Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being.

Book Description

Curiously, economists, whose discipline has much to do with human well-being, have shied away from factoring the study of happiness into their work. Happiness, they might say, is an ''unscientific'' concept. This is the first book to establish empirically the link between happiness and economics--and between happiness and democracy. Two respected economists, Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer, integrate insights and findings from psychology, where attempts to measure quality of life are well-documented, as well as from sociology and political science. They demonstrate how micro- and macro-economic conditions in the form of income, unemployment, and inflation affect happiness. The research is centered on Switzerland, whose varying degrees of direct democracy from one canton to another, all within a single economy, allow for political effects to be isolated from economic effects.

Not surprisingly, the authors confirm that unemployment and inflation nurture unhappiness. Their most striking revelation, however, is that the more developed the democratic institutions and the degree of local autonomy, the more satisfied people are with their lives. While such factors as rising income increase personal happiness only minimally, institutions that facilitate more individual involvement in politics (such as referendums) have a substantial effect. For countries such as the United States, where disillusionment with politics seems to be on the rise, such findings are especially significant. By applying econometrics to a real-world issue of general concern and yielding surprising results, Happiness and Economics promises to spark healthy debate over a wide range of the social sciences.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful!.......2005-08-11

This is a book of excellent insight and originality that will be accessible primarily to scholars. Authors and economists Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer explore the uncharted terrain of happiness. They teach that happiness is fundamental to economics, although economists disagree about what happiness is and how to measure it. The authors emphasize the importance of intangible, subjective factors in happiness, and bring a good deal of psychological research into the discussion of how economic circumstances affect happiness. They offer surprising evidence and conclusions, such as the facts that the old and the young are almost equally happy, and that a rising income ceases to increase happiness after clearing a relatively low hurdle. We recommend this book to the advanced specialists on economics and psychology for whom it was written, with the caveat that its dry academic style will not bring happiness to the intrigued but nonexpert reader.

Anti globalists and classical economists, wake up!.......2003-07-06

Anti globalists, the serious ones, aim for a happier world. Classical economists see no place for happiness in economics. Both will improve the quality of their thinking by reading this book. It provides in just 200 pages an excellent overview of concepts in economics and their consequences on motivation and happiness, supported by statistical evidence. The presentation of the evidence can be improved by using more tables and less graphs, or graphs with the corresponding tables in an appendix. Even though references are given with the graphs it is impossible to find the original data in the Internet. It is also of interest to policy makers in business and government. For governments some well-founded recommendations are made concerning participation of the electorate, referenda, and decentralisation. For business the ideas about the link between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are useful concepts.

Average customer rating:

Foundation for Middle Managers

A Good Read!

Lots of practical advice for veterans and newbies alike

Insightful and Practical

If You're a Manager, You Need to Read this Book

H.I.M.M. - High Impact Middle Management: Solutions for Today's Busy Managers
Lisa Haneberg
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Leadership | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Organizational Behavior | Business Management | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Focus Like a Laser Beam: 10 Ways to Do What Matters Most

Keeping Employees Accountable for Results: Quick Tips for Busy Managers

Two Weeks to a Breakthrough: How to Zoom Toward Your Goal in 14 Days or Less

Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances And Results from Knowledge Workers

Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions By Knowing What To Ask

ASIN: 1593371586

Book Description

As a middle manager, you are a key player responsible for delivering organizational results. You hold the title of manager, director, or even vice president. You manage a staff, budgets, operational processes, and support senior management's strategic initiatives. Yet, until now, there was no distinct system that addresses corporate execution from your unique perspective. H.I.M.M.-an acronym for High Impact Middle Management-explains how to manage the unique challenges and responsibilities of middle management, including:

A workforce whose skills and desires are not aligned with management objectives

Organizational objectives that cannot be implemented with current processes

Strategic goals that seem to contradict one another, for example: "cut overhead costs" and "reduce turnover of high performers"

H.I.M.M., a one-of-a-kind work that redefines the role of middle manager, gets you results-even in the most high-pressure work situations.

Customer Reviews:

Foundation for Middle Managers.......2005-10-19

Some of you may know of Lisa Haneberg from her blog called Management Craft. If you are a regular reader of that blog, you will find that her book called High Impact Middle Management (H.I.M.M.) elaborates on many of her ideas.

She focuses her book on middle management, sort of the middle child of an organization. When it comes to books on management, they tend to focus either on the line supervisor or executive management. This is really the first book that covers all of those areas yet applies it directly to this group.

In her book, she covers strategy (H.I.M.M. Playbook), organizational improvement, bottleneck identification/resolution, performance management and coaching. Each of these areas doesn't get into absolutely everything you need to know in these areas, but is a overall good starting place to cover these topics. I found myself wanting Lisa to dive more into the details, but to do so would have made the book too large. She does a great job at the end of her book in recommending other books to gain more knowledge. Lisa ends up giving just the right amount of detail to help the middle manager, and leaves the book at a good size (240 pages in a larger print) that you can get through and digest the material quickly.

I particular enjoyed the chapter called "Mucky Muck Obstructions - Navigating the Corporate Obstacle Course". She covers such things as miscommunicating, hidden agendas, alliances, and other aspects of a dysfunctional organization and shows you how to identify and work through each of these.

I enjoyed the book so much that I have decided to use it for my managers as part of their ongoing training. I found that everything in the book is in agreement to my views on management, and it provides me a way to ensure that the other managers have a similiar foundation. Lisa's book establishes that foundation.

A Good Read!.......2005-04-18

If you're in middle management or aspire to be, Lisa Haneberg's book is a must read. It is practicality incarnate. Haneberg helpfully explains specific ways to be more productive and offers techniques to help your employees become focused, fulfilled and fruitful. Her energetic book codifies the steps you should take to grow into middle management, shine and advance to upper management. Along the way, you'll learn how to improve your organization, identify trouble spots and implement changes in your corporate culture. We can envision this book as a part of a college management curriculum or of any firm's ongoing middle management development program. It's practical, lively and thorough. If you want to be sure you've got a good grip on management from the middle, read on.

Lots of practical advice for veterans and newbies alike.......2005-02-20

First things first: I love this book and it's going into my regular reference shelf. But it took me a little while to really get into it.

First, there's the title. I mean, there's a certain stigma attached to the phrase "middle management." Reminds me of the boss from the movie Office Space. And once you've got an unhealthy notion of middle management as bumblers or control freaks, you become very reluctant to self-identify with that group.

Next, the first couple of chapters are slow going. Once you press on, though, you realize that the author was just setting the stage for what's to come.

If you make it over those two roadblocks, you ought to find great value in H.I.M.M. (I know, that's awkward, too). The book is divided into 14 chapters in five parts, which I'll paraphrase here:
1) The role of middle management
2) Performance planning and results management
3) Structure and time
4) Performance optimization and leadership
5) Fine tuning yourself
6) Appendix-not really a formal part of the book, but this section contains a wonderful selection of reference information.

In addition to solid advice from the field, the book contains liberal doses of lists, diagrams and personal anecdotes that all help structure the ideas the author is trying to convey. Also, our old management friend the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) makes frequent appearances throughout the book

I marked up the book pretty liberally, especially in later chapters. The author presents some great ideas for better management performance that really hit home for me. Among these were the H.I.M.M Playbook. Haneberg parallels management with sports and offers up a customized version of a management playbook (templates available at haneberg-management.com), which ought to be reviewed daily. I've been successful in getting my team to use a wiki on a regular basis, and it occurred to me that the playbook would be right at home there-this is a takeaway that I'll be using immediately.

She also invents a new management phrase that's sure to take the business world by storm: "mucky muck." Mucky muck is exactly what it sounds like. All the junk that prevents managers from being effective or moving ahead. She outlines sixteen (!) variations of mucky muck to keep an eye on. The ones that hit closest to home for me were "undiscussables" "learned helplessness" and "contradictory information." All of which you can probably understand just by their titles. She also offers up eleven techniques for navigating mucky muck. My favorites among these are #4: Over communicating, inclusion and follow-up; #9: Get organized; and #10: Lighten up!

Chapter eight offered a good beginners overview of the Theory of Constraints. Haneberg didn't delve too deeply into TOC, but she did give it an appropriate amount of space in the book, considering its importance in modern management practice. And she gave a nice tip of the hat to Eli Goldratt along the way.

Chapter nine was most intimidating and challenging to me personally. This chapter went over time management and offered a very comprehensive format for a formal time audit. I'm afraid to even try filling this out, but I know I'll reap rewards from doing so.

Chapter twelve and thirteen addressed the issues surrounding coaching others and being coached ourselves. This was probably the section of the book that I was personally least familiar with, so I greatly appreciated the insights, especially with respect to coaching others.

I was a little disappointed with the final chapter, which was titled Putting It All Together For Maximum Managerial Flow. While it adequately referenced the rest of the book and H.I.M.M. system, it just seemed too short and abrupt an ending (that's probably a testament to the quality of information throughout the book). I would liked to have seen a more comprehensive outline of a "typical" manager's week. Where the various bits of information would come into play as the manager moved throughout her day.

Overall, High Impact Middle Management is a great book. I'd recommend it to both new and experienced managers alike, since the contents are both broad and deep enough for both groups.

Insightful and Practical.......2005-02-15

This is a very readable and practical guide to making the most of management responsibilities. There's great stuff in here on everything from managing performance to busting through bottlenecks. I found the chapters on using the principles to optimize individual performace extremely helpful.

Pick it up. It'll pay for itself in no time.

If You're a Manager, You Need to Read this Book.......2005-02-11

There are many good books on management, but this author gets management. You'll learn how to get the best from yourself and those who work for you. It's an easy read and you can put it to work immediately.

H.I.M.M. - High Impact Middle Management: Solutions for Today's Busy Managers

Average customer rating:

H.I.M.M. - High Impact Middle Management: Solutions for Today's Busy Managers
Lisa Haneberg
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation 2005
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MCKIYE

Book Description

Applying recent advances in biological and physical sciences, food scientists have created "novel food ingredients" enzymatically, chemically or microbiologically. Chief among these are "novel proteins and polysaccharides" which, like the more established traditional macromolecules, can perform multifunctional roles such as thickening, stabilization, gelation or encapsulation and in this way determine to a large extent the shelf life, texture and nutritional value of natural and processed foods.
Featuring the latest advances on chemistry, structure and functional properties of "novel proteins and polysaccharides", with an emphasis on fundamental structure-function relationships, this book will be valuable to all those working in product development and fundamental food research.

Average customer rating:

Novel Macromolecules in Food Systems.
George (EDT)/ Kiosseoglou, V. (EDT). Doxastakis
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N67X7E

Book Description

This authoritative volume brings together established experts to review the theories, research, and treatment methodologies associated with the major cognitive-behavioral models. Unlike other works that approach cognitive-behavioral therapies from the perspective of how to treat different symptoms or disorders, the Handbook first examines the tenets of each theoretical model in depth, and then provides examples of clinical applications. The goal is to provide a solid conceptual framework within which the clinician can make informed choices about which interventions to choose and apply with individual clients. Also addressed are basic principles of cognitive assessment and case formulation, current directions in clinical research, and the role of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the psychotherapy integration movement.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive and clear.......2006-08-15

This handbook provides a comprehensive look at Cognitive Behavioral therapies and contains a lineup of incredible contributors including Beutler, Beck, Neimeyer, and many more. It includes a hisorical perspective, assessment issues, case formulation, RET, Cognitive therapy, and much more. Definitely a readable and practical book for the introduction of Cognitive Behavioral Therapies.

Book Description

Getting at the Source offers a new approach to identifying and evaluating opportunities for reducing solid waste.

Getting at the source: Strategies for reducing municipal solid waste : the final report of the Strategies for Source Reduction Steering Committee

Average customer rating:

Getting at the source: Strategies for reducing municipal solid waste : the final report of the Strategies for Source Reduction Steering Committee
World Wildlife Fund (U.S.)
Manufacturer: World Wildlife Fund & The Conservation Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:
Snowshoe Trails of Tahoe: Best Routes in the Tahoe Sierra (Snowshoe Trails)
Mike White
Manufacturer: Wilderness Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Winter Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Sports Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Best Snowshoe Trails of California: 100 Of the Best Routes in the Cascades & the Sierra (Snowshoe Trails)

Snowshoe Routes: Northern California (Snowshoe Routes)

Snowshoe Trails of Yosemite (Snowshoe Trails)

Top Trails Lake Tahoe (Top Trails)

The Tahoe Rim Trail: A Complete Guide for Hikers, Mountain Bikers, and Equestrians

ASIN: 0899973922

Book Description

The purpose of How to Walk in the Footsteps of Jesus and the Prophets is to enable the Christian pilgrim and tourist to look up a Biblical site quickly in its alphabetical form, read the Biblical references, and travel to the sites throughout Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Take Along Book for Holy Land Tour.......2007-09-26

This is a MUST HAVE with you when you tour the Holy Land..either by yourself or with a group. Keep the book with you as you travel the Holy Land. In it the author tells you a short historical description and more importantly gives you Bible verses where it is mentioned in the Bible so that you can really get into the meaning and feelings of the Holy Land. The book is set up in alphabetical order by the name of the locations... very easy to follow and locate your area. I highly recommend this book as a carry along book on your trip to the Holy Land. It will add more meaning and insight into the experience.

Not helpful for guided tours.......2007-02-04

I recently returned from a trip to Israel and I had purchased this book before the trip as a guide. I never opened the book even once 1) because we had an excellent tour guide, and 2) because it includes way more places than what is necessary. The information in the book is quality but if you are going with a tour I wouldn't bother with it. If you are exploring on your own I would recommend it. I would like to see maps in this book to show where these locations are and perhaps organized by region rather than just alphabetically. If you want a great resource to take with you purchase the "DK Eyewitness Guide of Jerusalem and the Holy Land." I thoroughty enjoyed it.

A must have for pilgrim travel to Israel.......2005-08-16

This is a wonderful little book that contains scriptural references for virtually all of the traditional Christian sites in Israel. It is invaluable to take along when viewing the various religious sites so that their biblical mention can be easily found and read. When I lead tours to the Holy Land, this book is one of three that I advise visitors to consider taking with them (the others are, "Holy Land" by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, and "The Millennium Guide for Pilgrims to the Holy Land", by James H. Charlesworth.

AN OUTSTANDING WORK.......2000-06-19

As a traveller to the land of Israel twelve times I have been privileged to see first rate the expertise that went into the pages of this book and I have had many positve comments from those I have shared the book with. A preacher's son describes the part on the "Ark of The Covenant" as an exceptional writing done by an expert in her field. The book is a must for anyone going to the Holyland.

Great Guide.......2000-01-18

This is a handy little guide book that could travel with you as you visit the sites mentioned. It lists the history of each place and other interesting facts. It has several useful lists of information at the back of the book. Mrs. Crown-Tamir knows her stuff and has put together a useful, inexpensive guide. I found myself wishing for a large foldout map to see all the places named, however that would probably make the book too expensive.

Average customer rating:

The Secret Universe of Names... by Roy Feinson

The Secret Universe of Names: The Dynamic Interplay of Names and Destiny

Manufacturer: Overlook Duckworth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

The Secret Universe of Names

The Hidden Truth of Your Name: A Complete Guide to First Names and What They Say About the Real You

ASIN: 0739453335

Product Description

Information about the dynamic interplay between names and destiny.

Customer Reviews:

The Secret Universe of Names... by Roy Feinson.......2005-09-16

It shows the power of influence that sounds have. This viewpoint of names and how they contribute to a person has been quite astounding. Thinking twice about which name to choose is the lesson I learned. Intriguing.

The Secret Universe of Names the Dynamics Interplay of Names and Destiny

Average customer rating:

The Secret Universe of Names the Dynamics Interplay of Names and Destiny
Roy Feinson
Manufacturer: Overlook Duckworth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RE1Q4I

The Secret Universe of Names: The Dynamic Interplay of Names and Destiny

Average customer rating:

The Secret Universe of Names: The Dynamic Interplay of Names and Destiny
Roy Feinson
Manufacturer: Gerald Duckworth & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Genealogy | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books