyone's ideas are taken seriously. Cooperation is essential for our mutual survival. *Making our assumptions explicit and exploring them is worth the temporary discomfort.

Hence, in order to transform an entire enterprise to self-management, they discuss these choices within the context of Participative Design method. And they argue that "Dmocratic business organizations won't solve all the world's problems, but they will be places where people can find meaning in their work. Work becomes meaningful when people have attained real membership status, when work is restored to its rightful place, which adds value to both the customer and to the worker, and when people are shapers and creators of the organization's future."

Highly recommended.

A Seminal Work on Leadership!.......1999-10-01

If you are struggling with questions related to your business strategy, how work is designed, and the way your organization ought to be managed - READ THIS BOOK. "The Self Managing Organization" (by Ronald E. Purser and Steven Cabana) explains why we have been on a merry-go-round of quick fixes and false promises, and what to do about it. The concepts and real applications in this book move everyone back to ground zero. By the time you finish reading, your thinking will have changed about what it takes to produce effective change, and how self-organization can be facilitated.

It will take a while to read the book. Take the time. The first half analyzes the key management methods of the recent past and dissects what went wrong. You'll understand the principles which facilitate organizational learning, put in place a team-based system of shared responsibility, and re-energize the workforce and management at all levels of the business. You'll also understand why we continue to make costly mistakes when we go about changing organizations and what it takes to be successful right now.

In the second half of the book, Purser and Cabana describe the "how" of moving from today's inadequate practices, to a lean, non-bureaucratic, and powerful future. You'll learn how to develop an urgency for change, get the right people involved, develop common, tangible goals and accelerate their implementation. One benefit of the approaches described is a results-oriented future built from a shared understanding of the business environment. Another is an energized leadership with a shared vision, and a workforce whose local knowledge is translated into effective work designs. Swift deployment throughout the organization occurs.

You might see alignment of the practical concepts in "The Self Managing Organization" with those of John P. Kotter. The alignment is, in fact, perfect with Kotter's Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change, as written in his "Leading Change" book. Kotter beautifully frames the steps that EVERY successful organization goes through when making fundamental change. What Purser and Cabana do is describe HOW to rapidly and effectively move your organization through those major changes. There are only two books on my recommended list. "The Self Managing Organization" pushed Kotter's book out of the number one slot. If you need permanent, pervasive change in your business, don't miss it!

Rob McClusky, Baldrige Manager, Picker International, Cleveland, Ohio

Insights into self-managed organizations abound in this book.......1999-02-03

This book contains a number practical nuggets for executives and middle managers who are seeking to move from a command and control management style to a style that systematically enlists the participation of employees at every level of the organization. Purser and Cabana provide insightful analyses of how some of the world's most successful organizations have initiated efforts toward higher employee participation that have resulted in superior organizational performance.

This is an easy to read book that blends practical theory with best practices. This book will satisfy the interests of bottom-line focused executives, human resource professionals, and academics who are looking for actual implementations of sound theory about self-managing organizations.

The book introduces a set of organizing principles that are valid across a variety of industries. These principles are introduced in the context of case studies of distinctly different companies such as Motorola, Microsoft, and Charles Schwab. The authors shed light on age-old management dilemmas such as, "How can I give people more autonomy, but still ensure that we have order and productivity in the organization?" and "How can I accelerate people's learning that I know will be critical to our future, but still have them accomplish their business tasks that need to be finished today?" The authors present solid self-management principles that I have seen work in small and large-sized firms, and for industries as diverse as professional services and hi tech manufacturing. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in improving organizational performance by creating opportunities for higher employee participation.

-- Tom Devane (tdevane@iex.net)

Book Description

A unique, accessible guide to the application of engineering methods to biological systems.

Presenting for the first time a practical, design-oriented, interdisciplinary approach to transport phenomena involving biological systems, Biological Process Engineering emphasizes the common aspects of the three main transport processes-fluid flow, heat transfer, and mass transfer. In clear and simple terms, it explores the relevance of these processes to broadly defined biological systems such as the growth of microbes in bioreactors, the leaching of pollutants into groundwater, and the chemistry of food manufacturing. Reaching well beyond standard applications in medicine and the environment to areas of biotechnology, aquaculture, agriculture, and food processing, this book promotes analogical thinking that will lead to creative solutions. While keeping the mathematics to a minimum, it explains principles of effective system modeling and demonstrates a wide variety of problem-solving techniques. Readers will find:
* Systems diagrams comparing and contrasting different transport processes
* Biological examples for all types of systems, including metabolic pathways, locomotion, reproduction, responses to thermal conditions, and more
* Numerous design charts and procedures
* An extensive collection of tables of parameter values, not found in any other text.

An ideal undergraduate text for biological engineering students taking courses in transport processes, Biological Process Engineering is also an excellent reference for practicing engineers. It introduces the reader to diverse biological phenomena, serves as a stepping-stone to more theoretical topics, and provides important insights into the fast-growing arena of biological engineering.

Customer Reviews:

Excelent but a bit confusing.......2000-08-18

I found the book an excelent resource for transport phenomenom, but found confusion in understanding some of the parts. However, the explanations were far better and more detailed than others I have seen

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful.......2004-08-24

I loved this book - it's thoughtful, warm, and wise -- and it says so much about both the natural world and the human heart. I hightly recommend it!

This book is the perfect gift for a hiking friend..........1999-05-25

Bringing the Mountain Home by SueEllen Campbell is a book to treat both your emotions and your senses. The book of essays is largely about the Colorado Rocky Mountains but also has some gems about an Africa sojourn. The essays are visceral, intelligent, personal, and universal. As she eloquently says in the book: "In fact, I realized I was taking two walks at once. One was intensely personal and immediate, my body, sense, memories moving through a specific and extraordinary place and moment. The other was shared, my own experience formed by my culture, by other, earlier visitors to wild places, by circumstances, attitudes, assumptions, words, even emotions I had no part in creating but had somehow absorbed into myself" (x).

I love the gentle humor (such as the time she finds her friends all enjoying a backpacking trip while she somehow ends up as cook and camp-person) and the keen observations. I grew up in this area, but Campbell has looked at it with such wonder and detail, I can hardly wait to open my eyes and look around me more carefully. She knows every wildflower, every animal, every path and the reader is inspired to hike with eyes and ears wide open. With chapters titled with elements such as desire, pristine, trudging, grandeur, and misery, she captures so much of the wilderness experience in its many facets. I feel the misery of paddling a canoe when those muscles ache as well as the glory of seeing wildflowers in full profusion in a mountain valley. Campbell perfectly describes the sudden urges to get out in the wilderness, and then fearlessly describes both the glories and glooms of those trips.

Campbell's writing is lyrical, enthusiastic, honest, sensory. She is a master of words and of wilderness. I relish reading and rereading this book of essays and will never go on an Alaskan backpacking trip without it.

This book is the perfect gift for a hiking friend or a city-bound person who is far from the wilds. I recommend it to Amazon readers without hesitation. You're in for a treat, and so are your friends.

Average customer rating:
Winning Lacrosse for Girls (Winning Sports for Girls)
Becky Swissler
Manufacturer: Checkmark Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Racket Sports | Sports | Sports & Activities | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Girls in Sports | School & Sports | Teens | Subjects | Books
Children's Sports | Coaching | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0816051844

Average customer rating:
Winning Lacrosse for Girls (Winning Sports for Girls)
Becky Swissler
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUE072

Customer Reviews:

I really didn't like this book........2004-03-22

This book actually wouldn't be something that I would choose to read. It just didn't interest me that much.i didn't really get it. they used really big words and confusing sentences. i like fun books not scary. i like the types of books that make you laugh in some parts and not scare you.

this book didn't make me want to keep reading. i wanted to stop but i didn't because i thought that it would be better if i kept on reading but it didn't get better. i have read better books and if i had the chance i wouldn't read it again.

Humming Whispers.......2003-10-03

Brooke Chichester
ELA 8
Humming Whispers/ Angela Johnson
Review
10-01-03

In the novel Humming Whispers, Angela Johnson wrote a moving story about to sisters and what they go through. As Sophy says "Blood is thicker then water".
Nicole who is sophy's older sister was only fourteen when she first started hearing the voices. Voices that no one else could here but her. People started to treat her weird Because of them and she didn't like it. Now sophy is fourteen and she is afraid to end up like Nicole. She is afraid the whispers will catch up to her and make her do crazy things to.
I very much thought this book was outstanding. The way Johnson wrote it just made you want to keep reading and reading. The book addressed strong issues of two girls and what they go through with friends, family, and secrets. I would strongly encourage anyone to read this. I really think they will love it as much as I did.
Without a doubt I believe this book was awesome in every way. It really showed how these girls lived with there secrets. It showed them with many emotions. I really liked the relationship between sophy her sister Nicole and their aunt Shirley. It sounded like they were all very close to one another. Overall this book is wonderfully written and I would read again if I had a chance.

why i like this book.......2002-04-11

This is a good book. This was a book that you could sometimes put down and others you couldn't put the book down. The author describes a lot of things well like the area that they live in well, the neighborhood around them.
Her older sister, Nicole, was about fourteen and she started to hear voices and they would never go away. She had to keep very busy so that they wouldn?t bug her as much. The voices made her do crazy things. Nicole is scared that sophy, her younger sister, will also hear the voices because she is now fourteen. Nicole was lucky that her younger sister never got the voices.
Although this story was sad, it was still good. Plenty of young people would enjoy this book and could also relate to it.

Humming Whispers.......2002-04-11

I really enjoyed this book. I think Angela Johnson is an incredible author! The story is so wonderful it keeps you guessing until the end. I like the fact that in the beginning of the book its a bit confusing but near the end of the story things make more sense.

Although the book was a little sad, I still enjoyed it. I think alot of young people could relate to this situation. Every fourteen year old child should read this book to get a glimse of other peoples lives.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was it wasn't long enough. I wish this book would go on forever.I would read this story to my grandchilden!

A great book for people who like to read........1999-04-21

This was a very good book.Though sometimes their was a few things that I didn't get at first,they were later explained.The auther wrote a magnifi- cient book.I was glad to have been able to read it.

Average customer rating:

Humming Whispers

Manufacturer: Recorded Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0788704370

Book Description

This book is a collection of cutting-edge essays by leading exponents of consumer research from Europe and America. Topics covered include: marketing in cyberspace, poststructuralism in marketing, semiotics and marketing and much more.

Book Description

Duty & Tax information for the world's 12 key customs areas: Brazil, Canada, China (PRC), EU-15, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan (ROC) and the U.S.A. The Computers/Electrical Equipment/Machinery sector covers HS chapters 49, 84-90. Worldtariff provides Customs Duty & Tax information in a simplified, standardized, easy-to-read format. Our clients find it an invaluable planning, logistics operations and auditing resource.

Includes Customs Duty & Tax information, including Harmonized System (HS) classification number, English language classification description, import duty (Most Favored Nation applied), selected preference duties for origin preference countries (intra-NAFTA, intra-MERCOSUR & preferences for EU and US-origin goods where preference programs exist), VAT, excise, turnover and other miscellaneous taxes.

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