HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER
Title: Human Resources & Organizational Behavior
Competencies: oral communications, assertiveness, influence, building effective relationships, parenting, negotiation skills, change management, entrepreneurial leadership
Who benefits: readers interested in current business literature, parents of teens or soon-to-be-teens
Consultant Usage: executive coaches, organizational consultants, communication trainers, labor relations professionals,
What’s it about? I am looking at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management for my last installment of Summer Reading List. I specifically looked at their Department of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior as a source for my reading interests. I found two surprises. One, they don’t seem to write as many books as the other schools I have reviewed. Surprise number two was finding a couple of absolutely amusing book titles in this highly academic environment.
First prize in the most surprising title award goes to Sam Culbert in his just released Beyond Bullsh*t: Straight-Talk at Work.  In the book Sam argues that straight talk is possible, but not without some pre work involving trust and commitment. Making this book title even more amusing is a book jacket endorsement from Stanford University’s Robert Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule! Where is academia headed?
Second prize for most surprising title goes to UCLA’s John Ullmen and Kathryn Stanley for their December 2007 book Which Bird Gets Heard? How to Have Impact Even in a Flock. This book is a leadership fable aimed at improving influence effectiveness. (By the way, what is it about LA and bird fables? My dear friend BJ Gallagher Hateley’s Peacock in the Land of Penguins is a fable about corporate life and culture and is now in its third edition.)
Using a narrative format (UCLA writers will never be confused with MIT writers), John Ullmen and Melissa Karz demonstrate the principles and practices of relationship building in professional life with Invisible Bridges: Building Professional Relationships for Results (2006). For those of you with teens or pre teens, you might find their follow-up book helpful: Invisible Bridges for Teens: Building Relationships for the Best Things in Life (2007)
Long time UCLA professor Eric Flamholtz has co-authored Leading Strategic Change: Bridging Theory and Practice (2008) about an organization’s ability to adapt to and manage different types of change. He also has some updated advice for entrepreneurs in the 4th edition of Growing Pains: Transitioning from an Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm (Flamholtz and Randley, 2007).
If you are the labor relations field, there are two books you will find interesting authored and co-authored by UCLA’s Sanford M. Jacoby. The must read of the two: From the Global to the Local: The Contributions of Daniel J.B. Mitchell to the Study of Labor and Public Policy (2008) by Daniel J.B. Mitchell, Sanford Jacoby and Christopher Erickson. A somewhat more narrow focus but highly acclaimed book in the field of labor relations is The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States (2007).
Well, that concludes the development of my summer reading list from my (virtual) tour of excellent business schools. Six schools, dozens of new possible reading, scores of writers – now if I can only find the time. Hope you have the same dilemma. Happy reading.
[tags], oral communications, assertiveness, influence, building effective relationships, parenting, negotiation skills, change management, entrepreneurial leadership, eric flamholtz, samuel culbert, sanford jacoby, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.
