Module 3 Wk Pap 19-28, Century 21 Acct 1y

Book Description

Restructuring is a hot topic right now -- companies need to figure out how to weather the current economic storm and still be well-positioned to take advantage of the next upswing. Using real-life illustrations of successful, responsible restructurings at companies such as Charles Schwab, Cisco, Motorola, and Intel, this book provides alternatives to downsizing. Wayne Cascio examines the specific practices these leading firms use instead of layoffs -- including retraining, labor-management partnership, and compensation linked to organizational performance. These practices demonstrate that these companies view their workers as assets to be developed rather than as costs to be cut. Cascio presents compelling evidence showing that businesses adopting these measures fare better than businesses in similar circumstances who choose downsizing.

Customer Reviews:

Good clear advice.......2005-02-23

Too many companies respond to a downturn in profits with layoffs, without properly thinking through the consequences or the alternatives.

This short, direct and well-organized book gives a balanced view of the consequences of downsizing and alternative (and usually better) strategies. None of it is 'rocket science' - in essence, it suggests that attention to human values gives a better, surer and longer-lasting pay-off than treating people simply as costs - but it catalogues common sense alternatives clearly and well.

Many good ideas as alternatives to layoffs.......2004-03-03

Not all companies follow the slash and burn tactics of laying off staff in an economic downturn - some look upon employees as an asset to be developed and follow an approach called 'responsible restructuring' because they know that cutting people can be disastrous, especially in a knowledge-based organization. Cascio investigated the way that companies restructure and identified two main groups, - the larger saw employees as a cost to be cut while a smaller group of responsible restructurers saw employees as assets to be developed by asking how they could change their way of business to use staff more effectively. By analyzing S&P 500 companies over eight years Cascio showed that downsizers were not more profitable nor were stockholders better off.

A medium sized securities trading firm, relying heavily on its employee's knowledge and creativity, experienced a major downturn in revenues and stock price after a decade during which employees generated excellent results and built customer loyalty. However, faced with the fact that employees accounted for more than half of expenses, top management sought the best solution. There were many different approaches to learn from: Merrill Lynch cut one in six employees world wide; Charles Schwab used layoffs only as a last resort; Lehman Brothers insisted on keeping staff in tact and even hiring new talent; Edward Jones kept all staff but cut bonuses. After 9/11 Boeing laid off 30,000 employees while Airbus reduced head count through attrition. As the economy weakened some firms seized the opportunity to strengthen their competitive position through a variety of strategies such as cost cutting, expansion, marketing, and acquisitions. Kodak restructured to compete in the digital era; computer based typesetting revolutionized the newspaper industry. But what would be the best strategy for the medium sized securities firm? This book provides a wealth of case studies and examples of proven alternatives to layoffs.

Layoffs are not only traumatic to those who leave but can affect the quality of work done by those that stay. For three years union workers at the Decatur Plant at Bridgestone/Firestone were on strike or working without a contract during which their tires prompted more complaints, compensation claims rose and the loss of 40 lives was attributed to the labor dispute. Each year Fortune magazine publishes a list of the best companies to work for - companies which satisfy all stakeholders. "High-performing companies do walk the talk when it comes to performance measure. It is clear that they are seriously committed to the human elements that contribute to their success."

Responsible restructuring relies on workers to provide substantial competitive advantage by adapting a wide range of practices such as training, information sharing, participatory management, flattened organizational structures, labor management partnerships, compensation linked to skills, and customer satisfaction. Chapter 5 "Responsible Restructuring - Alternative Strategies" is full of case studies and examples of strategies such as 'use downsizing as a last resort while reinventing your business' and 'do everything you can to manage survivors well' and 'generate good will, even loyalty, among departing employees' and 'provide unemployment benefits for employees whose hours are cut' and 'ensure employment security through redeployment' and 'ask for sacrifices from executives and employees'.

Chapter 6: "The Virtues of Stability" provides a lot of information on three companies. 100-year-old Lincoln Electric Holdings features high wages, guaranteed employment, few supervisors, a lucrative bonus system, and piece work compensation; Harvard Business School cites it as a model of corporate responsibility while others praise its innovative management practices. Core values at SAS Institute are: 'treat everyone fairly and equally; treat people with respect and dignity; make work fun; trust people to do a good job.' They focus on employees and customers, believing that if they find and keep the best people, everything else will take care of itself. The rags to riches story of Southwest Airlines that started in 1966 and by 2001 had become the most successful airline in history is reviewed. Top employers share three characteristics: clear vision; excellent delivery and execution of people-related initiatives; and highly engaged employees who are aligned to the business strategies of their companies.

Chapter 7 "Responsible Restructuring: What to Do and What Not to Do" starts with "Even though there is no one, right way to restructure, following the guidelines presented in this chapter has yielded positive results for companies and their workforces." It is highly unlikely that anyone can read this book without coming away with ideas for improving their competitive position.

Do you want the No-layoff Payoff?.......2003-01-11

Downsizing remains very populair. It's easy to understand why. Whenever a company gets into serious financial trouble you have to rapidly increase revenues or to bring down costs. An easy choice: everyone knows that future costs are far more controllable and predictable that future revenues. So costs are cut. And what better cost to cut than labor costs? In many companies these costs represent a large proportion of the total fixed costs. So what to do according to this logic? Fire employees!

BUT DO DOWNSIZINGS HELP? OFTEN THEY DON'T
In many cases downsizing does not lead to fast and lasting improvement of the financial situation of companies, nor to improvment of their share price. Research has demonstrated that extremely successful companies often offer a high level of employment security (see Pfeffer, 1998; Collins, 2001). But to my knowledge this book by Wayne Cascio is one of the first to present systematic longitudinal research on the effects of downsizing. The most important conclusion: companies that downsize are not more profitable than companies that don't and often end up hurting themselves. This book gives several reasons for this:

1. DOWNSIZING WITHOUT IMPROVING. Many downsizing companies have no vision on structurally improving the organization. The only thing they do is make the organization smaller. Many problems that previously existed remain. Several new problems are added. How could profit improve?
2. UNFORSEEN COSTS OF DOWNSIZINGS CAN BE SKYHIGH. Cascio sums up a large number of direct and indirect costs of downsizings.
3. DOWNSIZING TOO OFTEN AND TOO SOON. Cascio's research shows that many managers see personnel as a cost that should be minimalized. They ask: what is the minimum number of people we need to run this company? This mindset made these managers downsize often and easily. This hurts loyalty, commitment and and a negative morale that hurts productivity.

The opposite is also true: offering employment security lead to loyalty. This loyalty leads to so-called Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB's): doing more than is asked, behaving honestly, working together, helping eachother.

WHAT TO DO?
The following combination of practices proves to be far more fruitful:

1. PREVENTIVE PLANNING: do everything you can to identify early warning signals and respond quickly to prevent problems from growing.
2. FIRST, APPLY CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES TO DOWNSIZING: in times of trouble, do everything you can to avoid the need to downsize (alternative ways of bringing down costs and improving revenues).
3. IF NOTHING ELSE WORKS: DOWNSIZE: make it clear to everything that downsizing is a last resort.
4. IF YOU DO IT, DO IT GOOD

Cascio descirbes a number of companies that were confronted with very hard circumstances and that successfully applied alternative stragies to downsizing.

Charles Schwab & Company used downsizing as a last resort after first having done the following: 1) stopping projects en saving al kinds of costs, accompanied with intensive communication efforts, 2) managers decided to cut their own salaries significantly, 3) personnel was encouraged to take unpaid leave, 4) specific days were chosen to be voluntary days off for personnel that did not have client contacts on these days. Only after these steps did not lead to sufficient success, a limited downsizing was done. Cisco Systems does everything it can to create goodwill or even loyalty with fired people. Cisco lents some of them to non-profit organizations and pays part of their salaries. As soon as the market allows for it, they want to rehire them. Reflexite Corporation's intention to avoid downsizing is reflected in their so-called Business Downturn Grid, a plan in four stages that is used when the company faces hard times. Its starting point is to provide full openness in every stage about problems and actions to be taken. Employees are laid off only in the fourth and last stage (which the comany until now did not have to do by the way). Some other companies that are mentioned are: Compaq Computer that invested heavily in communicating with and training personnel when aftern downsizing, Intel, Chevrontexaco, en 3M that invested much in retraining and redeploying personnel to avoid downsizing, Acxiom, Inc. where personnel was (successfully) asked to volunteer to cut their salaries in return for company shares, Sage Software, Inc. that paid much attention to personnel planning, Louisiana-pacific Corporation where personnel took the initiative to cut cost drastically. Two other extremely successful companies that are extensively described by Cascio are software company The Sas Institute and Southwest Airlines. These companies operate in turbulent markets but are examples of (employment) stability and financial success.

CONCLUSION
Sometimes laying off personnel can't be avoided. But this book shows that companies that invest in personnel and that do everything to void downsizing profit form a no-layoff payoff. This book provides many examples of steps that can be taken before laying off personnel. It is a must for top managers, HR managers, and students of management and organization and of human resources management. It's easy to read and very practical.

Coert Visser, ...

A Good Read!.......2003-01-09

University of Colorado-Denver management professor Wayne F. Cascio says your company will make more money during tough times if it finds a way to grow with its current employees instead of laying them off. Citing ample research (just see those careful footnotes and all those charts and graphs), he argues that it is simply good business to treat employees as assets to be developed, so they can help your organization reach its goals. If you downsize them out the door, you lose their expertise and commitment. Cascio cites companies that restructured successfully - Compaq, Cisco Systems, Sage Software - to illustrate different approaches. He wraps up with a critical bit of training: how to communicate internal information about the company's plans to restructure, always a touchy matter. We from getAbstract refer owners, top executives and human resource managers to this book because they will appreciate its combination of hard facts and how-to guidelines.

CHARTING A BETTER WAY TO SUCCESS IN HARD TIMES!.......2002-10-17

This book challenges the traditional knee-jerk response of the cost-cutting mentality and charts a better way to organizational success in hard times. Based on extensive research on the approaches companies take to restructuring, Cascio has found a huge distinction between those that see people as a cost (the downsizers) versus assets to be developed (the responsible restructurers). The book presents an analysis of the financial consequences of alternative restructuring strategies in terms of profitability and attractiveness as an investment. Cascio exposes the myths about downsizing and presents the hard facts. He examines the approaches of the responsible restructurers, i.e., high-performance work practices...and explores the practices and experiences of many companies. The final chapter illustrates what to do, and not do, when restructuring. Stern's Management Review finds this book rich in insights and sound advice-very highly recommended!

Book Description

For the past 4 billion years, the chemistry of the Earth's surface, where all life exists, has changed remarkably. Historically, these changes have occurred slowly enough to allow life to adapt and evolve. In more recent times, the chemistry of the Earth is being altered at a staggering rate, fueled by industrialization and an ever-growing human population. Human activities, from the rapid consumption of resources to the destruction of the rainforests and the expansion of smog-covered cities, are all leading to rapid changes in the basic chemistry of the Earth.
The Second Edition of Biogeochemistry considers the effects of life on the Earth's chemistry on a global level. This expansive text employs current technology to help students extrapolate small-scale examples to the global level, and also discusses the instrumentation being used by NASA and its role in studies of global change. With the Earth's changing chemistry as the focus, this text pulls together the many disparate fields that are encompassed by the broad reach of biogeochemistry. With extensive cross-referencing of chapters, figures, and tables, and an interdisciplinary coverage of the topic at hand, this text will provide an excellent framework for courses examining global change and environmental chemistry, and will also be a useful self-study guide.

* Emphasizes the effects of life on the basic chemistry of the atmosphere, the soils, and seawaters of the Earth
* Calculates and compares the effects of industrial emissions, land clearing, agriculture, and rising population on Earths chemistry
* Synthesizes the global cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur, and suggests the best current budgets for atmospheric gases such as ammonia, nitrous oxide, dimethyl sulfide, and carbonyl sulfide
* Includes an extensive review and up-to-date synthesis of the current literature on the Earths biogeochemistry

Customer Reviews:

Biogeochemistry .......2007-10-06

This book, while slightly dated now, as much science has been done since it was published is still very thorough on the subject.

Solid science.......2007-03-15

I bought this book to prepare for my comprehensive exam. Book consists of two parts: first part describes the generalities of physical/chemical/biological properties of atmosphere, soils, oceans; it also contains the description of the specifics of each cycle (main biogeochemical elements) in all those environment. The second part describes the cycles on the global scale, with up-to-date references to today`s situation on carbon dioxide concentration and prospects on global climate change. Very good material andvery good explanation.

Good Overview of the Subject.......2005-08-24

I actually took Biogeochemistry from Dr. Schlesinger last fall and I do feel that the book is a good survey of alot of geochemical cycles and is presented at an undergraduate level.
However, some of the information, particularly about methane, was severely broken up throughout the text to the point where it was difficult to put together complete chemical cycles of some elements..
Nevertheless, it gives the reader the broad brush strokes necessary to get up to speed, particularly if you do not have a strong science background. For those who are very familiar to the sciences, you can get much more complete information from review papers than is presented here.

Such a good textbook.......2005-07-12

I had to buy this for a Biogeochemical Cycles class. The book is great! It's actual readable, which I was never expecting. It's interesting and understandable. The first reviewer is right that it doesn't get too complex, but references out the more difficult parts. I appreciated not having to read the way-too-hard stuff on my first introduction to this subject.

An Overview of a Complex Subject.......2000-03-25

Biogeochemistry starts with a grand overview, including the formation of the elements, solar system & planets, and then progressively narrows the focus into specifics. As such by the time you get to a chapter on, say, the global carbon cycle, you already have a pretty good idea of where it fits in the big picture. Part I (Processes & Reactions) contains 9 chapters (Introduction, Origin, the Atmosphere, the Lithosphere, Biosphere: Terrstrial Carbon Cycle, Biosphere: Biogeochemical Cycling on Land, Biogeochemistry of Freshwater, Rivers & Estuaries, & the Oceans), which do a balanced job of covering the biological & geological aspects (too many books focus on one or the other). Part II (Global Cycles) has 5 chapters (Water, Carbon, Nitrogen & Phosphorous, Sulfur, & a final chapter on perspectives) that provide more of the details in these specalized catagories. Suitable for the advanced undergaduate or very interested bystandard, there's little detailed math (a weakness for me, but maybe not for you) but the chemistry is well summarized (and the biochemistry made simple & understandable), and the tables & graphs are clean and very useful. Perhaps more importantly for a "textbook", the style is readable - Schlesinger keeps the essentials, but does not bury the reader in them. While it might not provide all you need at a high level, the references scattered throughout as well as the recommended readings make this a great starting point for the subject, and a handy reference book for the subject as a whole.

Book Description

This classic annual guide to the stars, designed in consultation with other astronomers of many countries, provides current, accurate astronomical data for use in the making and reduction of observations and for general purposes. The Astronomical Almanac Online extends the printed version by providing data best presented in machine-readable form. Online data are provided for several years.

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Astronomy Online Laboratory

Manufacturer: Kendall-Hunt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
ASIN: 0757500854

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Astronomy Online Laboratory
Kim Gordon
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

Astronomy Online Laboratory; CD-Rom and Plainsphere Included

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Astronomy Online Laboratory; CD-Rom and Plainsphere Included

Manufacturer: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
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Foundations of Astronomy (with CD-ROM, Virtual Astronomy Labs, AceAstronomy, and InfoTrac)

ASIN: 0757510922

Product Description

Spiral bound Astronomy Online Laboratory, revised printing; CD-Rom and Plainsphere included; Text, CD & Starfinder.

Astronomy Online Laboratory Pak: Text and Star Finder and Spectrometer

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Astronomy Online Laboratory Pak: Text and Star Finder and Spectrometer
Gordon
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Safety critical and high-integrity systems, such as industrial plants and economic systems can be subject to abrupt changes - for instance due to component or interconnection failure, and sudden environment changes etc.

Combining probability and operator theory, Discrete-Time Markov Jump Linear Systems provides a unified and rigorous treatment of recent results for the control theory of discrete jump linear systems, which are used in these areas of application.

The book is designed for experts in linear systems with Markov jump parameters, but is also of interest for specialists in stochastic control since it presents stochastic control problems for which an explicit solution is possible - making the book suitable for course use.

From the reviews:

"This text is very well written...it may prove valuable to those who work in the area, are at home with its mathematics, and are interested in stability of linear systems, optimal control, and filtering." Journal of the American Statistical Association, December 2005

Book Description

The first biography of the man described as the personification of the great fighting tradition of our Corps.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Military Biography.......2002-03-02

If you are really interested in the Marine Corps or WW2 History, this is something worth buying. Instead of just making 'Red Mike' Edson a saintly hero of great virtue and courage, the author describes Edson the man with warts and all.

My only complaint about the book (it wasn't that big because the rest of the book is excellent) was that book didn't go into as much detail about Bloody Ridge (the pinnacle of Edson's combat leadership and which won him the CMH) which is surprising considering how much detail was spent describing the fight against the Sandinistas between WW1 and WW2.

Excellent biography of a fine Marine........1997-10-27

"Red Mike" Edson was one fearless warrior. His frontline exploits on Tarawa, Saipan, and Guadalcanal (where he won the Medal of Honor and probably saved the campaign) are the stuff of legends, but he was also, improbably, a first-class staff officer.
This unusual talent for organization brought him two stars and a role in the highest echelons of the Corps, but it also took him into the fierce politics of the Pentagon and may have indirectly caused his death.
The history of this fine Marine is well told in this outstanding biography; with photos, bibliography, and index. Highly readable; essential for Marine Corps readers and of great interest to general military history readers and WWII buffs.

(The numerical rating above is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

Customer Reviews:

Intellectual fun fan.......2003-09-23

THE WOUNDED JUNG by Robert C. Smith might be the book that the average reader of Jung's works wanted someone to write, simplifying the concepts that made it so difficult for the tormented Jung to write himself. "By the age of four he had incorporated into his psyche the sophisticated and frightening concept of the underground man-eater dream, closely associated in his case with the burial of the dead." (p. 21). The Notes for the entire book are on pages 179-181. These are so short, it might be ironic that Chapter 3, Note 2 is simply, "Although Jung had never met Miller, he took her fifteen-page report of dreams and visions, published in Geneva in 1906, and expanded it into a book of more than four hundred pages." (p. 180). The key to such authorship is clearly based on having a mind which has been caught in the same web, as is also true on the intellectual side of the picture. "Jung was interested in a variety of philosophers and religious mystics, and upon close examination, one can see that the experiences of these philosophers and mystics paralleled those of Jung. Swedenborg, the great Swedish mystic, clearly engrossed Jung for this reason." (p. 104). Anything which triggered "the divided parts of his own psyche" (p. 2) helped him appreciate "that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy" (p. 3).

A major emphasis on Jung's father is that he "had been unable to secure an academic position. Hence he became the minister to a series of small country parishes." (p. 13). In a world where most people seem condemned to be spectators, Pastor Jung faced those who worshipped each Sunday with his suggestions for staying out of trouble, and he told his son, "Be anything you like except a theologian." (pp. 14, 32, 33).

Jumping ahead in the book to the relationship between Jung and Freud, Smith mentioned a letter on page 34 about a traumatic incident in Jung's childhood, which "Jung kept the memory of the assault secret from all except Freud until old age." (p. 34). A lot more can be learned from the letter from Jung to Freud dated 28 October, 1907, in which Jung admitted that he would "rather not have said" how much he was in awe of Freud. "Actually--and I confess this to you with a struggle--I have a boundless admiration for you both as a man and as a researcher, and I bear you no conscious grudge. So the self-preservation complex does not come from there; it is rather that my veneration for you has something of the character of a `religious' crush. Though it does not really bother me, I still feel it is disgusting and ridiculous because of its undeniable erotic undertone. This abominable feeling comes from the fact that as a boy I was the victim of a sexual assault by a man I once worshipped." Jung was astute in allowing himself to confess this to Freud as a confirmation of many of Freud's beliefs, as well as indicating Jung's trauma from a personal incident that might be generalized politically.

Chapter 2 of THE DESCENT OF MAN by Charles Darwin is called On The Manner of Development of Man from some Lower Form, in which a HISTORY OF GREENLAND by Cranz is quoted on the belief of the Esquimaux "that ingenuity and dexterity in seal-catching (their highest art and virtue) is hereditary; there is really something in it, for the son of a celebrated seal-catcher will distinguish himself, though he lost his father in childhood." Our devotion to intellectual, spiritual, and political leadership might follow genetically, if it is understood that modern people, largely reduced to being spectators, worship anyone who has kindled a spark to seek the ultimate prize. Frankly, Jung's trauma reminds me of "Ernst Roehm, Minister of the Reich, one of the founders of the Nazi Party, and Chief of Staff of the SA." (Max Gallo, THE NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES, p. 2). On December 31, 1933, Roehm had received a letter from Adolf Hitler thanking him for "the force which allowed me to wage the final battle for power," and as leader of the "SA to assure the victory of the National Socialist Revolution on the domestic front, . . . and the unity of our people." (Gallo, p. 7). Roehm was among those killed between Saturday, June 30, 1934, and Monday, July 2. A speech by Hitler on Friday, July 13, 1934 to the Reichstag meeting in the Opera House made Roehm a scapegoat for everything that Hitler had attempted to rid himself of. "The life the Chief of Staff and a certain number of other leaders had begun to lead was intolerable from the point of view of National Socialism. The question was no longer that he and his friends had violated every decency, but rather that the contagion was widespread, and was affecting even the most distant elements." (Gallo, p. 9). As much as this seems ruthless, Smith was able to see this trait as common. "Both Jung and his mother tended to personify aspects of the self. Frequently in his autobiography he refers to the ruthlessness of his mother's No. 2 Personality. But he too, as he acknowledges at the end of MEMORIES (356), could be utterly ruthless at times." (Smith, p. 27). The Retrospect which starts on page 355 of MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS by C. G. Jung pictures himself more as a spectator. "I stand and behold, admiring what nature can do." (Jung, p. 355). "People who see nothing have no certainties and can draw no conclusions--or do not trust them even if they do. I do not know what started me off perceiving the stream of life." (Jung, pp. 355-356). "I was able to become intensely interested in many people; but as soon as I had seen through them, the magic was gone. In this way I made many enemies." (Jung, p. 357).

A brief but substantive, sympathetic C.G. Jung biography.......1998-11-06

Carl Jung's character has taken quite a shellacking of late in new biographies by Richard Noll. In contrast, Smith's book is sympathetic both to Jung's cause--the healing journey toward wholeness he termed "individuation"--and to the deeply disturbed, dissociated psyche that relentlessly drove Jung, both personally and professionally, toward the fulfillment of his destiny: his "daimon." Smith focuses on Jung's relationships with his parents, arguing that it was mainly Jung's ambivalent feelings toward his mother--not his father, as most biographers believe--that most powerfully influenced his peculiar psychic development. Smith also emphasizes the famous Freud-Jung friendship, and its daimonic character, noting that both men had enormous stores of repressed anger or rage which both drove their prodigious creativity and caused serious interpersonal difficulties. Smith's brief biography, despite its limitations, perceptively illuminates in ways others have not the darker side of C.G. Jung--his repressed rage--and in so doing, deepens our understanding of and compassion for the daimonic Dr. Jung, and, hopefully, our own daimonic qualities.

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