What We’re Reading
Here's a selection of the books we've read recently:
Title: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Publisher:
Waverley Books Ltd; First edition (21 Feb 2008)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is so well known that the names of the characters are regularly used as verbal shorthand for a certain personality style... more
Title: Aesop's Fables
Author: Aesop
Publisher: Collector's Library; New Ed edition (1 Sep 2006)
Business books come and go with favourites such as Drucker, Peters and Blanchard all having had a big following only to be replaced by some new author with a new approach for a modern age... more
Title:
The Secret Life of the Corporate Jester
Author:
David T. Riveness
Publisher:
Jardin Publishing (31 Jul 2006)
With Christmas fast approaching we find ourselves at crowded dinner tables talking and laughing with friends and family. Just as at work we have expectations of people in our social circles... more
Title: JPod
Author:
Douglas Coupland
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (5 Jun 2006)
Douglas Coupland captured the spirit of an era with Generation X, a revealing portrait of slacker life in Canada. The lack of ambition and conformity was considered disturbing and reviewers worried about a lost generation... more
Title: Managing Performance: Performance Management in Action
Author: Angela Baron, Michael Armstrong
Publisher: Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development; 2Rev Ed edition (4 Jul 2007)
Managing Performance forms part of the CIPD’s suite of guides to core human resources activity. As such it’s backed by academic research, and written from a United Kingdom perspective... more
Title: The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company
Author: Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, James Noel
Publisher: Jossey Bass Wiley (16 Jan 2001)
A re-read this month of a modern leadership classic. The Leadership Pipeline looks at how successful companies work to create their own leaders from within the business. Yet as with many books which select successful businesses... more
Title:
A Significant Other
Author: Matt Rendall
Publisher:
Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ); New Ed edition (5 May 2005)
The Tour De France is on its way, and will be starting from London this year, bringing the colour and excitement of professional cycling to Britain. Lance Armstrong won’t win the race, he won’t be riding in it. Last year’s winner and others who would have been considered favourites for this years Tour won’t be riding either, so it could be an exciting race... more
Title: The Goal
Author: Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox
Publisher: Gower Publishing Ltd; 3Rev Ed edition (17 Nov 2004)
The Goal is a classic management text book, although it doesn’t really read that way. Written instead as a novel, almost a detective story, it takes you through management problems from the perspective of the people involved... more
Title: Eat Your Peas
Author: Kes Gray
Publisher:
Red Fox; New Ed edition (1 Jun 2001)
At the start of the New Year people often take time to set themselves new objectives. People who have clear goals tend to be more successful, and those that write down their goals are proven to be more successful at achieving them than those who simply think them through ... more
Title: The Blue Eyed Salaryman
Author:
Niall Murtagh
Publisher:
Profile Books Ltd (3 Feb 2006)
Niall Murtagh grew up in Dublin, and led an interesting life away from home. He hitch-hiked across Europe, walked through South America and sailed the Atlantic in a home made contraption.
Strange then that he should opt to settle down in one of the most buttoned down jobs available... more
Title: Succeed On Your Own Terms
Author: Herbert Greenberg, Patrick Sweeney
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (12 Jun 2006)
Many books offering career or personal success advice exist, they’re a popular genre and a mainstay of the business bookshop world. The quality varies widely, and many of them seem to re-heat the advice of believing in yourself, setting goals, becoming single minded, not letting others knock your confidence and always be looking for new opportunities... more
Title:
Moondust
Author: Andrew Smith
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (6 Jan 2006)
OK so Moondust isn’t an organisational development book, a human resources book, or even a business book, but not all the best ideas in business come from business writers. Andrew Smith has realised that there are very few people on earth who have stood on the moon and looked back on the home planet. With no missions planned and the astronauts ageing it won’t be long before this unique human experience is lost, possibly forever... more
Title: The HR Scorecard
Author:
Brian E. Becker, Mark A. Huselid and Dave Ulrich
Publisher:
Harvard Business School Press (23 Mar 2001)
Human Resources is often viewed as an necessary evil by organisations, a function that they need to have, but one which perhaps doesn’t always show its value and cannot, or will not, have its contribution measured... more
Title: Why The Bottom Line Isn’t
Author:
Dave Ulrich & Norm Smallwood
Publisher:
John Wiley & Sons
Plenty of emphasis is put on the bottom line, and rightly so, but the profit of a business is not necessarily a good indicator of its value or long term success prospects. Enron was, after all, a highly profitable trading business and we all know of businesses that have been profitable but failed because of cashflow issues... more
Title:
Be Your Own Career Consultant
Author:
Gary Pyke and Stuart Neath
Publisher:
Pearson Education
The psychological contract that exists between employers and employees is changing faster than it has since the Industrial Revolution. Employers cannot and will not offer a job for life, and employees are increasingly understanding that this is a reality that they need to face up to... more
Title:
Take Control of Your Career
Author:
John Lees
Publisher:
McGraw-Hill
Many people are still coming to terms with the fact that their career is their responsibility, and that the organisation they work for is not automatically going to provide them with a clear career path and all the education, qualifications and experience they’ll need to follow it... more
Title: HR Business Partners
Author: Ian Hunter, Jane Saunders, Allan Boroughs and Simon Constance
Publisher: Gower
The “HR as Business Partner” model requires a symbiotic relationship between HR and the line based on mutual respect and HR delivering tangible organisational benefit. HR Business Partners endeavour to better understand this model and create a framework for how HR Business Partners can make a difference ... more.
Title: On Staffing
Editors: Nicholas C. Burkholder, Preston J Edwards Snr, Libby Sartain
Publisher:
John Wiley & Sons
On Staffing focuses on how to get, induct, develop and retain great people. It’s a timely publication. Now that the skills shortage is starting to look like ‘the good old days’ and HR faces up to the fact that it is approaching a time of ‘body shortages’ regardless ... more.
Title: Mastering Change
Publisher: BBC Books
Mastering Change contains real life lessons from real business leaders. It doesn’t work as a manual, telling you how to identify the changes needed, nor how to implement or embed them. Instead it guides you through the learning gained ... more.
Title: Voices of Experience
Author: Jacqui Harper MBE
Publisher: How to Books
Jacqui Harper is perhaps best known for her television presenting expertise, however, with this book she brings us plenty of new perspectives on how everyone can improve their presentations skills.
This isn’t a ‘how to’ book with a step by step guide to ... more.
Title: Impro Learning
Author: Paul Z Jackson
Publisher: Gower
Impro Learning takes an unusual approach to creating learning events. Paul Jackson draws on his experience as a journalist, radio producer and actor to pull together a training programme from getting through the door through design and development to ... more.
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