Every book in the Berrett-Koehler catalog, in one place. Browse our full collection of titles spanning leadership, management, workplace culture, social change, and beyond.
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Offers a fundamentally new conceptual model for the human resource function to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy
Provides concrete suggestions for implementing this model, including numerous examples of effective practices from leading-edge firms
Synthesizes current thinking on knowledge management and intellectual capital and identifies how human resource management can make a value-added contribution
As more organizations recognize the importance of intellectual capital and knowledge management to competitive success, you would expect human resources (HR) to move to the forefront of organizational leadership. Yet, to the contrary, HR continues to be criticized for its operational and bureaucratic focus and its inability to keep up with changes in the environment.
Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy examines how human resource management must change if it is to remain a vital part of the organization. The Lengnick-Halls show how HR departments can move beyond a simple operational focus on attracting, selecting, developing, retaining, and using employees to a more strategic focus on managing human capital and managing knowledge.
The book identifies the most important features of the knowledge economy and details four new roles HR must adopt in order to help organizations succeed in this new environment: human capital steward, knowledge facilitator, relationship builder, and rapid deployment specialist. Each of these roles is defined and described in detail using examples from leading-edge businesses. Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy describes how human resource management has evolved and continues to evolve to meet the increasing demands of organizations for sources of competitive advantage.
Provides concrete suggestions for implementing this model, including numerous examples of effective practices from leading-edge firms
Synthesizes current thinking on knowledge management and intellectual capital and identifies how human resource management can make a value-added contribution
As more organizations recognize the importance of intellectual capital and knowledge management to competitive success, you would expect human resources (HR) to move to the forefront of organizational leadership. Yet, to the contrary, HR continues to be criticized for its operational and bureaucratic focus and its inability to keep up with changes in the environment.
Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy examines how human resource management must change if it is to remain a vital part of the organization. The Lengnick-Halls show how HR departments can move beyond a simple operational focus on attracting, selecting, developing, retaining, and using employees to a more strategic focus on managing human capital and managing knowledge.
The book identifies the most important features of the knowledge economy and details four new roles HR must adopt in order to help organizations succeed in this new environment: human capital steward, knowledge facilitator, relationship builder, and rapid deployment specialist. Each of these roles is defined and described in detail using examples from leading-edge businesses. Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy describes how human resource management has evolved and continues to evolve to meet the increasing demands of organizations for sources of competitive advantage.
Current books on influence usually show how to get what YOU want-that's actually manipulation, according to Rob Jolles. Jolles paints the dividing line between influencing for good and manipulating for selfish reasons and shares the questions and trust exercises that make influence the key to creating positive change.
A much-needed revised edition of the only book that presents a multicultural leadership model integrating eight practices from African-American, American Indian, and Latino communities-an alternative to the heavily or exclusively Anglo-American based concepts of leadership presented by most leadership books. The first edition has sold 20,000 copies, was the winner of the International Latino Book Award, Best Business Book, and was on the Rocky Mountain News Bestseller list.
On the heels of the tremendously successful "Hamster Revolution" (over 40,000 copies sold in English and tens of thousands more in ten foreign languages) comes this equally compelling work that uses the same franchised and branded "hamster" metaphor to empower workers, managers, facilitators and anyone who experiences the universal malaise of meeting overload to fight back.
Blogger, tech guru, and leading thinker on the convergence of media, activism, and technology Deanna Zandt shows how the rising tide of social media offers an unprecedented and must-seize opportunity to advance social and economic justice.
People in all areas of society hunger for community. Tamarack director Paul Born shows how people can move from no community, shallow community, or bogus community (“community of fear”) to deep community in their relationships with others.
Perpetual economic growth has "worked" for human civilization for centuries, but we've finally hit the wall, economically, socially, and environmentally. Advocates for growth can't deny one thing--the resources of the planet are finite, and running out fast, causing poverty, financial meltdowns, and wealth inequality. The authors show that cultivating a culture of "enough" can turn things around, and actually make us richer and happier.
This career development tool kit is for people who want to take charge of their own professional futures.
This book is for employees who want to take charge of their own professional development. Many organizations have eliminated employee career development programs in favor of DIY efforts-and, even if this is not the case, there is more to be gained than lost in taking responsibility for your own career.
Elaine Biech offers practical guidelines for keeping your career on track and mapping it beyond your current job; overcoming personal roadblocks and finding your passion at work; and initiating talent conversations with your manager. Over 100 skills are outlined, including networking, handling pressure, prioritizing, showing political savvy, being a team player,, and selling your ideas. For each skill, Biech offers actions you can take immediately, ongoing practices, and long-term strategies.
Full of tools, tips, and resources, this book is written for the development of all employees. In addition, a short chapter offers advice to managers who want to bring out the best in their people.
This book is for employees who want to take charge of their own professional development. Many organizations have eliminated employee career development programs in favor of DIY efforts-and, even if this is not the case, there is more to be gained than lost in taking responsibility for your own career.
Elaine Biech offers practical guidelines for keeping your career on track and mapping it beyond your current job; overcoming personal roadblocks and finding your passion at work; and initiating talent conversations with your manager. Over 100 skills are outlined, including networking, handling pressure, prioritizing, showing political savvy, being a team player,, and selling your ideas. For each skill, Biech offers actions you can take immediately, ongoing practices, and long-term strategies.
Full of tools, tips, and resources, this book is written for the development of all employees. In addition, a short chapter offers advice to managers who want to bring out the best in their people.
Green business and marketing pioneer Jacquelyn Ottman helps organizations achieve competitive advantage by going “beyond green”--promoting their products and services to mainstream audiences by underscoring such primary benefits as health, superior performance, good taste, cost effectiveness or convenience.
The corporation has become the core institution of the modern world. Designed to seek profit and power, it has pursued both with endless tenacity, steadily bending the framework of law and even challenging the sovereign status of the state. Where did the corporation come from? How did it get so much power? What is its ultimate trajectory?
After he sold his successful computer book publishing business to a large corporation, Ted Nace felt increasingly driven to find answers to these questions. In Gangs of America he details the rise of corporate power in America through a series of fascinating stories, each organized around a different facet of the central question: "How did corporations get more rights than people?" Beginning with the origin of the corporation in medieval Great Britain, Nace traces both the events that shaped the evolution of corporate power and the colorful personalities who played major roles. Gangs of America is a uniquely accessible synthesis of the latest scholarly research, a compelling historical narrative, and a distinctive personal voice.
After he sold his successful computer book publishing business to a large corporation, Ted Nace felt increasingly driven to find answers to these questions. In Gangs of America he details the rise of corporate power in America through a series of fascinating stories, each organized around a different facet of the central question: "How did corporations get more rights than people?" Beginning with the origin of the corporation in medieval Great Britain, Nace traces both the events that shaped the evolution of corporate power and the colorful personalities who played major roles. Gangs of America is a uniquely accessible synthesis of the latest scholarly research, a compelling historical narrative, and a distinctive personal voice.
Continuing his groundbreaking work in Positive Organizational Scholarship, Robert Quinn (bestselling author of Deep Change) offers a clear path and concrete actions for creating extraordinarily high-performing organizational cultures.
Conventional beliefs and cultures all too often create work groups, departments, and even entire organizations that are full of unengaged, underperforming people. Drawing on his decades of pioneering research, Robert Quinn shows how to create organizations where people flourish and exceed expectations.
Using many compelling stories and examples Quinn describes how to replace an outmoded and limiting conventional mindset with a new, more positive and affirming “mental map.” He explains how, with this as your foundation, you can clarify the highest purpose of your organization, help others access their own excellence, communicate honestly and authentically, and much more. The book includes the Positive Organization Generator, a tool any leader can use to develop a custom action plan for turning an organization positive. At its heart, Quinn's book helps leaders transform organizations by changing themselves and others from being comfort-centered to being results-centered, from being self-focused to being other-focused, and from being internally closed to being externally open.
Conventional beliefs and cultures all too often create work groups, departments, and even entire organizations that are full of unengaged, underperforming people. Drawing on his decades of pioneering research, Robert Quinn shows how to create organizations where people flourish and exceed expectations.
Using many compelling stories and examples Quinn describes how to replace an outmoded and limiting conventional mindset with a new, more positive and affirming “mental map.” He explains how, with this as your foundation, you can clarify the highest purpose of your organization, help others access their own excellence, communicate honestly and authentically, and much more. The book includes the Positive Organization Generator, a tool any leader can use to develop a custom action plan for turning an organization positive. At its heart, Quinn's book helps leaders transform organizations by changing themselves and others from being comfort-centered to being results-centered, from being self-focused to being other-focused, and from being internally closed to being externally open.
Leading scholars Ryan W. Quinn and Robert E. Quinn marshal both scientific research and personal experience to show how you can achieve the fundamental state of leadership-lifting up both yourself and those around you. This second edition (first edition had sold over 10,000 copies) has been revised throughout and includes two new chapters.
Just as the Wright Brothers combined science and practice to finally achieve the dream of flight, Ryan and Robert Quinn combine research and personal stories to demonstrate how we can elevate ourselves and the situations and people around us to greater heights of integrity, openness, and achievement-the psychological equivalent of aerodynamic lift, and the fundamental state of effective leadership.
Lift identifies four questions that, when asked in any situation, will instantly give rise to a positive outlook, and explores the profound implications of each of these questions in-depth. The second edition includes two new chapters highlighting surprising applications of the fundamental state of leadership to situations on the job and off, as well as new stories, examples, supportive studies, and techniques for applying the lessons of Lift. Each person who learns these principles will lift themselves, lift others, and inspire others to spread that lifting as far as they can.
Just as the Wright Brothers combined science and practice to finally achieve the dream of flight, Ryan and Robert Quinn combine research and personal stories to demonstrate how we can elevate ourselves and the situations and people around us to greater heights of integrity, openness, and achievement-the psychological equivalent of aerodynamic lift, and the fundamental state of effective leadership.
Lift identifies four questions that, when asked in any situation, will instantly give rise to a positive outlook, and explores the profound implications of each of these questions in-depth. The second edition includes two new chapters highlighting surprising applications of the fundamental state of leadership to situations on the job and off, as well as new stories, examples, supportive studies, and techniques for applying the lessons of Lift. Each person who learns these principles will lift themselves, lift others, and inspire others to spread that lifting as far as they can.
Nine science-backed leadership capacities, drawn from over fifteen thousand studies, that help any leader model, inspire, and empower others to perform at their best.
Two Thinkers50 Award–winning experts in neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and organizational behavior distill decades of research into a practical, progressive framework built around 9 capacities organized across 3 levels: self-oriented, other-oriented, and system-oriented.
Each capacity is grounded in real stories, science summaries, and hands-on practices and includes guidance on avoiding the pitfalls of overuse.
Inside this book:
What readers gain: Greater ease in leading, reduced ego-driven friction, stronger team outcomes, and a sense of fulfillment that grows alongside impact.
Ideal for leaders who want research-backed development, not generic advice.
Two Thinkers50 Award–winning experts in neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and organizational behavior distill decades of research into a practical, progressive framework built around 9 capacities organized across 3 levels: self-oriented, other-oriented, and system-oriented.
Each capacity is grounded in real stories, science summaries, and hands-on practices and includes guidance on avoiding the pitfalls of overuse.
Inside this book:
- A 9-capacity framework built on over fifteen thousand studies in human performance
- Tools for becoming more conscious, authentic, relational, compassionate, and transformational as a leader
- Practices applicable at every level, from emerging managers to C-suite executives and professional coaches
- Real-world stories that make complex behavioral science immediately actionable
What readers gain: Greater ease in leading, reduced ego-driven friction, stronger team outcomes, and a sense of fulfillment that grows alongside impact.
Ideal for leaders who want research-backed development, not generic advice.
We all make to-do lists and therein lies the problem, says author Laura Stack. Our to-do lists are huge-we'll never be able to get all those things done and we waste time and energy trying. Instead, she offers a systematic way to prioritize and pick the things that most need attention so you get maximum results in minimum time.
This book teaches leaders how to focus on people development rather than product development. Innovation comes from people, not products or technology. Deborah Piscione's twelve-step process is a comprehensive guide to success for leaders that shows them how to harness the creative energy in their organization, thereby bringing better products to market.
For too long, companies and their leadership teams focused primarily on their products or services. Leaders are deeply dialed in to the minutiae of their companies' operations. But veteran Silicon Valley consultant Deborah Perry Piscione says investments in new technologies or operations do not create innovations-people do. For innovation to happen, organizations need to be people-centric. In this breakthrough book she shows how, by following her People Equation, every organization can develop a mindset, an organizational structure, and a product development process that will maximize creativity and innovation.
Using examples from her consulting work and from her research into successful business practices, Piscione shows how to create a culture where risk taking is rewarded, mavericks are encouraged, collaboration between highly competent people is nurtured, and, when experiments and new initiatives are proposed, the response is to ask how rather than question why. This requires upending the usual organizational pyramid, giving more decision-making power to frontline workers and less to the C-level executives traditionally at the top. Once this is all in place, you can take advantage of Piscione's twelve-step Improvisational Innovation process for bringing new products and services to market. This is a comprehensive guide to harnessing the creative energy in every organization.
For too long, companies and their leadership teams focused primarily on their products or services. Leaders are deeply dialed in to the minutiae of their companies' operations. But veteran Silicon Valley consultant Deborah Perry Piscione says investments in new technologies or operations do not create innovations-people do. For innovation to happen, organizations need to be people-centric. In this breakthrough book she shows how, by following her People Equation, every organization can develop a mindset, an organizational structure, and a product development process that will maximize creativity and innovation.
Using examples from her consulting work and from her research into successful business practices, Piscione shows how to create a culture where risk taking is rewarded, mavericks are encouraged, collaboration between highly competent people is nurtured, and, when experiments and new initiatives are proposed, the response is to ask how rather than question why. This requires upending the usual organizational pyramid, giving more decision-making power to frontline workers and less to the C-level executives traditionally at the top. Once this is all in place, you can take advantage of Piscione's twelve-step Improvisational Innovation process for bringing new products and services to market. This is a comprehensive guide to harnessing the creative energy in every organization.
“We are the 99%” is the rallying cry of millions of people involved in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. This is the first book to pull together in once place detailed information about the 1% and the 99% in all realms of society, the causes and consequences of this deep inequality, and what can be done about it.
There is a crisis of meaning in our lives, work, and society. The solution is to begin the search for deeper meaning. The authors summarize the universal and timeless wisdom of Viktor Frankl and provide new insights based on their work leading the Meaning Movement.
World-renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning was named by the Library of Congress as one of the ten most influential books of the 20th century. Dr. Frankl's story of finding a reason to live in the most horrible circumstance imaginable-Nazi concentration camps-continues to inspire millions.
Drawing on the entire body of Frankl's work, Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon elaborate seven Core Principles and demonstrate how they can be applied to everyday life and work in the 21st century. These principles include the ultimate freedom to choose our attitude no matter the situation-the idea most closely associated with Frankl-but his ageless wisdom goes well beyond this. The third edition is revised and updated throughout and includes four new chapters: looking at meaning in a holistic, integrated way; envisioning what a meaning-centered world would look like; and exploring Frankl's legacy in the 21st century. Prisoners of Our Thoughts opens up new opportunities for finding personal meaning through living an authentic life.
World-renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning was named by the Library of Congress as one of the ten most influential books of the 20th century. Dr. Frankl's story of finding a reason to live in the most horrible circumstance imaginable-Nazi concentration camps-continues to inspire millions.
Drawing on the entire body of Frankl's work, Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon elaborate seven Core Principles and demonstrate how they can be applied to everyday life and work in the 21st century. These principles include the ultimate freedom to choose our attitude no matter the situation-the idea most closely associated with Frankl-but his ageless wisdom goes well beyond this. The third edition is revised and updated throughout and includes four new chapters: looking at meaning in a holistic, integrated way; envisioning what a meaning-centered world would look like; and exploring Frankl's legacy in the 21st century. Prisoners of Our Thoughts opens up new opportunities for finding personal meaning through living an authentic life.