The Unavoidable Hierarchy

The Unavoidable Hierarchy
Author: Michael Hatfield
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2016-08-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317005597

The Unavoidable Hierarchy provides an analysis of why, in virtually every organization, members advance or decline in standing for reasons that have little or nothing to do with their merit. Michael Hatfield explains how this dynamic can be observed and analyzed, and insights gleaned from the analysis. With organizations struggling to meet the aspirations of their employees; ill-equipped or patently inappropriate individuals failing in executive posts and need for businesses to be at the top of their game, The Unavoidable Hierarchy is a timely and important book for all managers, particularly those concerned with the human dynamics of the business. Michael Hatfield draws on advancements in Game Theory, Network Theory, Organizational Behavior and Performance Management concepts to capture and evaluate the (previously unarticulated) influencing factors behind the game of corporate snakes and ladders. The resulting analysis will help you identify how these factors manifest as strategies and tactics within the organization, meaning that effective countermeasures can be derived from such an analysis. Whilst these factors are likely to remain ubiquitous, the author’s focus includes ideas and strategies for mitigating their impact and making changes at the level of both the individual and the organization.

Network Persistence and the Axis of Hierarchy

Network Persistence and the Axis of Hierarchy
Author: Steven Rytina
Publisher: Anthem Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2020-04-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1785271989

Network Persistence and the Axis of Hierarchy shows how networks, modestly redefined as a strong, yet imperfect tendency for pairings to recur day after day, that is, stickiness, imply a singular axis of stratification. This is contrary to the nearly universal insistence that stratification is multidimensional. Reanalysis of three central mobility data sets sustains the novel claim. Network concepts provide a supple base for analysis whereby order and regularity are strongly sustained in network neighborhoods but are not necessarily uniform or universal. This provides new takes, often quite radical, on accounts of structure and order by authors such as Pierre Bourdieu, Randall Collins and Talcott Parsons.

I Am Put Here for the Defense of the Gospel

I Am Put Here for the Defense of the Gospel
Author: Terry L. Miethe
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2016-04-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498221858

Dr. Norman L. Geisler has been called the "father of evangelical Christian philosophy." He has written more than one hundred books and taught at universities and top seminaries for some fifty-six years. He was the first president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and the founder and first president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics. He has spoken or debated in more than two dozen countries and held pastoral/pulpit ministries in four states. Many view him as a cross between Thomas Aquinas and Billy Graham. No one has done more to communicate the modern challenges of the Faith to the "average" Christian, to the church, and to the academy. This volume offers creative and constructive essays from twenty-three contributors, all notable in their own right, who preserve and propagate Dr. Geisler's ideas and express appreciation for his influence. Those who know him best say he is "true, faithful, and blessed by God!"

Co-operative Workplace Dispute Resolution

Co-operative Workplace Dispute Resolution
Author: Elizabeth A. Hoffmann
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2016-05-13
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1317159667

Understanding the complex dynamics involved in workplace disputes helps improve the way organizations deal with unwelcome but inevitable occurrences. These issues have been researched from different perspectives, but previously such research has failed to ask how flattened organizational form might impact ways of resolving disputes, focusing instead on what occurs in conventional, hierarchical organizations only. In Co-operative Workplace Dispute Resolution, Elizabeth Hoffmann considers the question of how workplace disputes are raised in the absence of formal hierarchy. In contrast to conventionally organized businesses, co-operatives attempt to evenly distribute power and ownership and encourage worker control through egalitarian ideologies, flattened management structures and greater information sharing. Like conventional businesses, though, they still pursue goals relating to profit and efficiency. Dr Hoffmann argues that lessening hierarchy and sharing power, as occurs in co-operatives, provides insight into how greater worker involvement and ownership might operate in a less extreme and more modest form in conventional mainstream business. This book focuses on dispute resolution strategies at matched pairs of worker co-operatives and conventional businesses in three very different industries: coal mining, taxicab driving, and wholefood distribution. The author’s central finding is that the worker co-operative members have access to more dispute resolution strategies than their conventionally employed counterparts. This leads to the conclusion that benefits might be achieved by conventional businesses that wish to embrace specific attributes usually associated with co-operatives, including management-employee cooperation, shared ownership, or greater workplace equality.

Hierarchy in Natural and Social Sciences

Hierarchy in Natural and Social Sciences
Author: Denise Pumain
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2006-02-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1402041276

Hierarchy is a form of organisation of complex systems that rely on or produce a strong differentiation in capacity (power and size) between the parts of the system. It is frequently observed within the natural living world as well as in social institutions. According to the authors, hierarchy results from random processes, follows an intentional design, or is the result of the organisation which ensures an optimal circulation of energy for information. This book reviews ancient and modern representations and explanations of hierarchies, and compares their relevance in a variety of fields, such as language, societies, cities, and living species. It throws light on concepts and models such as scaling laws, fractals and self-organisation that are fundamental in the dynamics and morphology of complex systems. At a time when networks are celebrated for their efficiency, flexibility and better social acceptance, much can be learned about the persistent universality and adaptability of hierarchies, and from the analogies and differences between biological and social organisation and processes. This book addresses a wide audience of biologists and social scientists, as well as managers and executives in a variety of institutions.

Pluralism by the Rules

Pluralism by the Rules
Author: Edward P. Weber
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781589013872

Despite America's pluralistic, fragmented, and generally adversarial political culture, participants in pollution control politics have begun to collaborate to reduce the high costs of developing, implementing, and enforcing regulations. Edward P. Weber uses examples from this traditionally combative policy arena to propose a new model for regulation, "pluralism by the rules," a structured collaborative format that can achieve more effective results at lower costs than typically come from antagonistic approaches. Weber cites the complexity and high implementation costs of environmental policy as strong but insufficient incentives for collaboration. He shows that cooperation becomes possible when opposing sides agree to follow specific rules that include formal binding agreements about enforcement, commitment to the process by political and bureaucratic leaders, and the ensured access and accountability of all parties involved. Such rules establish trust, create assurances that agreements will be enforced, and reduce the perceived risks of collaboration. Through case studies dealing with acid rain, reformulated gasoline, and oil refinery pollution control, Weber demonstrates the potential of collaboration for realizing a cleaner environment, lower compliance costs, and more effective enforcement. Challenging the prevailing view that endless conflict in policymaking is inevitable, Pluralism by the Rules establishes a theoretical framework for restructuring the regulatory process.

Trouble in the Middle

Trouble in the Middle
Author: Steven P. Feldman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2013-05-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1136681353

This book will help readers better understand the ethical and cultural assumptions that both American and Chinese business cultures bring to business relationships in China. It analyzes the relationships developed between the two cultures, areas where they conflict, and how these conflicts are (or are not) resolved. These relationships are investigated in three stages. The author: describes and interprets American business experience in China describes and interprets Chinese business experience in China, including interaction with Americans compares these two business cultures as they are experienced in China to investigate the relationships between them, centering the cultural analysis on ethical issues. Feldman's thorough research gets to the crux of how American and Chinese executives perceive the ethical and cultural aspects of doing business. The result is a book that will prove helpful to all those looking to expertly navigate Chinese-American business relationships.

The Politics of Virtue

The Politics of Virtue
Author: John Milbank
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2016-08-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1783486503

Two expert authors combine a compelling critique of contemporary liberalism with post-liberal alternatives in politics, the economy, culture and international affairs, to provide the fullest account so far of the post-liberal alternative in Western politics.

3D Management, an Integral Theory for Organisations in the Vanguard of Evolution

3D Management, an Integral Theory for Organisations in the Vanguard of Evolution
Author: Marco A. Robledo
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2020-06-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1527555550

If organisations are not working as well as they could, it is because they are still being managed by obsolete principles rooted in the Industrial Age. Until now, management has been a very one-dimensional discipline, in which only profits mattered. Having eyes fixed squarely upon the bottom line has endangered the planet, increased inequality, and disengaged employees. It is an unsustainable situation that calls for the radical redesign of management philosophical foundations. This book shows how to liberate organisations from the constraining assumptions and structures that hold them back, and how to build more conscious, humane, efficacious, and responsible forms of enterprise. 3D Management is an application of Ken Wilber’s ground-breaking Integral Theory that embodies the next stage of management evolution: smarter, nimbler, wiser, fairer, and fitter for the forthcoming metamodern times. This disruptive theory denies the imperialism of the bottom line and replaces it with a harmonic triumvirate that takes profit, people, planet, and purpose into account equally. An integral organisation is made up of three fundamental and irreducible dimensions: science, arts, and ethics, which refer respectively to the techno-economical, developmental, and moral aspects of organisational reality. These three aspects are woven together into an essential unit by the spiritual dimension, which strives for unity and meaning. 3D Management is a summum bonum of these four key dimensions to achieve sustainable excellence, spur organisational development, and create radically engaging workplaces, as well as making a better world. The text features more than 60 vanguard organisations, harbingers of the teal consciousness that will define the future of management. “One thing is certain: the more a truly integral business catches on, the more whole and fulfilled that humanity’s future will be. And 3D Management will have helped pave the way.” (from Ken Wilber’s foreword)

The Political Philosophy of the European City

The Political Philosophy of the European City
Author: Ferenc Hörcher
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2021-06-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1793610835

The Political Philosophy of the European City is a courageous and wide-ranging panorama of the political life and thought of the European city. Its novel hypothesis is that modern Western political thought, since the time of Hobbes and Locke, underestimated the political significance and value of the community of urban citizens, called ‘civitas’, united by local customs, or even a formal or informal urban constitution at a certain location, which had a recognizable countenance, with natural and man-made, architectural marks, called ‘urbs’. Recalling the golden age of the European city in ancient Greece and Rome, and offering a detailed description of its turbulent life in the Renaissance Italian city-states, it makes a case for the city not only as a hotbed of modern democracy, but also as a remedy for some of the distortions of political life in the alienated contemporary, centralized, Weberian bureaucratic state. Overcoming the north-south divide, or the core and periphery partition, the book’s material is particularly rich in Central European case studies. All in all, it is an enjoyable read which offers sound arguments to revisit the offer of the small and middle-sized European town, in search of a more sustainable future for Europe.