Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 - Social & Behavioral Sciences — Anthropology — Latin American & Latina/o Studies

An Intel Corporation principal engineer, respected researcher, and prolific author, Gregg has written a book that will change the way people look at the notion of time management. Counterproductive examines the concept of time management from the perspectives of workforce productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency. Gregg presents the four chapters under three headings: "Theory," "Practice," and "Anthropotechnics." The theory section includes the introduction and a substantive and extensively documented history of time management. The two chapters in the practice section highlight the significance of organization and productivity. The anthropotechnics section includes a chapter on mindfuless and a conclusion that addresses an array of issues in the contemporary workplace. The list of references is impressive, as is the bibliography, which includes both classic and contemporary books and articles. Useful as a primary, secondary, or supplementary text, this volume will benefit those interested in business, management, human resources, psychology, or sociology.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals.

Designing experiences, environments, companies, etc., has become a modern-day term. Despite its widespread adoption, there is not much literature that describes how to design, create, and implement these experiences, let alone how to define the best type of experiences with which to attain specific goals and objectives. Enter Designing Experiences with a simple, compelling, and rich description and terminology to define the experience and the process. Starting with the notion of "intentionality," and using the building blocks of "micro and macro experiences," the authors define the elements of the process and the "dramatic structure" itself. "Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement summarize the process," they write. There are many analogies to this; the authors' cite Gustav Freytag and the hero's journey (or a normal distribution curve). Both the rationale and the process make a useful framework, buttressed by practice examples of successful practitioners of the process. The text is clear, concise, and a must read for anyone interested in the subject.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Three brilliant and prolific authors (in the fields of innovation, behavioral transformation, and neuroscience) collaborate to describe three powerful tools used to motivate organizational change. Though this wonderfully concise work is brimming with fascinating technological examples, the focus is on changing the human behaviors that block radical organizational change, such as fear, incrementalism, ingrained habits, and company politics. The authors show how comic books, science fiction, and strategic narratives can create a compelling story, how organizational bottlenecks can be broken through decision maps and archetypes, and how applied neuroscience can help develop future key performance indicators that work together to overcome those resistant to change and inspire key executives to transform organizational goals and outcomes. In addition to providing specific sequential steps for the process of change, the authors artfully suggest alternative strategies for when things go "wrong" (i.e., not as planned). Given the fast-changing organizational environment, this book provides the tools needed to foster the creativity and innovation necessary for navigating an uncertain future.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Wasserman (Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, USC) is a noted expert on start-ups. In this volume he explains how entrepreneurial know-how can be used to better manage one's personal life, including career decisions, personal relationships, and managerial challenges. Writing for people entering new endeavors--switching jobs, relocating, or entering a creative activity--the author seeks to tap the wisdom of successful entrepreneurs and their counterintuitive thinking for their relevance to life decisions, and he provides numerous examples. Wasserman discusses managing change and executing the envisioned plan; factors that prevent people from making desired changes or that foster hasty changes; and fear of failure and the perils of success. He concludes by examining the risk of relying on long-established personal mental patterns and how to apply rational thinking and focus emotions to balance head and heart, manage conversations on difficult topics, and avoid seduction by short-term gains. A delight to read, this book will be especially relished by those with entrepreneurial mindsets.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

This book about journalism is also an example of what journalism should be. Instead of pretending to be neutral or objective, Martin (digital journalism and communication studies, Univ. of Northern Iowa) makes his own viewpoint on journalism and the coverage (or lack thereof) of labor issues clear from the start. Thus the reader can judge the book without worrying about a hidden agenda or propagandistic intent. Martin makes the case that, driven by advertiser interest and other factors, coverage of labor issues has dwindled over the past 50 years to the point of insignificance, and that what little coverage there is routinely takes a pro-consumer, antilabor stance. In chapter 1 the author examines coverage of Carrier's decision to leave manufacturing in Indiana for Mexico, and the partial reversal of that decision. In chapter 2 he provides a brief history of the rise and fall of labor journalism. In the subsequent four chapters he looks at the impact of the news media's decision to target upscale audiences; the impact that had on labor coverage and on the voice of labor in American politics; and the meaning, and misuse, of the phrase "job killers." Martin concludes with an examination of how labor coverage can be improved.Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Dodgson (Univ. of Queensland Business School) and Gann (Imperial College Business School, UK) embark on a fascinating exploration of how entrepreneurs and innovators use playful work to create impact for their organizations while facing high levels of uncertainty. The authors center their book around four identified behaviors that are common among playful entrepreneurs. Those behaviors are grace, craft, fortitude, and ambition, and the authors devote a chapter to each. In addition they illustrate how entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in leading ventures (e.g., IDEO, Airbnb) use intelligent play to innovate through experimentation and collaboration. Dodgson and Gann's model presents fascinating insights into how playful behaviors can be applied to develop and nurture a culture of innovation that is engaging and satisfying, while also creating a positive impact in society. The book is a must read for anyone who is interested in learning more about the nature of playful work and the future of work in an increasingly dynamic, fast-paced, and uncertain economic landscape.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Although Rutherford (emer., history, Univ. of Toronto) writes in the acknowledgments that this cultural biography "was born in front of the television screen"--namely Mad Men, with its depiction of adman Don Draper--the narrative reveals that Rutherford mastered classic movies, documentaries, and numerous books that focus on the role of the adman. In the introduction the author notes that the central dilemma he addresses is "the dichotomy between the ideal of truth-telling and the practice of deception," which often ensnares advertisers in their own narratives. As the title indicates, the phenomenon is at least as old as the hucksterism of P. T. Barnum and as contemporary as the populist rhetoric of President Donald J. Trump. In Rutherford's narrative, the adman, whose fortunes have risen and fallen over the years, seems both a necessary ancillary to capitalism and one of its most obvious excrescences. Rutherford's survey of authors includes classic writers of both fiction and nonfiction, along with works by leading practitioners. Thoroughly documented and almost encyclopedic in its coverage, this volume will be of immense value to those studying, teaching, or researching advertising practices.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Zuboff (emer., Harvard Business School) offers a definitive, stunning analysis of how digital giants like Google, Facebook, etc. have single-mindedly pursued data on human behavior as fodder for generating predictions and shaping outcomes salable to advertisers and others. She calls this surveillance capitalism. The industry now produces not only phones and computers that collect digitized data about users but also "smart" data-gobbling TVs, Alexas, children's toys, clothing, medical monitors, and even stickers and Pokemon GO designed to capture data on an individual's location, language, voice, heartbeat, and emotion and use the data to predict and mold human actions, mainly purchases and political behavior. The author's research was thorough, and she documents it in 120 pages of notes. Zuboff stands on the shoulders of Frank Pasquale (The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information, CH, Jun'15, 52-5426) and Ken Auletta (Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, CH, Jul'10, 47-6349), among numerous others. The scope of her analysis is extraordinary; in addition to covering philosophical, social, and political implications she discusses needed privacy regulation. Undergraduates fascinated by technology will love the stories and get the points, but perhaps skip the more philosophical passages. This book is pathbreaking, illuminating, and unnerving.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Rogelberg (Belk College of Business, Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte) is a consultant and researcher as well as a professor, and in this book he captures the essence of the dread almost everyone who works in (or anticipates working in) an organization experiences when faced with attending a meeting. But instead of advocating that organizations dispense with meetings, Rogelberg argues for the critical need for meetings, meetings that are well run, do not waste time, and, consequently, contribute to organizational effectiveness and an array of positive human resource-related factors. The book's first section sets the stage and highlights the current state of affairs; the second section provides an evidence-based examination of ten core strategies that will dramatically improve the meetings one typically attends; and an epilogue provides seven tools for accomplishing that goal, along with a list of supporting references for the book's evidenced-based approaches. This book is a must read for undergraduates in all majors and (especially) graduate management and business students. It will also be a worthwhile professional development resource.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

VanGrasstek (Harvard) brings a wealth of hands-on experience with leading transnational economic organizations and outstanding academic credentials to this highly ambitious and impressive work. Using hegemonic stability theory as a theoretical framework, he surveys the major issues and trends in US trade policy from the early republic to the present day. He shows how the players on each side of the free trade-protectionist debate have changed over time, as well as the balance of forces between them. As the most recent global hegemon, the US overall favored more open markets in order to reap the benefits of its economic power, but in doing so eventually facilitated the rise of competitors, especially China. Enter Donald Trump, the first avowedly protectionist presidential candidate since Hoover, who managed to channel the supposed victimization of the US into an improbable victory. Separate chapters address trading with allies, with adversaries, and with developing countries. He concludes that the end of American hegemony may date from January 20, 2017, given the Trump administration's complete abdication of hegemonic responsibilities, both economic and strategic.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.