education-economics

"In most businesses, when you mention the word learning, people immediately think of a formal training group, whether it is called 'training and development,' 'education and training,' employee development,' or any of a dozen other titles. Built on a traditional model, these training groups have done more to hinder progress in creating knowledge-enabled organizations than they have helped. A new model is needed, not just for the training group but for the company as a whole. Becoming a knowledge-enabled organization involves not just the training group but everyone from the CEO down; it requires basic changes in how the company is organized and run. The good news is that you can get there from here. This is your guidebook for making the journey" (from the Introduction p.3).

In this context, Daniel R. Tobin:

* argues that "training programs in most companies today rob the company in two ways. First, because formal training programs developed and delivered by traditional training groups are ineffective in helping the company and its employees succeed in meeting their goals, they waste large amounts of money and time. Second, by creating the illusion that formal training programs can meet the company's learning needs and those of its employees, by separating employees' learning needs and learning activities from their actual work, companies miss opportunities to improve individual and company performance, meet or exceed stated goals, and create real competitive advantage".

* presents the four stages of his learning model as an alternative to the traditional model, and examines some common barriers (unavailability of data, inability to find relevant, purposeful data, failure to recognize and share tacit knowledge), and other inhibitors (misdirected measurement and reward strategies, rigid organizational structures, and policies and procedures that force people to work in the same old ways even while the leaders are pointing to new directions) to knowledge development.

* examines what it means to be a knowledge-enabled organization.

* argues that "one key to creating a knowledge-enabled organization is the practice of developing individual employee learning contracts for every employee in the company. The learning contract specifies the knowledge and skills that the employee must acquire over the next year to meet individual goals. These goals are tied directly to functional, departmental, and business unit goals and must have a direct relation to the company's overall business goals".

* examines a wide range of learning options and how they can fulfill employees' learning contracts.

* as a guide for starting to build a company's knowledge network, presents some excellent practices that companies have undertaken to build their own knowledge networks, and argues that "without a positive learning environment, no organization can become knowledge-enabled, regardless of how much it spends on tools and technologies".

* discusses how today's successful companies create a positive learning environment, and argues that "to succeed in becoming a knowledge-enabled organization, a company must change how the leaders lead; how it structures communications, up, down, and throughout the company; how it measures and rewards employees; and how it structures work and job design".

* advises that companies 'throw out the training catalog, not the training group' (because training catalogs reflect the past and limit the potential for real learning), and presents a new model for a group that it be named employee and organizational learning.

* examines the learning organization, a term popularized by Peter Senge, and the corporate university and relates them to the model of the knowledge-enabled organization, and argues that "Senge's five disciplines can be valuable tools, but are not sufficient, in and of themselves, to create a knowledge-enabled organization, and establishing a corporate university does not guarantee that there will be any change in the way the corporation's employees are trained".

* in addition to developing knowledge and skills within the company, examines the other two knowledge-acquisition strategies: buying knowledge and skills, and renting knowledge and skills, and says that "the knowledge-enabled organization also learns from customers, suppliers, and even competitors-from any and every relevant source within or without the company".

Finally, Daniel R. Tobin writes, "creating a knowledge-enabled organization is a prerequisite for any company's future success. There is no function, no job within any company today, regardless of industry or location, that is not knowledge-based. At the same time, the amount of knowledge that employees at all levels need to do their jobs is expanding exponentially; in the future no employee will be able to master all of the knowledge needed to do a job. The best that we can do for our employees is to build a positive learning environment where they are engaged in continuous learning and can use knowledge networks to gather and share the knowledge they need to succeed individually and collectively".

Strongly recommended.

I found Dr. Tobin's book both useful in its content and very readable. Compared to many business books which often leave me thinking "So what is their point?," Dan Tobin gives clear examples, illuminating case studies, and practical suggestions. He is also clear regarding why he omitted the technology side of the equation - it would be outdated by the time the book came out. However, if you are interested in more of the technology side, you might want to check out Tom Kooulopolus' book Smart Companies, Smart Tools (Van Nostrand Reinhold). I especially liked Dan's description of how companies "jump started" their knowledge sharing process, as this seems to be THE major limiting factor, not the technology. As experts in the Knowledge Management field are recognizing, the big question is: How do you create a climate where people want to share knowledge? This book gives some practical suggestions and case studies of how organizations have done this. I strongly recommend checking out Dan's book as well as his earlier ones.

An excellent choice for managers and supervisors of either gender. This book is filled with self-assessments, exercises, tips, and techniques that will help anyone improve their leadership skills.

Most of the information is gender-neutral, but some sections such as Predjudices Against Women as Leaders," and "Working with Men" provide insights that either gender can use.

Read it straight through, or focus on an area of concern such as leading a team, planning and goal setting, or coaching. Regardless of your approach you will find what you need in this easy-to-read book!

Comprehensive, yet short and easy to read. This book provides many useful worksheets to help you evaluate your leadership skills. Topics include: team building, managing conflict and difficult people, time and goal management, using stress positively, communicating with diverse personalities, and motivation tips. The book gives you a quick inventory of your skills. It then provides some practical, useful steps for improvement. I find the strategies helpful for my own development and for coaching supervisors and managers.

I found Emmanuel Modu's book to be a necessity for all parents. Not just because it helps them encourage their kids into the business world, but also because it provides a guidline on how to help children become independent thinkers and happy individuals. Mr. Modu pinpoints many mistakes paretns [unintentionally]make while trying to teach their kids about the ways of life. After reading "The Lemonade Stand", parents will be able to overcome such mistakes and help groom their offspring into freethinking and dyamic people. If you take evertying written in this book to heart, you may be raising the next Rockeffellar or Larry Ellison ;)

This book should be read by adults as well as children. If you are a individual starting your own business for the first time and without any knowledge of how to manage a business then the lemonade stand is where you should start. chapters 10, 11 and 12 were very helpful for me. A well written book Mr Modu.

Not since C. Wright Mills wrote the Power Elite has a sociological theory captured the popular imagination as has George Ritzer's McDonaldization thesis. While I find Ritzer's approach more salty and less nourishing than a Big Mac, clearly I am in a minority. The 14 contributors to this thought provoking anthology have gone a long way toward enriching the theory of McDonaldization and providing empirical grounding for the analysis of developments in higher education. As the editors noted in their introduction, Ritzer's entire theoretical antecedent consists of Max Weber's nineteenth century concept of rationalization. Like Weber, Ritzer sees the spread of rational organization into all areas of social life as inevitable and basically beneficial. But also like Weber he is concerned that the application of rationality to social organizations increasingly disenchants the world and leads to an "iron cage" of bureaucracy and standardization. As the authors in this anthology attest, nowhere is this worry more salient than in the halls of academe.
"McDonaldization" was summarized conceptually by Ritzer (1996) as "efficiency," "calculability," "predictability," and "control." The fast-food industry serves as the modern model including: a decentralized franchised structure of ownership; global markets; rational scientific processes of production and management; emphasis on "means of consumption" of standardized products that allows one to "have it your way"; low-wage jobs with no degrees of freedom to depart from a taylorized script; the shift of some productive labor to the consumer (picking up your order, bussing your table); and consumption offered as spectacle and recreation. That is a lot of baggage hanging on a single term; and, as the readings in this anthology reveal, McDonaldization in the university functions less as an analytical concept than as a "free floating signifier" revealing deep seated uncertainties in the professorate. Like Ritzer, half of the contributors to this volume are sociologists (full disclosure: I am also one.) With a couple of exceptions, all the authors are currently professors or administrators in academia, most teach in Britain and draw their examples from British universities. This does not, however, lessen the importance of the book for American readers who may be surprised that processes of McDonaldization have penetrated further in the United Kingdom than in the U.S.

The McDonaldization of Higher Education is a timely reminder of what is being lost in HE today. The book contains contributions from British, American and Australian academics, who engage with, and in some instances go beyond, the themes of the McDonaldization thesis in relation to the university. In particular, Dennis Hayes, Frank Füredi, Claire Fox and Robin Wynyard offer new insights into the shift towards the 'therapeutic' university (Hayes), how the bureaucratisation of HE in Britain has gone far beyond the flexibility and efficiency associated with McDonaldization (Füredi), why students do not benefit from mass access to HE (Fox), and how what is on offer to students is not knowledge, but a simulated fantasy world (Wynyard). I thoroughly recommend this very challenging, original, readable book, that alerts us to the dangers which lie ahead for HE. It is unfortunate that at present it is only available in an expensive hardback edition. Many academics, students and media people want the book but cannot pay such a price. This is a ridiculous state of affairs. I am sure that a paperback version would make a significant impact on the contemporary debate about the future of HE.

Contemporary scholars of law and the social sciences have awoken to an understanding of the law of unintended consequences. This law states, roughly, that the most important consequences of any law, regulation, or policy, will be those that none of its advocates desired.

Examples are too numerous for recitation here. But one of the most poignant fields for the operation of this law is the whole issue of race relations in America, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its progeny.

Halpern shows, with exacting scholarship, just how the effects of these acts differ from the intention, and how people in the US of all races have to rethink their most firmly held convictions, to square them with the observed (however unintended) consequences of the actions recent generations have taken, acting on just such convictions.

This book was exactly what I was looking for my College term paper. It is clear that the book is impecably researched, finely crafted and tweaked to perfection. Perfect for anybody studying the civil rights movement. BRAVO messr Halpern

In the preface, Rietz and Manning report they "tried to think of all the decisions, questions, issues or concerns the reader might face so they can proceed with confidence..."From the beginning to the end of the book, the authors deliver on this goal by sequentially guiding the reader through the workshop development process. The content has value for the experienced as well as the novice professional. In addition to learning the new, content in the One Stop Guide to Workshops confirmed practices I have learned over the past 22 years from course work, my own practical experiences, and observations. As I read the book, I found myself wishing it had been written 25 years ago.

This comprehensive guide not only gives excellent guidance and checklists for workshops, but also for the facilitation of meetings and teams.Topics include: how to deal with difficult people, strategies for handling challenging situations and surprises, dynamic case studies and group learning activities, key facilitation and presentation skills, advantages and pitfulls of various audio visual equipment, and logistics. The check lists alone will save you time and minimize risk for meeting and workshop problems.

I'd like to know if this book is teacher's edition?

I need a teachers edition

The book is an easy to follow guide to proposal writing. It's small and not intimidating. It's also easy to read. As a first time grant writer, I found it useful and plan on keeping it for future grants. Definitely recommend for first time grant writers.

This book helped me to write a federal grant application. I enjoyed the easy-to-read style! I expecially liked the sample goals and objectives and the evaluation section.

Unlike Sheldon Richman's passionate libertarian polemic, Separating School & State, which is like the light cavalry slashing through the defenses of the public education status quo, Myron Lieberman's Public Education An Autopsy is a dry, dispassionate examination of why public education is so difficult to reform and contrasts how certain problems would be handled better in the marketplace.

Lieberman stresses that the public education organizations, such as the NEA, are more focused on protecting the interests of the producers of education rather than catering to the needs of the consumers. For example, even though most bilingual education programs fail to teach Hispanic students English, the NEA and ethnic activist groups will still stridently support the programs because it provides jobs and patronage for their supporters. Though the jury is still out on bilingual education, it appears that since Proposition 209 in California passed, Hispanic students are doing well in English immersion. But, in the absence of voter pressure, the public schools never would have implemented this approach on its own.

Lieberman takes great pains to show that he being fair and balanced in this book, which may frustrate some libertarians who agree with Lieberman that we need a free market in education. But this book is very important reading for anyone who cares about education in America and the direction it needs to take.

The one book I most strongly recommend that readers interested in education reform start with is Dr. Myron Lieberman's Public Education: An Autopsy (1993). Despite its radical-sounding title, Dr. Lieberman's book is thorough and moderate in its approach to these issues. Dr. Lieberman began his working career as a schoolteacher in the same urban public school he attended as a child. He is a life member of the National Education Association and has been writing books about education reform since 1956. Dr. Lieberman is also trained as a lawyer and spent many years as a negotiator for schoolteacher unions bargaining with school boards. Public Education: An Autopsy reflects the latest developments in Dr. Lieberman's thinking and is full of important information not found in other books about education. The book shows great compassion for learners, parents, and teachers and contains excellent endnotes guiding readers to additional research sources.

It is not too late for America to wake up and change her ways! Read this insightful book and start doing your part to solve the problems NOW. (For the savvy readers, another recommendation is "New Inequality" by Richard Freeman.)

Smith provides a well written pictures of the differences in how the US elementary and secondary schools differ from our global competitors. He illuminates the way Japan & Germany prepare the non-college bound for productive careers in today's economy. It stimulated my thinking about our school systems for the 70% who never get a degree and are ill-equiped for tomorrow's careers.