Soft Management for Decisive Results


Book Description

This book describes how an employee-focused leadership, aka. "soft management" will ensure to achieve the best economic results. Leadership means taking care of the employees. If you deal with your employees in a proper and correct manner - generously, supportively, trustingly, openly communicating, informing, participating - then the employees will be more motivated, show greater commitment and accordingly they will perform better. A distinction is made between two management and leadership styles: On the one hand, "hard management", which creates plans, sets up structures and monitors performance. The focus is on the task. Management is more aggressive and it's all about the bottom line. On the other hand, "soft management", where the focus is on employees. It is a humane management that is largely based on emotions and where the focus is on dealing with each other and on communication. It is also shown that soft management is by no means a matter of "continuous softness", "healthy world fuss" or "being nice ". Soft management is about tough facts like performance, goals and results. It takes strong leaders to implement soft management; Managers cannot afford to be insecure and have a lot of self-doubt. Employee-oriented leadership is the true spirit of leadership. The motto "Leadership is simple:" Take care of your people and both your organization and you will be successful "show the spirit of the author.




Good Strategy Bad Strategy


Book Description

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.




Hard Power, Soft Power and the Future of Transatlantic Relations


Book Description

The dynamics of transatlantic relations in the twenty-first century have been shaped by an American preference for the exercise of its considerable 'hard power' capabilities while Europeans have preferred to draw upon the considerable 'soft power' resources that have grown from their enviable internal processes of integration. These diverging power preferences have differential impacts on the management of Atlantic security, economic, and social and cultural relations. The contributors, long-time observers and analysts of the Atlantic partnership, debate how problematic security relations are likely to continue to be, discuss how successfully economic affairs will be managed, and examine the continuing frictions in domestic politics of social and cultural matters that should be manageable if both European and American leaders work actively and responsibly to encourage policy convergence.




Managers Not MBAs


Book Description

In this sweeping critique of how managers are educated and how, as a consequence, management is practiced, Henry Mintzberg offers thoughtful and controversial ideas for reforming both. “The MBA trains the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences,” Mintzberg writes. “Using the classroom to help develop people already practicing management is a fine idea, but pretending to create managers out of people who have never managed is a sham.” Leaders cannot be created in a classroom. They arise in context. But people who already practice management can significantly improve their effectiveness given the opportunity to learn thoughtfully from their own experience. Mintzberg calls for a more engaging approach to managing and a more reflective approach to management education. He also outlines how business schools can become true schools of management.




Industrial Software Applications


Book Description

This book is written for engineering students and working professionals. Technical professionals are increasingly involved in IT issues, such as implementing IT systems, managing them, and taking part in requirements analysis/vendor selection. In this book, the basics of production planning systems (PPS) are covered, as well as their implementation in ERP-Systems like SAP. Readers also learn the basics of practical IT management and software creation through detailed, real-world examples. The book serves as a full 5 ECTS study module, which fits into any engineering curriculum. 150 multiple-choice quizzes, practical exercises and a text filled with experiential examples make it a convenient choice for selfstudy and for classroom use.




National Conference on Management of Modern Libraries (NACML)


Book Description

With the advent of the information and communication technologies, traditional library activities are undergoing transformation in a big way. Modern library’s collection includes a vast array of information resources, databases, electronic journals, e-books, digital images, institutional repositories etc. To manage a modern library, library professionals need to have awareness and knowledge on management of electronic resources, federated and discovered tools for single click search, literature techniques, application of RFID and other technologies, user needs and knowledge on soft skills etc. Keeping these perspectives and issues in mind the National Conference on Management of Modern Libraries (NACML) was organized by SEARCH- The health science library in association with the department of Library and Information Science, Manipal University, Manipal The main objective of the conference was to provide an opportunity to LIS professional to explore the ways and means to manage the modern libraries where electronic resources are playing an important role in meeting the information needs of the users and to explore, discuss and share ideas and knowledge related to innovative modern library management systems to meet the needs of the changing environment. In five technical sessions under five different categories titled Technologies for Management, Best Practice in Modern Libraries, digital libraries and Role of Library Professionals in Management of Modern Libraries held over the two days, total 51 papers were presented at the conference. Various challenges and issues related to management of modern libraries were discussed in the technical sessions and some of the authors shared the best practices of their libraries. The author highlighted the importance of digital libraries and stressed the needs of various skills to work in digital environment. The papers presented in the conference have been edited and brought out in the form of a conference proceedings.




Product Focused Software Process Improvement


Book Description

On behalf of the PROFES Organizing Committee we are proud to present to you the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES 2005), held in Oulu, Finland. Since 1999, PROFES has established itself as one of the recognized inter- tional software process improvement conferences. Thepurposeoftheconferenceistobringtolightthemostrecent?ndingsand results in the area and to stimulate discussion between researchers, experienced professionals,andtechnologyproviders.Thelargenumberofparticipantscoming from industry con?rms that the conference provides a variety of up-to-date t- ics and tackles industry problems. The main theme of PROFES is professional software process improvement (SPI) motivated by product and service quality needs. SPI is facilitated by software process assessment, software measurement, process modeling, and technology transfer. It has become a practical tool for quality software engineering and management. The conference addresses both the solutions found in practice and the relevant research results from academia. This is re?ected in the 42 full papers, which are – as in the years before – a well-balanced mix of academic papers as well as industrial experience reports. The business of developing new applications like mobile and Internet services orenhancingthefunctionalityofavarietyofproductsusingembeddedsoftwareis rapidlygrowing,maturingandmeetingtheharshbusinessrealities.Theaccepted papers focusing on wireless and the Internet are grouped into a special “mobile and wireless” session. WewishtothankVTTElectronics,theUniversityofOuluincludingInfotech, and Fraunhofer IESE for supporting the conference. We are also grateful to the authors for high-quality papers, the Program Committee for their hard work in reviewing the papers, the Organizing Committee for making the event possible, and all the numerous supporters who helped in organizing this conference.




Handbook of Research on Strategic Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Management in Modern Organizations


Book Description

As communication and leadership skills are both essential for personal and organizational success, new approaches and management styles are continuously being sought. Emerging technologies, automation opportunities, and a diverse workforce are just a few of the challenges business professionals must be prepared for in today’s workplace environment. The Handbook of Research on Strategic Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Management in Modern Organizations provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of managing and solving conflicts, and introduces updated approaches for refining communication and leadership skills. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as emotional intelligence, organizational crises, and virtual team management, this book is ideally designed for professionals, leaders, managers, and human resource specialists seeking current research on developing the skills and consciousness needed to effectively communicate, negotiate, and collaborate in diverse organizations.




Software Project Management


Book Description

The management of a software project has been shown to be the number one factor in determining a software development project’s success. It has been found that most software projects fail because of poor management. Not surprisingly, most software development managers have not been trained in project management. Software Project Management: Methods and Techniques aims to remedy this situation in two ways: familiarizing software developers with the elements of the project management discipline and providing fact-based resources on practicing software project management. Much like the checklist pilots go through prior to a flight, this book provides a pre-project checklist which enables the software engineering team to review and evaluate an extensive set of technical and sociopolitical risks which will help the software project manager and the team determine the project team’s chances of success. This same list and the individual question responses can be used later as part of the project’s closeout process helping team members to improve their individual and collective abilities to assess risk. Intended for both students and software project managers, the book is organized along the lines of the five major functions of a software project manager: planning; scheduling and costing; controlling; staffing; and motivating. The basics of each of these functions are presented in a single chapter. These are followed by a series of narrow topic presentations in the form of appendices that are intended to help solve specific problems that may occur during the conduct of a software project. As in the main portion of the text, the appendices include references that provide an avenue into further detail on the topic. Designed to promote project success, this approach has been taken because software projects are each unique undertakings such that providing a "one size fits all" approach will fail most of the time.




Software Project Management


Book Description