Productivity and the Bonus Culture

Productivity and the Bonus Culture
Author: Andrew Smithers
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 019257311X

Living standards in the UK and US are in danger of falling. A decline in growth due to poor productivity and an unfavourable change in demography has weakened the stand of liberal democracy, and voter dissatisfaction is encouraging populist policies that threaten even worse outcomes. Whilst living standards once grew faster than productivity they now grow more slowly, and the working population is no longer growing faster than the population as a whole. To avoid falling living standards the productivity problem must be addressed. Andrew Smithers argues that faster productivity does not depend, as many suggest, on technology; it also relies on investment. Current growth theory is based on a faulty model which has induced pessimism about our ability to encourage more growth. Productivity and the Bonus Culture sets out a revised model which demonstrates that weakness in productivity is the result of the bonus culture, and suggests ways to change this flawed system so that investment is encouraged and growth returns.

Measure What Matters

Measure What Matters
Author: John Doerr
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2018-04-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 052553623X

#1 New York Times Bestseller Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth—and how it can help any organization thrive. In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up whom he'd just given $12.5 million, the biggest investment of his career. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy, and sky-high ambitions, but no real business plan. For Google to change the world (or even to survive), Page and Brin had to learn how to make tough choices on priorities while keeping their team on track. They'd have to know when to pull the plug on losing propositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, relevant data to track their progress—to measure what mattered. Doerr taught them about a proven approach to operating excellence: Objectives and Key Results. He had first discovered OKRs in the 1970s as an engineer at Intel, where the legendary Andy Grove ("the greatest manager of his or any era") drove the best-run company Doerr had ever seen. Later, as a venture capitalist, Doerr shared Grove's brainchild with more than fifty companies. Wherever the process was faithfully practiced, it worked. In this goal-setting system, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry level to CEO, are transparent to the entire organization. The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep employees on track. They link objectives across silos to unify and strengthen the entire company. Along the way, OKRs enhance workplace satisfaction and boost retention. In Measure What Matters, Doerr shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will help a new generation of leaders capture the same magic.

Honours Versus Money

Honours Versus Money
Author: Bruno S. Frey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2017
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0198798504

Honours fulfil one of the most fundamental desires of human beings, namely, to be recognised and held in esteem by others. There are thousands of awards in all areas of society: the state, arts and media, sports, religion, the voluntary sector, academia, and business. Awards are well visible, can raise the recipients' intrinsic motivation and creativity, and establish a bond of loyalty to the giver. They have distinct advantages over money and other rewards. Presenting empirical evidence using modern statistical techniques Honours versus Money argues that awards can significantly raise performance in different contexts even if they are purely symbolic, recommending how this can be used in practice. It makes the case for reorienting our focus- away from the monetary or material dimensions of work and private life, and towards the symbolic dimensions to celebrate and shine a light on merit and achievement. Honours versus Money discusses award bestowals in their different forms and facets, including as signals and as components of organisations' human resource strategies. It opens our perspective for motivational strategies beyond money, while also outlining their potential pitfalls.

Production, Safety and Teamwork in a Deep-Level Mining Workplace

Production, Safety and Teamwork in a Deep-Level Mining Workplace
Author: Sizwe Timothy Phakathi
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2017-11-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1787145646

The book highlights the day-to-day lived experience of miners’ work and organisational practices that shape the day-to-day running of the production process in a deep-level mining workplace.

Tissue culture as a plant production system for horticultural crops

Tissue culture as a plant production system for horticultural crops
Author: Richard H. Zimmerman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400944446

In 1980, a conference on tissue culture of fruit crops was held at Beltsville to summarize the current status of this technology and to stimulate interest in it among research scientists, students, and commercial producers in the U. S. Interest in that conference and the proceedings from it far exceeded the expectations of the organizing committee. Since that time, micropropagation of fruit crops in the U. S. has increased significantly, but still lags far behind applications to production of ornamental plants. Within the past two years, a number of new laboratories have been established and some of the existing laboratories have expanded to a size far larger than any previously anticipated. Creation of new laboratories capable of producing more than 400,000 plants per week will test the ingenuity of laboratory managers and the skills of marketing departments. In recent years, numerous symposia have been held on various aspects of biotechnology and genetic engineering. Although micro propagation is the key to providing large numbers of genetically engineered plants, it is a topic that has been relegated to a minor position, or ignored completely, at such meetings. Accordingly, the time seemed propitious for a conference devoted solely to all aspects of micropropagation as applicable to horticultural crops.

Workstyle

Workstyle
Author: Alex Hirst
Publisher: John Murray Business
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2022-10-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1399802992

Workstyle is the freedom to choose when and where you work. It is only now, after centuries of formal and inflexible working hours, that such an opportunity is on the horizon. It is an opportunity that will have far reaching and profoundly positive implications, levelling the playing field and helping to create true inclusivity and accessibility in our society. This inspiring book will explain the history of work, where the 9-5 came from, and why the time is right for change. You'll learn how workstyle differs from flexible, hybrid, or remote working, and why it matters. Most importantly, you'll explore and design your own workstyle, by reflecting on the things that matter to you, acting to change your life and inspiring others to do the same, all underpinned by research that proves that this is a better way to work for us all. This book is for everyone who has had to take a day off work to receive a delivery or go to a doctor's appointment. It is for anyone who has caring responsibilities, for parents, for those with illnesses, with mental health issues, who feel burnt out, or who are living with disabilities. It is for those who are older, who identify as neurodiverse or who consider themselves different in any way. It is for people who feel disenchanted with work and want to live a meaningful, fulfilled life. It is for anyone who questions why they need to commute to an office to be productive. It is for every person who has a life outside of work. This book is for everyone. This book is for you!

Assembling cultures

Assembling cultures
Author: Jack Saunders
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2019-05-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526133415

In British political discourse the idea that in the 1970s trade unions 'ran the country' has become a truism, a folk mythology invoked against the twin perils of socialism and strikes. But who exactly wielded power in Britain’s workplaces and on what terms? Assembling cultures takes a fine-grained look at factory activism in the motor industry between 1945 and 1982, using car manufacturing as a key case for unpicking important narratives around affluence, declinism and class. It traces the development of the militant car worker stereotype and looks at the real social relations that lay behind car manufacturing’s reputation for conflict. In doing so, this book reveals a changing, complex world of social practices, cultural norms and shared values and expectations. From relatively meagre interwar trade union traditions, during the post-war period car workers developed shop-floor organisations of considerable authority, enabling some to make new demands of their working lives, but constraining others in their more radical political aims. Assembling cultures documents in detail a historic process where, from the 1950s, groups and individuals set about creating and reproducing collective power and asks what that meant for their lives. This is a story of workers and their place in the power relations of post-war Britain. This book will be invaluable to lecturers and students studying the history, sociology and politics of post-war Britain, particularly those with an interest in power, rationality, class, labour, gender and race. The detailed analysis of just how solidarity, organisation and collective action were generated will also prove useful to trade union activists.

Reforming the Russian Industrial Workplace

Reforming the Russian Industrial Workplace
Author: Elena Shulzhenko
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2017-04-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315533359

Based on extensive original research, this book explores how far the Soviet pattern of industrial workplace organisation, characterised by a high level of management discretion, authoritarian control and the use of punitive methods on the shop-floor, has been replaced by internationally established practices, with a greater emphasis on a lean organisation and employee involvement in quality improvement. The book explores how the market reforms of the 1990s raised companies’ attention to product quality but did not lead to a change in the management methods, which only began with the increased internationalisation of the Russian economy in the 2000s. The book includes a rich in-depth study of multinational and domestic companies, and argues that a move from the Soviet pattern of workplace organisation to new practices is only likely to occur in companies with strong ties to international partners, who provide support for, and audit the implementation and upholding of, international management standards. The research shows that local companies not exposed to such international collaboration continue with the old methods.

Linking Bonus with Productivity

Linking Bonus with Productivity
Author: G. K. Suri
Publisher:
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1981
Genre: Bonus system
ISBN:

Comprises case studies and proceedings of a seminar on bonus linked to productivity.