Economics: The Culture of a Controversial Science

Book Description

Economics has always had an unstable reputation in the academic world as well as in the public eye. Some consider economists to be scientists while others see them as disguised ideologues. The resulting insecurity of their discipline's status has driven economists continually to redefine its scope, methods, and content.

Since the 1930s economists have increasingly emphasized the scientific, quantitative side of their field, which has directed research to topics that can be elaborated through mathematical models. Economist Melvin Reder argues that this ongoing historical shift has been the result of pressure from two directions: from society's demand that expert advice be based on "scientific findings," and from economists themselves, who have wanted to view their own profession as a science. This book describes the profession of economics as it has developed in response to these challenges.

The diversity of the responses points to persistent internal disagreements within the economics community about its proper scope and methods. These disagreements, in turn, have led to incompatible proposals for the direction of research and divergent recommendations for public policy. Although Reder does not pretend to resolve these difficulties, he appraises different arguments and demonstrates how they have influenced both economists' behavior and public esteem for the profession. While recognizing that serious questions remain about economics's scientific status and practical utility, this book shows where economics has obtained practically usable results and where its fruits have been limited to elaboration of analytical constructions of uncertain applicability.

Economics: The Culture of a Controversial Science

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Economics: The Culture of a Controversial Science
Melvin Reder
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPN1PC

Book Description

Workplace Bullying is the deliberate, repeated mistreatment of good employees by harassers who ignore all traditional boundaries of gender, race, age, and organizational rank. The authors, in this book and through the national nonprofit organization--Campaign Against Workplace Bullying--have introduced the term to working Americans. BullyProof Yourself At Work is the first American book and the first volume in The Work Doctor's Bullying series focused exclusively on the topic of workplace bullying.

About one-fourth of all employees are affected directly by a bully's tactics. BullyProof Yourself At Work! is written for individuals who face tyrants at work who threaten their sanity, careers, and relationships with co-workers and friends. The first steps teach how to recognize bullying when it is happening and how to stop being surprised by the fundamentally different way bullies and their Targets (the recipients) think, act and see the workplace. Eight chapters are devoted techniques that can prevent or stop the self-defeating cycle into which Targets regretfully fall.

Quotes from readers:

"It's like being set free from prison. God bless you and your work!"

"You've helped me to stand up to bullies for months. I'm teaching my son bullyproofing before he enters the workforce."

"Discovering the Campaign and reading your material is one of the best things to happen in my life."

"I'm so glad that you both exist! I know my battle has just begun and I willface many new challenges, but know that I have The Work Doctor on my side. I WILL SURVIVE!"

"You do not know how much I appreciate you help, advice, information and especially emotional support."

Customer Reviews:

bullies (liars) are everywhere.......2002-12-28

Bullies get what they need personally because one of their major needs is to look good at the expense of others, especially in a
workplace that allows such behavior to multiply. Government organizations where executives prefer to isolate themselves from frontline workers are particularly vulnerable since the lies that bullies pass on to executives are accepted as de facto truth. Managing by walking around is unheard of in these places.

excellent theoretical foundation.......2001-02-22

This book provided the one thing I found missing in all the similar books I have read: a valid theoretical explanation of why bullying occurs -- the characteristics and dynamics of both the targets and the bullies. Essentially, bullies and targets (victims of bullies) come in all varieties, except that targets have one quality in common: they foster collaboration. Bullies, in turn, also have one trait in common: they are hierarchial. This leads to the inevitable crash when the bully percieves that the target is "giving away" the very things that the bully wishes to "sell". The driving force behind bulling is the need to control other people. The vulnerability of targets lies in their incomprehension of why anyone would want to control others when they could instead cooperate with them. These mental models are fundamentally incompatible. In addition, bullies are comfortable using aggression to gain control while cooperators are not. Bullies want to crush targets, targets want to "get along" with bullies. This really excellent book explains the basis for the mental models, the dynamics of the interaction between bullies and targets, and offers targets strategies for survival.

A Great Addition to any "Work Abuse " Toolkit.......2000-01-30

This book helped to "fill in the holes" for me. I am a manager who has witnessed innumerable incidents aptly described in this book. There are no "official" guidelines or information available from my employer for addressing this phenomenon...if it doesn't fall within the classical "legal" definition of harassment...many of my peers either ignore the behavior, engage in the behavior or collude with the "system" to perpetuate it. This book and another great book, "Work Abuse: How To Recognize and Survive It" by Judith Wyatt and Chauncey Hare have been invaluable aids in helping me to identify and implement actions that have strengthened my management skills, by encouraging change and authentic healing.

An engaging mix of compassion and fight.......1999-08-08

This is one of two excellent new books dedicated to the memory of Heinz Leymann, a Swedish psychologist who died in January 1999, after having spearheaded the greatest advance of the past twenty years in the study of work. The other book, also available from amazon, is entitled Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace, by Noa Davenport, Ruth Distler Schwartz, and Gail Pursell Elliott. The books are alike in honoring Leymann's memory in the best possible way: by extending his research and presenting the results in a way that will be of enormous practical benefit to both employers and employees. Leymann's breakthrough was against the background of current preoccupations on sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, and the other officially recognized bases of unfair treatment in the workplace. Some argue now for expanding the list of shibboleths to include employees' criminal records and political beliefs as illegal grounds on which to exclude or punish them. Leymann managed to get beyond this current way of thinking, with its fixation on grounds of ill-treatment, and to focus instead on the fact of ill-treatment, whatever the apparent ground. The phenomenon he conceptualized and studied was the humiliation and destruction of an employee by the employer. He called this process mobbing or bullying: intense aggression against an individual by managers or co-workers, aimed at crushing the individual utterly and eliminating him or her from the group. Leymann's conceptualization, which Bullyproof powerfully brings home to American readers, shifts attention from real or imagined reasons for cruelty to cruelty itself. Quoting extensively from first-person accounts, the Namies show that bullying may occur not just because the target is of the wrong sex or race but because the target is talent, successful, or cooperative. They shift attention from some purported defect in the target to the bully's inordinate need to control and dominate--to the point of destroying one who will not submit. Harassment, as used in the subtitle of this book, need not have anything to do with sex. It means picking on or ganging up on somebody, little by little dragging that person down, often for no other reason than that the perpetrators get a kick out of it. Bullying inflicts huge costs on both the target and the organization. It represents a diversion of time and energy away from getting the job done to putting some worker down. It is the substitution of power-mongering and one-upmanship for efficient and productive work. Bullyproof is an engaging mix of compassion and fight. Far from being detached, ivory-tower researchers, the Namies are determined not just to understand the mini-holocausts taking place every day in American workplaces but to prevent them. The splendid cover illustration shows a bullied worker effectively wielding a shield against flames of destruction exhaled from the bully's mouth. This book is for anybody employed anywhere. Even if you yourself are not being bullied now, you probably know somebody who is, and who will thank you a thousand times for the loan of this helpful guide to resistance and mental health. There is practical advice, well grounded in research, on every page. This book is part of the authors' international Campaign against Workplace Bullying, a movement that deserves wide support.

A real contribution to everyone who works for a living........1999-04-10

This book accomplishes what many of us have tried to do for most of our working lives: articulate why work so often causes suffering and reduces productivity. Usually, we know someone is bothering us at work, but we have troublre articulating exactly what it is. This is especially so when the problem is the boss, and when we seem to feel that the boss has the right to bully us. In this book, bullies will recognize themselves and will learn for the first time what behaviors they should quit imposing on others. Targets and victims of bullies will find out what to do to protect themselves. Ruth and Gary Naimie have taken the giant and original first step of identifying this national problem, analyzing it, and telling us how to cope with and ultimately solve this hurtful and wasteful problem.

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Practical sound advice

Organizational Consulting: How to Be an Effective Internal Change Agent
Alan Weiss
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Consulting | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
Reference | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0471263788

Book Description

The expert guide to effective internal consulting
This book guides internal consultants through the steps necessary to bolster their credibility, build relationships within the organization, develop internal marketing abilities, and apply proper methodologies to their work. Alan Weiss, an experienced consultant, provides practical techniques the internal consultant, internal human resources practitioner, and any other internal change agent can use to excel at work, advance their careers, and become valued assets to their organizations. Some of the major subjects covered include setting up the proper environment for success and establishing peer-level interactions.
Alan Weiss, PhD (East Greenwich, CT), has consulted with hundreds of organizations around the world, including Mercedes-Benz, Hewlett-Packard, Merck, and Chase. He lectures widely and appears regularly on radio and television to discuss productivity and performance. He is the author of twelve books, including Getting Started in Consulting (Wiley: 0-471-38455-0), The Ultimate Consultant (Jossey-Bass: 0-7879-5508-6), How to Acquire Clients (Jossey-Bass: 0-7879-5514-0), and Process Consulting (Jossey-Bass: 0-7879-5512-4).

Customer Reviews:

Practical sound advice .......2007-07-16

I have found this book to be quite practical in its suggestions. Already I have recovered my investment in this book just utilizing the information that I have read there. In some cases it serves as a confirmation that our practices are on track, in others; it gives profitable insights for which Alan Weiss is renowned. Get it today! You'll recover your investment in less than 30 days if you do what's recommended.

Thank you Alan!

Book Description

In many countries, small businesses comprise over 95% of the proportion of private businesses and approximately half of the private workforce, with information technology being used in more than 90% of these businesses. As a result, governments worldwide are placing increasing importance upon the success of small business entrepreneurs and are providing increased resources to support this emphasis. Managing Information Technology in Small Business: Challenges and Solutions presents research in areas such as IT performance, electronic commerce, internet adoption, and IT planning methodologies and focuses on how these areas impact small businesses.

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Customer Reviews:

Review of Book........2002-08-19

This book is a timely contribution to a niche issue that has been under discussion for the last few years. In addition to some meassurement tools such a frameworks, models, approaches for IT use measurement in small business, the book builds its wealth of knowledge on the basis of ample case studies from different countries.

At first glance, I must confess some relcutance to reading the book. A quick scrutiny of the contents and whereabouts of the contributing authors did show a strong Australian followed by Canadian dominance. This reality can however easily be overlooked once one does actually read the book. Contributions in effect come from Australia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, USA, Slovenia and Hong Kong. Most important of all perhaps is the fact that though country specific in some cases, the findings and conclusions are in fact quite generic and applicable at a global level.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from XDSL News, published by Information Gatekeepers, Inc. on February 1, 2002. The length of the article is 432 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: New title by Idea Group Publishing: Managing Information Technology in Small Business; Challenges and Solutions. (Publications).(Book Review)
Publication: XDSL News (Newsletter)
Date: February 1, 2002
Publisher: Information Gatekeepers, Inc.
Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Page: 15(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Product Description

A User-Friendly Guide to Stress-Free Government Proposal Writing! If your company competes for government contracts, you know that the proposal process can be disorganized, stressful, and costly in terms of time, resources, and people. But Government Proposals outlines a method for positive, effective, and stress-free proposal development. With it, you'll learn how to: Take control of the proposal process, from receiving the RFP to amendments and changes Determine your role in the process - and the roles of all other personnel involved Isolate the places where your process isn't working - and get it back on track Assess the corporate factors that determine process stability Educate management on the need for changes in the proposal process Plan for production of the printed piece from the start Produce a winning proposal without burning out personnel Ready-to-use checklists help you keep on top of all parts of the proposal process: Planning and holding a pre-proposal meeting Outlining the proposal Creating support material Creating a configuration control system Supporting the proposal team Planning and holding the kickoff meeting Developing storyboards Planning and holding proposal reviews Producing the proposal

Customer Reviews:

A Sane Approach For Writing Government Proposals.......2001-06-08

I found this book to be an excellent tool for small businesses who are involved in government proposal writing. Resources are limited for small companies so it is more essential that every resource is used to increase the odds in winning bids. The author has an inside focus as she has worked in Washington, DC for 16 years as a proposal writer. She outlines a systematic approach for writing proposals and gives details down to the roles various individuals within the company must assume. She includes several checklists that are extremely helpful as guides in the Appendix. We are currently focusing on increasing our hit rate with proposals and found many of the organizational strategies in her book quite helpful. For example, how to organize the right team for the particular proposal, the leadership of the team, the structure of the proposal and the production of it. I find the bid process often confusing when we are trying to get the proposal out the door and we are pulling all nighters! This book helps place some strategic thought and long-term planning into formulating practices that are ongoing instead of bid to bid.

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Used For Ministry Partnership Training at MAF

Funding Your Ministry

Just what it says

perspective changer!

Great book for fundraisers

Funding Your Ministry: Whether You're Gifted or Not
Scott Morton
Manufacturer: Dawson Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Church Administration | Ministry & Church Leadership | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0967248000

Book Description

Using a fun, comprehensive approach, Funding Your Ministry Whether You're Gifted or Not addresses the obstacles faced by anyone in ministry who raises personal support. Ideal for missionaries, pastors, Christian organizations, and other fund-raisers, Funding Your Ministry will help answer your questions and put you on the biblical path for recruiting and maintaining donor support.

This 219-page book starts with a thorough teaching on a biblical perspective of fundraising, then presents practical fundraising strategies, including making appeals to individuals and churches, writing newsletters, and donor ministry. Not only is this book packed with vital information—it's actually fun to read!

Customer Reviews:

Used For Ministry Partnership Training at MAF.......2007-08-11

We used this text in our Ministry Partnership (fund raising) training at Mission Aviation Fellowship. I found that it answered a few theological questions that I had about fund raising very well. It was also a very practical how-to book

Funding Your Ministry.......2007-08-09

This is an excellent source for anyone considering raising support. It helps you understand your attitudes toward fundraising and leads you to understand the biblical basis for ministry support.

Just what it says.......2007-07-17

This book is THE book to purchase if you are venturing into the world of raising support. Simple, effective, practical, easy to read. I highly recommend it.

perspective changer!.......2007-05-30

This book changed my perspective on fund-raising! I now no longer dread this task, but eagerly anticipate what God will teach/show me about His provision through His people!
The humor in Morton's stories and Stayskal's illustrations keep this potentially dry subject very fresh.
I highly recommend this book for rookies and veterans in the support raising arena!

Great book for fundraisers.......2007-04-04

This is an excellent book for those in ministry who are not natural "fundraisers". Highly recommended

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Becoming one of the group...

Stay Rich Forever--Superb!

Full of substance, not fluff!

Back on Track Financially

Mistake ridden book

How Millionaires Stay Rich Forever: Retirement Planning Secrets of Millionaires and How They Can Work for You
J. M. Trippon
Manufacturer: Bretton Woods Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0972338918

Book Description

Even if you are not a millionaire yet, you can discover the financial secrets of one thousand millionaires directly from one of America's foremost financial experts. During a twenty-year study of America's richest people, J.M. Trippon, CPA has worked with hundreds of millionaires and interviewed more than a thousand of them to bring you practical advice you can use immediately. He has uncovered their most valuable secrets and techniques. These are the techniques that have helped millionaires become rich and stay rich even during turbulent times. Now, Jim Trippon offers his insights from decades of research and practical experience to readers of his groundbreaking new book. With the help of Jim Trippon, CPA, you can Stay Rich Forever.

Customer Reviews:

Becoming one of the group..........2007-07-05

Maybe a million dollars isn't what it used to be, but a million dollars is still a lot of money.

The message I got from the book was that millionaires are just ordinary folks who squeeze the value out of every dollar spent, who live below (or well below) their income, who have a plan to save dollars for retirement, who avoid the traps and pitfals of making (or risking) a fast buck, and who live well in retirement.

I hope future readers realize, after reading the book, that there is HOPE for a secure financial future because each reader can see in themselves one or more of characterisitics discussed in the book. It opens the door for further financial education.

Morale of the story: The "ant" truely wins over the "grasshopper".

Stay Rich Forever--Superb!.......2004-08-30

This is an easy and must read for anyone planning to accumulate substantial wealth or looking to ensure their wealth is sufficient for retirement. The book is very helpful and well written.

Full of substance, not fluff!.......2004-07-09

Every page delivers something of substance, no filler like a lot of the other financial planning books out there. Jim presents case studies that dissect financial strategies of real millionaires to make Stay Rich Forever an invaluable resource - if you want to be successful, follow in the footsteps of successful people!

Well done, well written. Worth your time.

Back on Track Financially.......2004-07-07

What a great resource! I am getting my finances back on track by using these techniques. I bought Trippon's book after reading about it in the Midwest Book Review (a library book review service)which gave this book a 5 star rating.

I learned more about money in the first hour with this book than in four years in college. It saved me a fortune on my Will by teaching me what questions to ask a lawyer up front. Trippon is a CPA who advises some of America's wealthiest families and he clearly knows his stuff. He exposes how to avoid getting ripped off by investment scams and how to check your investment advisors background.

My advice is if you want to get ahead financially...read this book!

Mistake ridden book.......2004-07-07

This book is one of the most mistake-riddled books I have read. The number of mistakes is only worse than the information given in the book. If you are serious about retirement planning you would be better served to reak something by J.K. Lasser. I have reluctantly given my copy of this book to Goodwill and hope that noone is misled by the advice in the book.

Book Description

Big Steel is the first comprehensive history of the company at the center of America’s twentieth-century industrial life––the United States Steel Corporation. Granted unprecedented access to the U.S. Steel archives, Warren tells the compelling history of this business.

Customer Reviews:

Slow Read.......2005-11-09

Extremely well-researched, and virtually unreadable. This book is a never ending stream of figures on steel tonnages and plant openings/closings.

The author provides little in the way of explanation of the vast amount of industry jargon in the book (If you already know what is different and interesting about Continuous Casting, Finishing Capacity, Open Hearth vs. other blast furnace types, etc. this probably won't bother you).

There are some interesting story lines relating to the personalities, changes in American society, and the arc of the corporation as an entity over 100 years, but they are lost in the endless forest of statistics and the repetitive theme that the corporation was too big for its own good.

A fascinating, highly commended "corporate biography".......2001-10-15

When the United States Steel Corporation was formed in 1901 it was the world's largest industrial organization producing two-thirds of the steel used in building America's cities, and with a job roster of more than one million individuals over the course of the following century. Big Steel is the story of US Steel over ten decades and how, although it dominated the industry for decades, was still subject to market forces and unexpected handicaps. In Big Steel, author Kenneth Warren draws upon the USX archives to provide an informative, fascinating, highly commended "corporate biography" and along the way explores how labor relations affected company management and strategy, how and why US Steel gradually declined; and how drastic measures taken in the 1980s and 1990s lead to a reemergence of this quintessential American company into once again establishing itself as a leader in steel-making efficiency.

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