Resources for Success
Information of interest related to managing
change, employee involvement and teams, leadership,
education and training, quality principles and
practices, and human resource management.
ARTICLES
Check out our top picks to determine which
articles from other publications you should read in
their entirety.
Title: “10 Ways to Improve
Employee Communication”
Magazine: Employment Management
Today, Winter 2004
Author: Gail Auerbach
Location:
www.shrm.org/ema/emt/articles/2004/winter04auerbach.asp
Description: More than nine in
10 managers rate themselves as good or excellent
communicators, but only seven in 10 employees agree
with them. When employees receive regular
performance reviews, nine out of 10 express faith
in senior management, more than five in 10 are
optimistic about the company’s future, and
more than seven in 10 say they are loyal to their
employers, according to Randstad North
America’s “2003 Employee
Review.”
Title: “The Toll of a New
Machine”
Magazine: Fast Company,
April 18, 2004
Author: Charles Fishman
Location:
www.fastcompany.com/magazine/82/kinetics.html
Description: It started with
ATMs, then gas stations. Now self-service kiosks
are taking over airports and invading
McDonald’s restaurants. Is this the face of
the jobless recovery? Or will automation make
service better for workers and customers alike?
Title: “Overcoming
Resistance to Change”
Magazine: Quality Progress,
April 2004
Author: Brien Palmer
Location: www.asq.org/data/subscriptions/qp/2004/0404/qp0404palmer.pdf
Description: Executives,
managers, project sponsors, team leaders/members,
etc., who try to improve their organizations often
face resistance from those who will be affected by
the change. This can cause the project to
fail—even when the desired change is logical
and necessary. The problem often lies with the
change agent’s failure to attend to the
healthy, real, and predictable reactions of people
experiencing disturbances to their routines.
BOOKS
Not sure what current books are worth your
investment? News for a Change recommends
that you read the following recent releases and
consider adding them to your bookshelf for future
reference.
Title: Work Overload:
Redesigning Jobs to Minimize Stress and
Burnout
Author: Frank M. Gryna
Publisher: Quality Press
ISBN Number: 0873896246
Format/Length: Softcover, 232
pages
Price: $28.00 (AQP/ASQ Member)
Description: The challenges of
a globalized market, increasing customer demands,
and changing technologies are making business more
complicated and leaving employees feeling
overwhelmed. Many feel that this work overload is
an unfortunate side effect of success. This book
asserts that overload is a failure in work design,
not workers, and it provides ways to identify and
eliminate waste, as well as ideas for using the
resources that freed up to prevent future
overloads.
Title: Master Change,
Maximize Success
Author: Rebecca Potts and Jeanenne
LaMarsh
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN Number: 0-8118-4170-7
Format/Length: Softcover, 160
pages
Price: $16.95
Description: Change is a given
in any organization. This book teaches how to
manage change and see it as a process that provides
opportunities for creativity and leadership. The
book contains practical suggestions and
step-by-step work solutions that can invigorate
organizations and drive growth.
Title: The HR Answer Book: An
Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources
Professionals
Authors: Shawn Smith and Rebecca
Mazin
Publisher: Amacom
ISBN Number: 0-8144-7223-0
Format/Length: Hardcover, 244
pages
Price: $24.95
Description: Almost every
manager has to deal with “people”
issues every day. Handling those issues the wrong
way can create financial and legal problems for an
organization. This book answers a multitude of
everyday queries, common obstacles, and unexpected
twists in an accessible question and answer
format.
WEB SITES
Bookmark the following sites to provide ready
access to up-to-date information that can improve
your organization’s performance, as well as
your personal performance.
Sponsor: The National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Address: www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html
Description: This federal
agency is responsible for conducting research and
making recommendations for the prevention of
work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) in the Department of Health and Human
Services. NIOSH was established to help assure safe
and healthful working conditions for working men
and women by providing research, information,
education, and training in the field of
occupational safety and health. This Web site
offers a wide variety of publications related to
workplace safety and health issues.
Sponsor: Oracle Education
Foundation
Address: http://thinkquest.org/
Description: ThinkQuest is an
international Web site-building competition. Teams
of students and teachers are challenged to build
Web sites on educational topics. These Web sites
are published in the popular ThinkQuest Library and
top-scoring teams win valuable prizes. More than
5,000 Web site libraries are available with topics
ranging from business and industry to social
sciences and culture. To learn some tricks on how
to improve your memory, check out the library at
http://library.thinkquest.org/~C0110291/tricks/index.php.
Sponsor: Colorado Alliance of
Research Libraries
Address: http://ejournal.coalliance.org/
Description: The Electronic
Journal Access Project is the result of
collaborative work by many individuals. The home
page provides a title and subject organization of
electronic serial publications (e.g., journals,
newsletters, magazines, e-zines, webzines) on the
Internet. It is part of a development effort by the
nonprofit Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
(The Alliance). Searches can be conducted by
keyword, subject, or title and can be limited to
free publications or peer-reviewed
publications.
CONFERENCES
Looking for the best conference to attend this
year? Here are some possibilities that might meet
your needs.
Conference: ASQ’s Quality
Institute
Sponsor: American Society for
Quality
Dates: June 7-9, 2004
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Price: $860 for AQP/ASQ members
Description: ASQ’s
Quality Institute is specifically designed to
provide attendees with a general introduction to
the function of quality and the tools used to
improve processes and business performance. Whether
or not you work in the quality industry or
profession, the Quality Institute (QI) brings you
training built around concept, practice, and
implementation of tested quality fundamental
practices that work.
Conference: The Telling
Ain’t Training Conference
Sponsor: American Society for
Training & Development
Dates: June 14-15, 2004 and October
4-5, 2004
Location: Alexandria, VA
Price: $450 for ASTD members, $550
for nonmembers
Contact:
www.astd.org/astd/Conferences/TAT/tellingainttraining.htm
Description: This conference
offers an experiential approach to transforming
“telling” into activities that result
in long-term retention and behavior change. Despite
the irreverent title, this conference tackles
universal and persistent questions: How do learners
learn? Why do learners learn? How do you make sure
that learning sticks? The conference shows
interactive, practical techniques to implement
immediately to improve training programs.
Conference: Valuing Peace in the
21st Century: Expanding the Art and Practice of
Conflict Resolution
Sponsor: Association for Conflict
Resolution
Dates: September 29-October 2,
2004
Location: Sacramento, CA
Contact: www.acrnet.org/conferences/ac04/index.htm
Description: The conference
will highlight the challenges and opportunities
facing the field of conflict resolution in the 21st
century and will present examples of innovative
practice in a wide range of types and venues of
conflict, including leading-edge theory and
practice/best practices in conflict resolution.
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