Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 6 - January 2018) - Choice Review: Business

Gini (Loyola Univ. Chicago) and Green (Dartmouth College) have written an accessible leadership ethics text written from the perspective of virtue-based ethics. Part 1 lays out the basics of "good leadership" and how it contrasts with "bad leadership" (misleadership); discusses the role of character in virtue-based ethics; and summarizes "ten virtues" especially important for leaders today such as deep honesty, moral courage, compassion, fairness, creative thinking, good timing, and deep selflessness. Part 2 explores how these virtues were manifest in 11 "outstanding leaders" such as James Burke, Abraham Lincoln, and Winston Churchill. Critics will identify three common biases. First, the book emphasizes well-known "Great Men" in politics, business, and the military who do "Great Things." However, little is said about "Everyday Leaders" who successfully accomplish "Small Things." Second, of the 11 "outstanding leaders" discussed, only two are women: Rosa Parks and Oprah Winfrey. Third, arguments in support of "greatness" and the "virtues" of these "Great Men" are gleaned from a fairly narrow body of secondary biographical information. Despite these issues, teachers of undergraduate ethical leadership courses will find this to be a very readable and useful introductory textbook. This work can also serve as supplementary reading for lower-division students wanting an introduction to this topic.

Anthropologist Osburg (Univ. of Rochester) taught English in the late 1990s in Guangzhou and then worked on a local Chengdu television show as a cohost, translator, and writer until the early 2000s. This long exposure to Chinese society helped him establish close connections with elite entrepreneurs in Chengdu as well as ordinary citizens and Chinese academia. During three years of fieldwork in the mid-2000s in Chengdu, Osburg accompanied and observed local entrepreneurs in their deal-makings with partners and government officials at banquets, saunas, karaoke clubs, massage parlors, and other places for business entertaining. His ethnographic study of the emergence of China's new rich in the last three decades depicts and analyzes networks among elite entrepreneurs and between themselves and government officials, through which they established alliances or even social institutions to generate, increase, and protect their wealth and social status. The author also illustrates reconstructed masculinity, gender roles, and sexuality in Chengdu's business world, in particular, and in post-Mao China in general, with the emphasis on the decline and loss of public morality. A must-have book for China studies.

This interdisciplinary work incorporates significant ideas from economics, law, and moral philosophy into an overall discussion of managerial responsibility. Hosmer (emer., Ross School of Business Administration, Univ. of Michigan; The Ethics of Management, 7th ed., 2010) and Barry (Univ. of Michigan Law School) use detailed case studies of corporate disasters, notably BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 and the financial collapse of the housing market in 2008, along with other examples (foreign tax evasion schemes, toymakers using lead paints, steelmakers with excellent employee cooperation, etc.). They discuss managerial responsibility and suggest an analytical process for determining managerial responsibility and persuading others to agree with and accept that responsibility. The writing style is somewhat dense, due to a wordy style, extremely lengthy sentences, and numerous parenthetical comments, combined with rather in-depth (though intriguing) industrial examples and academic discussions. At the same time, the chapters are well organized, and the authors regularly repeat key aspects of their theory, making it possible to maintain a contextual framework for the many asides.

This is a significant contribution to theory and practice in sustainable management. In this realm, rhetoric often dominates practice and real progress is slow. Szekely (IMD Business School) and Dossa (Function of Beauty) are a formidable academic-practitioner pair, and they are serious about building an approach to sustainable management that is equal to the environmental crisis. They criticize as inadequate the "triple bottom line," which adds environmental and social accounting to traditional business assessment. They are dissatisfied with the marginal change that the discourse of "best practice" validates. They question the highly constrained "business case" for sustainable management and propose a model oriented broadly toward social good. They go so far as to challenge companies whose primary product is inherently destructive (e.g., tobacco) to embrace wholesale change rather than attempt some modest offset of harms. Despite carefully articulated principles and illustrative case studies, Szekely and Dossa do not ultimately succeed in identifying a better path forward for sustainable management. Their emphasis on the standard variable of leadership leaves the reader wondering whether the authors have found the proper means for the revolution they want.

Communication Clinic is concise, clever, catchy, and cute. Those descriptors do not mean that it is a poor or useless book, but even at a relatively inexpensive $20, it is not a good use of an academic library’s limited acquisition funds. Pachter is a self-described “Speaker, Author, and Coach” who provides business etiquette and communication consulting to clients across the globe. The 99 “rules” are spread across sections on business writing, presentation skills, assertiveness and conflict scenarios, career advancement, and appearance and etiquette. Each “rule” comes with a two-page list of dos and don’ts, some of which provide excellent advice relating to newer forms of communication. For example, Rule 19 makes the point that texting in a job-setting is business writing and should be done in a business-like manner—an important lesson for young professionals who grew up unaware of traditional distinctions between informal and professional levels of digital interaction. The book will be a nice supplement to a seminar in business etiquette and the packaging (as opposed to content) aspects of business communication, but its superficiality makes it inappropriate for college students and entry-level professionals who need a more substantive grounding.

This book is an update of the 2007 edition. It synthesizes the field of analytics, or the convergence of databases, statistics, and decision-making, to show what an important new skill for students and managers it has become to business leaders. Managers across the function areas of a business (marketing, human resources, accounting, operations, mergers and acquisitions, finance, and R&D) rely on analytics to turn data into actionable information. And managers must master three areas of competition: effective execution, smart decision-making, and efficiency. This book starts with a nice overview of the history and future direction of analytics. Then it introduces many practical examples of how the field of analytics is being used inside and outside of firms and organizations. The final section provides a road map for building analytic capabilities. As it was a decade ago, this is a must-read for business students and practitioners.

To improve performance and ensure success, decision makers recognize the need to gain insights about numerous issues impacting the planning, responsiveness, and competitiveness of their organizations. For those managers wanting to do it themselves, Vella and McGonagle, recognized experts in competitive intelligence (CI) for the past 30 years, offer practical recommendations on how to establish or rehabilitate a CI initiative and how to determine its effectiveness. Rather than a textbook on CI theory, the authors provide case studies describing how managers painstakingly establish useful CI functions that eventually provide much-needed insights. The authors condensed responses from numerous client interviews, emails, deliberations, and memos on a wide range of issues addressed while establishing or repairing the CI function. Learn how a multinational firm grew its CI function out in business units, how a medium-sized firm expanded to include future competitors, and how a financial services firm developed an advanced strategic focus. Additional cases address how to integrate CI staff from newly acquired firms and how socioeconomic changes forced a small nonprofit to use CI. Conscientious decision makers in large multinationals and/or do-it-yourselfers will glean valuable insights from Vella and McGonagle's workbook/thinkbook.

Breeze (modern languages, Univ. of Navarra, Spain) is the author of Rethinking Academic Writing Pedagogy for the European University (2012) as well as a broad array of articles covering discourse analysis in a variety of contexts. In this new volume, she presents a thorough analysis and comprehensive overview of discourse emanating from corporations. Following a complex introduction to the corporation and various approaches toward discourse analysis, Breeze offers detailed chapters filled with current examples of corporate discourse and communication toward employees, investors, and the world at large, including analyses of corporate advertising, websites, and mission statements and annual reports. These informative, engaging chapters provide a solid introduction and overview of discourse analysis in the corporate arena. Previews at the beginning of each chapter combined with numerous subheadings within chapters help the reader to follow the overall organization of the analysis. The depth of coverage and wonderfully varied word choice make the book more appropriate for graduate or upper-division undergraduate students who are already familiar with the contours of discourse analysis.

Burtles, an expert on business continuity management, draws on his extensive global consulting experience with commercial facilities of every size, profit as well as not-for-profit, in writing this unique book on comprehensive emergency evacuation planning in the workplace. He provides an innovative approach to the strategic design and implementation of such plans, emphasizing the Business Continuity Institute's 6-Phase Business Continuity Lifecycle Model. Burtles integrates continuity management concepts and evacuation planning into a step-by-step program to assist organizations in creating effective practices and procedures to respond to emergency evacuation needs. Chapter 1, "The Essentials of Emergency Evacuation Planning," introduces the topic. The five following chapters address specific aspects of the planning and implementation process. Chapters are readable and formatted like those of a tax guide or law book, with excellent use of checklists, short summaries, case studies, vignettes, and discussion questions. Supplemental resources are available on the publisher's website. Two appendixes, "An Auditing Approach to EEP" and "Standards and Regulations," and a glossary complete the book. Although oriented toward professional audiences, this work is an important guide and reference for anyone interested in workplace safety or emergency evacuation planning.

Leigh, management consultant and author, recommends improving organizational ethics through culture. He sees building an ethical culture as being a strategic advantage as well as doing the right thing. The book provides a series of steps for developing an ethical culture in the workplace; this involves a systems approach combined with a scorecard and an ethical audit process. A thorough discussion of organizational requirements includes a review of the driving forces for an ethical culture, leadership and management, systems and procedures, and communication strategy. A valuable section on individual requirements includes chapters on learning to develop skills and create ethical conduct, and sustaining ethical behavior through support and rewards. Leigh is in agreement with most authors in the field that ethical behavior must be rewarded to be sustained over time. A concluding chapter outlines how to sustain an ethical culture into the future and considers such topics as globalization, societal and demographic changes, technological advancements, and climate concerns. For the CEO and fellow ethical culture implementers in the organizational sphere, this work can serve to focus planning and action toward successful ethical culture modification.

Do people need professional incentives to behave well? Langford (Georgia State Univ.) builds a strong case for how courtesy can advance careers because no one works in a social vacuum. Fortunately, she also shows how thoughtfulness and civility can improve people's day-to-day lives and those of others, thereby moving beyond appeals to purely cynical motives. This lively, witty review of countless professional scenarios offers guidelines that can reduce stress and uncertainties in common and unusually challenging situations. Langford employs anecdotes, cites studies and other authorities, and organizes it all into concise chapters charted in a well-crafted index. She advocates for flexibility across time and cultures, emphasizing attitudes rather than mere rule compliance. Updates in this second edition include how people present themselves, others, and employers on social media platforms. The basic principle that applies in social media, “think before you post," can guide people in any situation: think before you act, use common sense, respect others, and imagine long-term consequences. The American Management Association published both editions to support professional growth. How people develop “personal brands” matters both professionally and personally.

Fraud, defined by the author as "any intentional act to deprive another of property or money by guile, deception, or other unfair means," is a growing problem in this culture, and fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated in the use of technology to perpetrate their crimes. Spann (US Secret Service) outlines strategies and tools at the disposal of organizations and investigators as they attempt to counter the threats posed by fraudulent crime. Of particular interest is the discussion in several chapters of cutting-edge data analysis software, which expresses data relationships visually rather than in the form of spreadsheets or reports; these visual analyses are better able to interpret "big data." This volume does not teach readers how to use these programs, but it acquaints them with some of their capabilities. The book contains numerous reproductions of visual data analyses produced by these programs; it could benefit from a more detailed explanation of how to interpret them. Nonetheless, the book is an eye-opener because it brings to light the latest tools in the ongoing fight against fraud.

Wall Street is capitalist, and Silicon Valley is capitalist. Main Street is mostly capitalist, as are a majority of new venture founders. Though nonprofit social ventures are growing, for decades, a small niche of non-mainstream businesses hated capitalism but launched anyway. Their ventures were based on opposing exploitation while giving voice to those they felt were oppressed. Davis (Univ. of Baltimore) examines the charming history of these businesses. He breaks the ventures into four chapters: African American, marijuana activists, feminists, and natural foods. Each delves into local detail of pioneers in each category, and in the end, Davis explains what caused most to stumble or fail. Ironically, many failed because, being under financed, they were criticized for being exploitative as well. He concludes with a thought on how Silicon Valley has appropriated the language of these businesses in pursuit of capitalist desires. Davis is an excellent storyteller, capturing both the romance of the various movements and their passionate activist founders.

The editors of this book have composed a comprehensive review of the roles of language and communication in the workplace, the fourth volume in a larger series focusing on complex and dynamic organizational processes. The book presents a variety of perspectives from 32 contributors who are mostly well-published organization behavior academics from Europe. Of the 12 chapters, one of the most interesting is an analysis of the creation and development of myths in organizations. The authors provide the example of the Stanford commencement address by Steve Jobs, which promoted the myth that he was a hero returning to Apple. Other chapters cover organizational storytelling, the role of time and space in communication, power and politics, interactions during meetings, moral judgment, and the language and style of talk at work. The latter chapter discusses the decision by distant authorities to use the term "swine flu" to describe the newest major illness at the time. The book’s style is highly academic with numerous citations of top-tier journal articles, and its chapters are either in the form of literature reviews or analyses of organizational communications. For a theoretical introduction to organizational processes, readers should see Understanding Organization as Process, by Tor Hernes (2007).

Storytellers can have great business impact when they communicate a clear theme that enhances imagination, motivates, elicits emotions, and encourages action. Choy (Leadership Story Lab) coaches managers on how to become storytellers to connect with their business audiences. This is definitely a how-to book on business storytelling. Choy emphasizes that stories come in three acts—learning the main characters and background, facing a series of challenges, and answering central questions. Some story plots include a character’s life changing from bad to good, reaching an unreachable goal, overcoming a problem, and learning about the past. Most of the book describes key story features and details how stories can be created. A final section contains stories from the nonprofit world and the healthcare industry. Throughout the book, the author shares her personal experiences as an admissions officer, consultant, and student. Related books are industry-specific, such as Paul Smith’s Sell with a Story (CH Mar 17, 54-3327). Very easy to read with plenty of headings and diagrams.

Abend (sociology, New York Univ.) combines history, philosophy, and social science to suggest a comprehensive base for understanding moral behavior. While the book's focus is on business ethics, the insights presented have many applications. A wealth of sources from 18th- and 19th-century commentary on business ethics describes two approaches to moral discernment; each has a different moral background or metaphysical mooring that underpins behavior. The "Standards of Practice" category evaluates behavior scientifically where moral tradeoffs are contextual, but basic principles like service to society make moral behavior meaningful. Alternatively, "The Christian Merchant" category incorporates being as well as doing and focuses on God as the source of immutable moral truth from which all of life has order and moral clarity. As these concepts are developed, information is presented about business ethics in education, methodological difficulties in moral research, including cross-cultural complications, and the prospect for integrated research on moral theory with modern biological and neurological approaches. While the narrative is not easy reading, and there are occasional redundancies, the benefits of sticking with it are well worth the effort. The question of what constitutes moral behavior is a timely subject needing constant attention in a complex market economy.

This volume collects a series of papers and essays on the subject of corporate social responsibility written by Heath (public policy, Univ. of Toronto) over a period of years. The author's approach is a sensible focus on market failure, which comes closer to the mark in explaining violations of explicit and implicit contracts in civil society than any other diagnostic so far. Individual chapters focus on stakeholders, contracts, agency theory, and variants on ethics. Heath provides a lengthy and excellent introduction that, together with the first chapter on market failure, arguably contains the core of the book. Undergraduate and graduate students in business and society courses might be well served by focusing on these two sections of the book; later chapters balance the text by delving further into details for those desiring much greater depth or conducting research on the subject. There is also an outstanding bibliography.

The term mosaic (originally from Greek) is interpreted by Lovegrove to describe a society in which individuals live lives of “eclectic breadth and diversity” with various “ethnic groups, languages and cultures coexisting.” He set out to write a book to help people achieve an objective that many readers desire: a personally and professionally satisfying life consistent with mosaic concepts. Because people differ in so many important aspects, one may ask whether it is possible to present the topic as generally useful. Those readers prepared to spend time to understand the very well presented material should gain some important insights. Using examples from the lives of a variety of successful people at different stages of career and life, Lovegrove explains the elements of depth of career as well as breadth of career. Understanding the difference may assist in making employment choices. He also suggests the importance of continuously listening, learning, and developing transferable skills as one builds an extended network and becomes prepared to accept new opportunities. In addition, it is interesting that Lovegrove believes having a strong moral compass (and using it) helps in achieving one’s objectives.

Christiansen (Aarhus Univ., Denmark) identifies three historical epochs of market reform: paternalistic market reform in the 1890s, managerial market reformism in the New Deal years, and entrepreneurial market reformism under globalization. All emerged to reassure the public that capitalism was evolving to improve the conditions of workers, communities, and the environment. Christiansen provides a sweeping account of thinkers and practitioners within and without market reform traditions. The boundaries between meaningful reform and corporate preservation are not always clear. For example, the author describes the influence of Robert Owen, whose New Lanark community in Scotland was a symbol for socialists and an inspiration to managerial experiments with company towns. Christiansen notes the persistence of questions about the legitimacy and social role of the corporation. Economic crisis repeatedly subjects business to controversy and stimulates thinking about how to embed more humane values in the enterprise. Through his careful consideration of the history of market reform, the author punctures some of the mythology surrounding contemporary claims about the broad institutionalization of corporate social responsibility.

This volume is a practical guide to managing professional relationships. A relational leader is "anyone who intentionally puts the other person's goals and values at the forefront of each business relationship, creating an exceptional experience for others." The principles include putting the other person's best interest at the core of your relationship, but knowing that this pays off in such ways as retaining employees. Another principle is to care about people's goals, passions, and struggles. The aim is to get to know people more than at a superficial level. One of the principles involves inspiring a sense of purpose in your colleagues. An interesting part of the book is the discussion of lateral and vertical relationship planning. The notion is not to miss critical relational gaps that might leave out a valuable person from a process. The goal is to identify which person can be helpful to a project and let her know of the need she might be able to cover. Sponsor–protégé relationships are strategic. Relational capital is to be built up over many interactions and years. A recommendation is to use hand-written notes to make your communication standout in this age of email.

The author’s diversified professional background enables him to develop his premise and articulate it persuasively. He begins by making a distinction between a business’s stakeholders and its “shapeholders.” Stakeholders, e.g., employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, the local community, may be affected financially by a business’s actions. Shapeholders, on the other hand, have no direct financial stake in a company but can make or break a company’s reputation and may even lead to its downfall. They include social and political activists, politicians, regulators, and traditional and social media outlets. Kennedy’s point, supported with excellent and recent examples, is that in an age of social media and 24-hour news cycles, business executives ignore the importance of these shapeholder relationships at their peril. “Seven Steps to Shapeholder Success" provides guidelines for combining “the three dimensions of shareholders, stakeholders, and shapeholders … into a unifying focus.” This is no anti-business tirade. On the contrary, Kennedy wants business executives to strengthen their bottom lines by incorporating consideration of non-market forces into their strategic planning and execution. Highly recommended as an excellent, up-to-date contribution to the literature of corporate social responsibility and management communication.

In today’s corporate culture, there appears to be a mixture of organizations chastised for their lack of ethical practice and those applauded for the way they integrate ethics with economics. The Sincerity Edge by Christina (Countess of Frederiksborg, Denmark) and Fort (Indiana Univ.) presents a captivating and challenging look at the way in which some organizations have succeeded in living out ethical principles through the enhancement of organizational structure and the empowerment of shareholders, employees, and stakeholders. The authors researched both exceptional organizations and present examples of organizations and CEO’s that have been ethical failures. For the authors, the key to organizational excellence lies in sincerity—in the way in which the organization values integrity, trust, and authenticity. The authors suggest that the core of sincerity resides in living out ethical values, not in order to show off their “goodness” but instead to recognize that these values are good in and of themselves. This is a thoughtful, well-researched text that challenges and encourages the best in organizations and individuals. Highly recommended.

Gardner has written a practical, research-grounded book on collaboration; the introductory chapter is titled "Why Collaborate." She provides "hard evidence for collaboration," including the need to overcome the increasing specialization of professionals and grapple with increasingly complex client problems involving multiple diverse constituencies, often over many parts of the globe. Her analyses show that effective collaboration increases profits and client loyalty. The first step in bringing about collaboration is measuring it and finding out who does it well. The second is adjusting compensation to support collaboration. Third is using technology to accelerate collaboration. An interesting chapter is on how sharing and collaboration leads to significant success that remaining a solo specialist does not. One strong point of the book is the provision of practical steps for managing such things as team reactions to performance pressure. Ultimately, the book meanders through many justifications of smart collaboration rather than offering a preponderance of useful approaches and procedures. Adjusting organizational cultures to support cross-boundary collaborations is an alternative approach offered by Roger Hayes and Reginald Watts in Reframing the Leadership Landscape: Creating a Culture of Collaboration (Routledge, 2015).

Genentech, Amgen, Chiron, and Biogen were four major giants from early biotechnology. All four received early funding from venture capital firms, and all four enjoyed successful IPOs. Where are today's biotechnology companies funded by venture capital and ready to do the same? No one knows—today’s venture capital environment has substantially shifted away from “deep science” firms. In Venture Investing in Science, Jamison and Waite are concerned that the amount of money flowing into deep science has decreased and flows instead into consumer software. The irony is that more opportunities for deep science innovation are available today than ever before, but if funding decreases, then innovation will slow. This work is an excellent history of biotechnology financing and lays out a clear case for concern. The authors discuss structural reasons why capital has flowed away from deep science, including the need for micro-capital for nascent exploration. Because of their size, venture capital firms must pursue bigger bets, whereas most biotechnology starts very small. The book concludes with an excellent financing case study.

This is a collection of important writing on business ethics. Unlike a great books approach, it relies on pieces by others explicating key thinkers in the field. “This volume seeks to reinvigorate and widen business ethics scholarship so that the discipline will be informed more fully and deeply by the perspectives of significant philosophers and thinkers.” The moral issues associated with economic exchange, the ethical dimensions of markets and business, and the creation and uses of wealth are examined through the lenses of sages across a long history. It generally provides clear and compelling summaries of significant thought. The book suggests that a business ethicist might deploy arguments from an array of the thinkers in examining questions related to human resources, marketing, or incorporating concerns related to the natural environment in business. For example, Kant’s moral principle of treating others as ends in themselves might be deployed along with the virtues of Aristotle, such as honesty or generosity. The essays include significant ideas quite relavant to inquiries into business ethics. The book does not explicitly grapple with the welter of current issues associated with e-commerce and other emerging technologies.

Hilligsøe and Pooley offer advice on international negotiations based on their combined experience of 35 years negotiating in more than 30 countries. Though they encourage principled negotiation, they emphasize getting the best possible deal for your side while making the other side feel as though it got a good deal. Peppered with personal and fictional examples, the first half reiterates well-known principles of negotiation, and the second half addresses specific topics such as dealing with cultural difference, knowing your own style, negotiating as a team, and making and taking gifts. The informal conversational style makes for easy reading but lacks the specificity that would aid readers in applying the concepts to their particular negotiations (i.e., the book includes general principles about important cultural concepts, such as differing notions of time, communication, relationships, and truth, but does not clearly address which countries hold which values, making it difficult for readers to usefully apply the concepts). The book is an interesting, but not essential, addition to the plethora of international negotiation books currently available.

This surprisingly engaging volume draws extensively from the social psychology literature to explain ethically commendable and problematic work-related behaviors. Each of 52 concise chapters discusses one or more highly illustrative laboratory or field experiments of classic or recent vintage. The eight introductory chapters discuss fundamental issues such as people's moral nature and environmental influences on behaving ethically. The remaining chapters are organized around seven factors Kaptein (Erasmus Univ., the Netherlands) believes influence the ethicality of people's work-related behaviors: clarity about what constitutes desirable and undesirable behavior; managers as role models for their subordinates; achievability of organizational goals, tasks, and responsibilities; organizational commitment achieved by involving workers and treating them with respect; behavioral transparency to promote accountability and adjustment of behaviors to others' expectations; openness to others' viewpoints, emotions, dilemmas, and transgressions when discussing moral issues; and organizational enforcement that rewards desirable and sanctions undesirable behaviors. This work will enlighten businesspeople about the ethicality of their own and others' behaviors. Since it requires no a priori knowledge of social psychology or ethics, it will benefit students and lay audiences as well as experts.