Accounting Desk Book for Manufacturing Companies

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Accounting Desk Book for Manufacturing Companies
Paul D. Lucas
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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General | Accounting | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0130017019

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Accounting Desk Book for Manufacturing Companies
Paul D. Lucas
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHSER0

Book Description

Many organizations today are scrambling to prepare for an expected wave of retirements. Almost twice as many job openings are occurring from people retiring than from economic expansion--a direct function of a steadily aging workforce. The implications for businesses, government agencies, nonprofits, and educational institutions are enormous, as organizational leaders maneuver to fill the talent pipeline. In this context, organizations are stepping up their investments in career planning (training and development programs to help employees hone their skills and qualify for advancement) and succession management (programs designed to ensure the continuity of leadership). To date, these programs have generally been treated in isolation, and the combined effects of attracting, developing, and grooming talent from the bottom up and the top down are being lost. Drawing from the authors' decades of research and practical experience, a survey of 1,000 human resource practitioners, and examples from a wide variety of organizations, Career Planning and Succession Management shows readers how to create that crucial link between succession and career development programs. Showcasing the most current theory and practice, the book address such hot-button issues as: how to prevent top performers from leaving, how to balance the competing needs of promoting from within versus bringing in new blood, and dealing with unexpected "retirements" in an age of corporate scandal. Featuring numerous diagnostics, checklists, and other interactive elements, Career Planning and Succession Management will become an indispensable guide for leaders and human resource professionals looking to align individual and organizational goals and ensure their economic future.

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Table of Contents.......2007-08-12

Table of Contents
1 Reflections on the contemporary business scene : why career and succession planning must be integrated 3
2 An approach to integrating career and succession planning programs 25
3 Establishing an infrastructure to support the integration of career and succession planning 71
4 Competency models and value systems 89
5 Assessment and evaluation for career and succession planning programs 101
6 Career planning and career counseling 115
7 Training and development 133
8 Mentoring 155
9 Career coaching 173
10 Self-directed learning 181
11 The self-assessment approach : finding value in a new methodology 197
12 Other approaches 209
13 Questions and answers 223
14 The future of career and succession planning 233
App. 1 What is an employee? : the answer depends on federal law 239
App. 2 Introduction to career counseling competency statements 243
App. 3 Leaders for tomorrow 255
App. 4 Differentiating between coaching and mentoring 263

Career Planning and Succession Management : Developing Your Organization's Talent--for Today and Tomorrow

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Career Planning and Succession Management : Developing Your Organization's Talent--for Today and Tomorrow
et al William J. Rothwell
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORDKRY

Book Description

From the casual conversation starter to the 24-hour cable channels and Web sites devoted exclusively to the subject, everyone talks about weather. There's even weather in space—and it's causing major upsets to our modern technological world.

Space weather is all around us. There are no nightly news reports on space weather (yet), but we're rapidly developing the tools necessary to measure and observe trends in cosmic meteorology. New probes are going on-line that help us monitor the weather taking place miles above the Earth.

But why does space weather matter? It doesn't affect whether we bring an umbrella to work or require us to monitor early school closings. It's far, far away and of little concern to us . . . right? March 13, 1989. The Department of Defense tracking system that keeps tabs on 8,000 objects orbiting Earth suddenly loses track of 1,300 of them. In New Jersey, a $10 million transformer is burned up by a surge of extra current in the power lines. Shocks to a power station in Quebec leave 6 million people without electricity. New England power stations struggle to keep their power grid up. Listeners tuning in to their local stations in Minnesota hear the broadcasts of the California Highway Patrol. Residents of Florida, Mexico, and the Grand Cayman Islands see glowing curtains of light in the sky.

All of these bizarre, and seemingly unconnected, events were caused by a storm on the Sun and a fire in the sky. A series of solar flares and explosions had launched bolts of hot, electrified gas at the Earth and stirred up the second largest magnetic storm in recorded history. Before rockets and radio and the advent of other modern devices, we probably would never have noticed the effects of this space storm. But in today's electrically powered, space-faring world, the greatest space storm of the twenty-second solar maximum rang like a wake-up call.

And we are now in the midst of another solar maximum, the effects of which are expected to be felt all the way through the year 2004. Storms from the Sun explores the emerging physical science of space weather and traces its increasing impact on a society that relies on space-based technologies.

Authors Carlowicz and Lopez explain what space weather really means to us down here—and what it may mean for future explorations and colonization of distant worlds. By translating the findings of NASA and other top scientists into fascinating and accessible descriptions of the latest discoveries, we are privy to some of the most closely held secrets that the solar-terrestrial system has to offer.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book!.......2004-02-26

I previously reviewed this book in March 2003 and submitted to Midwest Book Review - see Quote:

The Midwest Book Review, March 2003
"...an electrifying challenge for the mind to decipher the seemingly unfathomable secrets of the sun."

And I meant every word I said. It is a great book and a lot of fun to read, and it isn't necessary to be a rocket scientist to understand the material. Homeschoolers will find this a wonderful addition to their educational reference library.

If you would like to read my full review, feel free to visit the March 2003 Midwest Book Review http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/mar_03.htm

The space weather story.......2002-06-12

I recently read this book and found it very engaging and readable. I have been following the topic of space weather for a few years now and read other articles and books on the topic, but this one was the clearest and most memorable of them all.

It explains the technology, the science,and the politics of space weather and is filled with anecdotes. I enjoyed the color prints in it as well. For anyone who wants to learn about this cutting edge topic, this is the place to go. We are becoming more dependent on satellites and technology, but space weather can really mess things up. The book tells you why and how.

Book Description

Plasmas and their interaction with materials have become subjects of major interest because of their importance in modern forefront technologies such as microelectronics, fusion energy, and space. Plasmas are used in microelectronics to process semiconductors (etching of patterns for microcircuits, plasma-induced deposition of thin films, etc.); plasmas produce deleterious erosion effects on surfaces of materials used for fusion devices and spaceships exposed to the low earth environment.
Diagnostics of plasmas and materials exposed to them are fundamental to the understanding of the physical and chemical phenomena involved. Plasma Diagnostics provides a comprehensive treatment of the subject.
short version, TJE_
Plasmas and their interaction with materials have become subjects of major interest because of their importance in modern forefront technologies such as microelectronics, fusion energy, and space. Diagnostics of plasmas and materials exposed to them are fundamental to the understanding of the physical and chemical phenomena involved. Plasma Diagnostics provides a comprehensive treatment of the subject.

Plasma Diagnostics, Volume 2: Surface Analysis and Interactions.

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Plasma Diagnostics, Volume 2: Surface Analysis and Interactions.
Orlando Auciello
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M47AY8

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Plasma Diagnostics, Volume 2: Surface Analysis and Interactions.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IBIDG4

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Plasma Diagnostics, Volume 2: Surface Analysis and Interactions.
Orlando Auciello
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGYTV6

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Eye-opener.......2006-08-05

Most books on evolution are about the usual subjects of evolution: fossil evidence, speciation, variation, etc. This book takes the subject to a new and novel level: politics and economics. In that way, it is very unique and illuminating. It really makes you think about the vast ramifications of evolution in so many aspects of our lives, such as our political views and biases, legislations, and freedom. The book broadens one's perspective about evolution. I enjoyed reading the book and recommend it.

At least we can race over the cliff edge with smiles on our faces........2006-04-25

In this book Rubin has looked at the EEA - the human Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness - to consider the origins of human preferences and has concluded that Western societies, especially the US, best satisfy our evolved preferences. He is not debating 'what is' vs 'what should be' but does believe that satisfying these preferences is what makes us happy and anything leading to human happiness is desirable.

This is predominantly the story of the human male and today fits most neatly the self-interest of the physically fit adult male born to middle-class parents. Rubin says, and it is probably largely true, that in the EEA humans lived in male-kin groups where dominant males acquired a number of wives while other males had none. This was a zero-sum world where one man's gain was another man's loss. Males both sought dominance and to reduce the dominance of other males.

Today, Rubin says, free trade and capitalism are non zero-sum and benefit everyone though this is counter-intuitive to many because it was not part of the EEA. The striving for wealth benefits all and, with the enforcement of monogamy, wealth poses no threat to the reproductive fitness of others. Business also counters government power which satisfies our preference for the restricted power of politicians and our individual freedom. Though people seek wealth from selfish motives the actual outcome benefits everyone.

Rubin is presenting something of a group-selection argument. Today inequality within a group creates greater average wealth than does equality therefore egalitarian groups are out-competed. If this is so then the implication is that those who suffer the most from inequality should accept their sacrifice because the group actually benefits. This is a problem Rubin does not address - the discontent of those whose sacrifice is required for the 'common good'.

Rubin also does not adequately address the inheritance of wealth and status except to say that no one advocates true equality of opportunity because that would require the removal of children from their parents and a communal upbringing as opportunity is largely tied to the wealth and status of parents.

Rubin briefly mentions the increased dependence of children but does not consider how dependent older humans were/are on their children. The costs of children have grown and grown and only in modern states can people avoid the costs of having children while still receiving the benefits that other people's children provide as workers and carers supporting all the elderly etc. and not just their own parents.

Rubin believes monogamy means there is no need to envy wealthy men yet clearly both sexes compete to attract the most attractive members of the other sex and wealthy men certainly can monopolize more than one attractive female. Sexual display and competition is certainly still a major factor in the seeking of wealth and status.

Rubin dismisses any concern about the environment and the limited resources of our planet. He does not even consider that the 'feel good' reward of money and insatiable consumerism might actually not be the same as happiness. Evolution is not about happiness and many things can make us feel good that actually lead to immense unhappiness eg drugs, fatty foods, sex etc. etc. - all types of impulses and addictions that provide quick fixes and long-term harm. These are things that were very limited in the EEA.

This is an interesting book and appears to follow a logical argument and it certainly coincides with self-interest especially if you are a fit, reasonably wealthy male. Much is missing regarding women, children, the environment, limited resources, our elimination of other species and where our insatiable consumption will ultimately lead. This may be the best of all possible worlds but we should be especially wary - understanding our evolved natures may suggest how we satisfy our evolved wants but this is in no way a green light to do so. Sometimes a red light may be more appropriate.

To gorge ourselves on our planet and tell ourselves this benefits all humans and creates the greatest happiness may simply mean that we will be the happiest but the most short-lived species ever - billions of us laughing our way to extinction.

Capitalism: The Best of Possible Worlds.......2006-02-10

Socialism doesn't work. Two large-scale forced experiments, the Soviet and Maoist, failed. Many lesser socialist states have gone bankrupt. These experiments in institutionalized goodness failed because we humans are born selfish. We glorify equality, but down deep we want nothing more than to outshine the others. We deplore poverty and misery, but when the lotto win falls our way, we don't distribute it to unfortunates.

Rubin, a micro-economist, has written a resounding defence of capitalism understood as the system of production and exchange that optimizes the trade-off between selfishness and large-scale social interaction through a win-win system whose participation inducement is reward rather than deterrence. The dazzle of rewards unleashes the flow of human capital that generates economic growth and multiplication of public goods. The core value of the system is individual freedom and autonomy. Rubin undertakes to explain capitalism's evolutionary origin and the psychology that sustains it. He appropriates game theory to explain how the basic psychology of cooperation, including specific traits such as intelligence, might have evolved under selection pressures generated by the evolutionary `arms race'. This abstract computation is given flesh by suppositions drawn from primatology and anthropology. The result is then projected back to the late Pleistocene when the hominid line speciated as sapiens. There is no remedy for this speculative procedure because there is no direct evidence, apart from hand axes, about human behaviour and psychology in `the state of nature'. However, hominid palaeontology is a dynamic field invigorated especially by new findings from China. Homo sapiens continued to evolve after speciation put the large brained biped in place. Racial differentiation occurred; subtle but important behavioural and psychological differentiation may also have occurred. This caveat assumes critical importance because of what happens next--nothing much, until agricultural settlements appeared about 10,000 years ago, which in turn precipitated the gallop to the initial founding of states in Mesopotamia 4,000 years later. This very peculiar pattern calls for explanation, but the author passes it by in silence. For Rubin the entry into political association is positive, in that it commences the advance to capitalism, but it is negative in that it was purchased at the high cost of supplanting the original hunter-gatherer freedom and autonomy for subordination to autocratic rule-a blight eliminated only in the recent past, and then only by Europeans and nations of European descent. The current situation is that the free market/personal freedom combination remains largely European. The Middle East, Central Asia, Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America display a rainbow of free market-autocracy hybrids. In Sub-Saharan Africa political structures are insecure against tribal dynamics. Since that's five-sixths of world population, let's await to see if capitalism really is the culmination of human evolution.

The center-piece of the book is Rubin's game theoretic analysis of the mechanism of cooperation, using Prisoner's Dilemma as the defining matrix. He brings ingenuity and flare to the task, and I enjoyed reading his interpretation. But I'm not satisfied that his analysis advances the art. The first problem is the misfit between evolutionary assumptions about behaviour and PD. On the evolutionary scenario, behaviour optimizes inclusive rather than individual fitness, whereas PD constrains choice to single episodes of individual advantage. Critics have observed that PD is implicitly modelled on exchanges between non-reproductive males who are strangers. A different matrix would be required to model the choices of reproductive males, and a different one again for reproductive females. Secondly, Rubin does not press his analysis forward to collective action decision making. There is a large literature (Olson, Hecter, Taylor, Elster, &c), and any proposed rational choice theory explanation of large scale exchange must cover this territory. Rubin does not. Finally, the standard objection--But what if humans don't choose rationally? Rubin takes note of Kahneman and Tversky's extensive empirical studies which show exactly that. He responds by placing Gigerenzer's Simple Heuristics that Make Us Smart on the scale as somehow rescuing rational choice from the demolition. For me that's too little too late. Rubin seems indirectly to acknowledge as much when he expresses puzzlement at the persistence of irrational religious belief, and the irrationality of intellectual elites who reprobate immoral capitalism and espouse government welfare structures (i.e., socialism) to soften it.

Rubin's essay prompted me to pull together my diverse arguments against an evolutionary explanation of capitalism, and for that I am grateful. I close with a telling point that Rubin makes himself. Speaking of the linkage between birth rates below replacement value and burgeoning individualism in leading capitalist nations, he says that `for many people (perhaps most people), biological fitness is not itself a goal' (p. 49). Now hear this: when the freedom and autonomy that he attributes to our species in the late Pleistocene comes to full flower, it supports not fitness but extinction! On that basis his claim that freedom is a basic human desire evaporates. There is a further implication. The importation of labor to make up for the unborn locals has created large immigrant minorities, which, thanks to their high birth rate, will become the majority in the United States and Britain in four or five decades, and a large minority in France, Germany, and Italy. These immigrants insert religious conviction and strong ethnic identity into a capitalist system unfriendly to both. Add to this scenario the possibility that the global warming alarm is real, and the future of capitalism doesn't look so bright. The `end of history' may well be nigh, but in a sense opposite to Darwin's, and Francis Fukuyama's, best of possible worlds forecast.

A must read. .......2004-09-28

As I write this there are two intellectual revolutions that I am glad to say are quickly spreading and gaining momentum(they are a must for the continued prosperity of mankind). One is evolutionary psychology. Anyone who has not read a book by Dawkins(The Selfish Gene, easily the most influential book of the 20th century, it is a permanent fixture amongst many amazon.com best seller lists even though it was first published in 1976), Matt Ridley(The Red Queen, Genome), Steven Pinker(The Language Instinct, How The Mind Works, The Blank Slate), Robert Wright(The Moral Animal), or many other evolutionary psychology related authors out there, simply has little understanding of how human beings really work. The other revolution is an understanding of free-market economics(Capitalism, Austrian economics). The works of Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, their students and others influenced by them are finally reaching mass audience(I sure hope so, Capitalism is what we owe our lives to, (...)).

This book shows how our political and economic thinking/instincts evolved in a zero-sum, non-division of labor world, and how those evolved instincts(and many cultural elements as well) are counter productive in our new non-zero-sum, highly specialized division of labor world. (...) Hayek's last book "The Fatal Conceit" also married economics and evolution, but Hayek died before the recent advancements in evolutionary psychology. As Hayek said in the Fatal Conceit p118 "The envy of those who have tried just as hard, although fully understandable, works against the common interest. Thus, if the common interest is really our interest, we must not give in to this very human instinctual trait, but instead allow the market process to determine the reward." . Darwinian Politics has an entire chapter devoted to explaining the evolution of envy and how it is one of the many counterproductive instincts that served us well in the past but don't serve us as well today.

With the disastrous incompetence of the Bush presidency and further government expansion, the Capitalist engine might very well collapse , and the uneducated politicians will try to plan more(which the masses always fall for) which will only make things worse. As Hayek said "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design" . To our problems add religious conflict. Mr Rubin's discussion about the evolution of religions is very good and more important now than ever.

Very few people understand evolution. Very few people understand Capitalism. And obviously an even smaller number understand both. We need both, and this is the best book out there that explains this crucial fact.

Capitalism: The Best of All Possible Worlds.......2004-05-20

Rubin, a micro-economist, has written a resounding defence of capitalism understood as the system of production and exchange that optimizes the trade-off between selfishness and large-scale social interaction through a win-win system whose participation inducement is reward rather than deterrence. The dazzle of rewards unleashes the flow of human capital that generates economic growth and multiplication of public goods. The core value of the system is individual freedom and autonomy. Rubin undertakes to explain capitalism's evolutionary origin and the psychology that sustains it. He appropriates game theory to explain how the basic psychology of cooperation, including specific traits such as intelligence, might have evolved under selection pressures generated by the evolutionary `arms race'. This abstract computation is given flesh by suppositions drawn from primatology and anthropology. The result is then projected back to the late Pleistocene when the hominid line speciated as sapiens. There is no remedy for this speculative procedure because there is no direct evidence, apart from hand axes, about human behaviour and psychology in `the state of nature'. However, hominid palaeontology is a dynamic field invigorated especially by new findings from China. Homo sapiens continued to evolve after speciation put the large brained biped in place. Racial differentiation occurred; subtle but important behavioural and psychological differentiation may also have occurred. This caveat assumes critical importance because of what happens next--nothing much, until agricultural settlements appeared about 10,000 years ago, which in turn precipitated the gallop to the initial founding of states in Mesopotamia 4,000 years later. This very peculiar pattern calls for explanation, but the author passes it by in silence. For Rubin the entry into political association is positive, in that it commences the advance to capitalism, but it is negative in that it was purchased at the high cost of supplanting the original hunter-gatherer freedom and autonomy for subordination to autocratic rule-a blight eliminated only in the recent past, and then only by Europeans and nations of European descent. The current situation is that the free market/personal freedom combination remains largely European. The Middle East, Central Asia, Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America display a rainbow of free market-autocracy hybrids. In Sub-Saharan Africa political structures are insecure against tribal dynamics. Since that's five-sixths of world population, let's await to see if capitalism really is the culmination of human evolution.

The center-piece of the book is Rubin's game theoretic analysis of the mechanism of cooperation, using Prisoner's Dilemma as the defining matrix. He brings ingenuity and flare to the task, and I enjoyed reading his interpretation. But I'm not satisfied that his analysis advances the art. The first problem is the misfit between evolutionary assumptions about behaviour and PD. On the evolutionary scenario, behaviour optimizes inclusive rather than individual fitness, whereas PD constrains choice to single episodes of individual advantage. Critics have observed that PD is implicitly modelled on exchanges between non-reproductive males who are strangers. A different matrix would be required to model the choices of reproductive males, and a different one again for reproductive females. Secondly, Rubin does not press his analysis forward to collective action decision making. There is a large literature (Olson, Hecter, Taylor, Elster, &c), and any proposed rational choice theory explanation of large scale exchange must cover this territory. Rubin does not. Finally, the standard objection--But what if humans don't choose rationally? Rubin takes note of Kahneman and Tversky's extensive empirical studies which show exactly that. He responds by placing Gigerenzer's Simple Heuristics that Make Us Smart on the scale as somehow rescuing rational choice from the demolition. For me that's too little too late. Rubin seems indirectly to acknowledge as much when he expresses puzzlement at the persistence of irrational religious belief, and the irrationality of intellectual elites who reprobate immoral capitalism and espouse government welfare structures (i.e., socialism) to soften it.

Rubin's essay prompted me to pull together my diverse arguments against an evolutionary explanation of capitalism, and for that I am grateful. I close with a telling point that Rubin makes himself. Speaking of the linkage between birth rates below replacement value and burgeoning individualism in leading capitalist nations, he says that `for many people (perhaps most people), biological fitness is not itself a goal' (p. 49). Now hear this: when the freedom and autonomy that he attributes to our species in the late Pleistocene comes to full flower, it supports not fitness but extinction! On that basis his claim that freedom is a basic human desire evaporates. There is a further implication. The importation of labor to make up for the unborn locals has created large immigrant minorities, which, thanks to their high birth rate, will become the majority in the United States and Britain in four or five decades, and a large minority in France, Germany, and Italy. These immigrants insert religious conviction and strong ethnic identity into a capitalist system unfriendly to both. Add to this scenario the possibility that the global warming alarm is real, and the future of capitalism doesn't look so bright. The `end of history' may well be nigh, but in a sense opposite to Darwin's, and Francis Fukuyama's, best of possible worlds forecast.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Southern Economic Journal, published by Southern Economic Association on October 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1053 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Darwinian Politics: the Evolutionary Origin of Freedom.(Book Review)
Author: Bruce Linster
Publication: Southern Economic Journal (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2003
Publisher: Southern Economic Association
Volume: 70 Issue: 2 Page: 437(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Tracer Wolf is the hottest name on Madison Avenue. Flashy, dynamic, brilliant, and totally amoral. The conglomerate he works for assigns him to oust the chairman of their newest acquisition, a stodgy, old-fashioned firm with blue-chip clients. To help him, he hires his own team, a charming blonde, a bearded Brit and a former CIA assassin.

What Tracer doesn't expect is a sudden out of body experience (caused by too much cocaine) with two characters, one of whom greets him by saying, "Hello, Tracer, my name is God", and Who proceeds to ask him for an ad campaign to "fix" His image.

What ensues is a wild, raucous, hilarious, black comedy of intrigue, entrapment, sex, drugs and murder, all from an insider who worked for 25 years in one of Madison Avenue's largest agencies.

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