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Title: The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First by Jeffrey Pfeffer ISBN: 0-87584-841-9 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.44 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The importance of people to organizations' returns
Comment: Summary:
This book highlights the importance of respecting employees in an organization. By treating employees as a strategic asset, a firm can make lucrative profits. The book can be divided into the following parts.
¡PWrong sources of organizational success that firms
commonly use
¡PSeven practices of successful organizations
¡PReasons why smart organizations sometimes do dumb
things and the suggested solutions
¡PHow conventional wisdom about employment contract,
compensation method, and unions is wrong
¡PThe role of public policy in making profits through
people
Comment:
- Good points:
1.Good insights provided:
The author provides his opinions about why and how putting people first can bring great returns to organizations with different detailed examples such as Lincoln Electric. This can make me understand the importance of employees to organizations.
2.Lots of evidence provided:
This book explains why putting people first can help companies make great profits by providing lots of examples, which include companies in different industries. Some examples are explained in a more detailed way such as Albert Dunlap.
3.Clear illustration of the concepts:
The main message of each chapter is clearly delivered.
Also, as the main theme of this book is about ¡§building profits by putting people first¡¨, the author has provided a diagram called ¡§Downward Performance Spiral¡¨ to illustrate the relationship between organization¡¦s poor treatment of its¡¦ employees and its¡¦ corresponding performance. Besides, he provided a diagram about how ¡§People-based strategy¡¨ can make sustained profits to organizations. All these diagrams can increase my understanding about these concepts.
4.Comprehensive information provided:
The author not only states what are the wrong sources of organizational success that firms commonly use, he also provides what and how organizations can do to make lucrative profits.
-Bad points:
1.Not interesting enough:
The author has repeated the main theme of this book ¡V ¡§building profits by putting people first¡¨ many times in different chapters. Although this can remind readers about the main theme of this book, readers may feel too bored.
Rating: 4
Summary: Explains the importance of putting people before profits
Comment: This book is very well researched, although perhaps over-long in some parts.
The underlying message is that "do you see people as labour costs to be reduced or eliminated, or do you see your people as the only thing that differentiates you from your competition?"
I did find it quite satisfyingly radical for a US author to actually recommend that US Managers need to look overseas, as in this quote :
"One might be well-served to spend more time outside of the United States ... What has come to be taken as 'good management practice' in the United States is very, very culturally specific to the United States. Managing in a different way may require developing a broader world view ..."
I can related to that, given that I work in the UK for a US Fortune 500 Company.
The Case Studies cover a broad range of Industries such as Automobile, Banking, Steel, Clothing, Semiconductors, Retailing, Oil Refining, Energy, Airlines; and Geographical coverage includes not only North America, but quite a number of Countries in Europe & Asia.
A Chapter dedicated to Unions but yet not to Union-bashing is a pleasant change.
All in all, an interesting book that I wish more CEO's & HR Officers would read to see the alternatives to boom-and-bust downsizing & outsourcing.
Rating: 5
Summary: People and organization success
Comment: The Human Equation (1998) is an exceptional book. In the first chapter Pfeffer shows that conventional wisdom about the sources of organization success are not correct. In particular he disproves the ideas:
- that it is essential to work in the right sector,
- that the size of the organization is crucial,
- that it is necessary to have an international precense,
- that downsizing is indispensible, and
- that it is necessary to have a technological lead.
Then the author clearly and impressively presents the enormous amount of evidence of the last decade showing the strong association between how organization treat people and how they score on financial and operational performance indicators. Pfeffer describes the following seven HR practices that demonstrable correlate with organization success. He names these practices High Performance Work Practices. They are:
1. Employment security
2. Selective hiring of new personnel
3. Self-managed teams and decentralization of decision making as the basic principles of organization design
4. Comparatively high compensation contingent on organizational performance
5. Extensive training
6. Reduces status distinctions and barriers, including dress, languag, office arrangements, and wage differences across levels
7. Extensive sharing of financial and performance information throughout the organization
This list contains some elements that may seem counterintuitive to some. For instance: how can it be that high wages contribute to financial performance? Don't they just keep the profits low? And how can you afford to be selective in this hard labour market? And how can companies afford to invest much in training of personnel? Aren't employees so mobile and disloyal that you run the risk of training them for your competitor? Speaking about this, how can you in this time of employability of employment security? And it is wise to have an open information policy? If you'd do that, wouldn't you weaken your position by feeding your competitor with valuable information?
If you read this book you will find crystal-clear answers to these questions. The conclusion is that the seven practices do indeed work.
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Title: Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force by Jeffrey Pfeffer ISBN: 087584717X Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: January, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Empowered Leader: 10 Keys to Servant Leadership by Calvin Miller ISBN: 0805410988 Publisher: Broadman & Holman Publishers Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: Staffing Organizations by Herbert G. Heneman, Timothy A. Judge, Herbert G. Heneman III, Herbert Heneman III, Timothy Judge ISBN: 0072482591 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin Pub. Date: 22 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $132.80 |
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Title: Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People by Charles A. O'Reilly, Charles A. O'Reilly, Jeffrey Pfeffer ISBN: 0875848982 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Be a Leader for God's Sake by Bruce E. Winston ISBN: 0972581901 Publisher: Center for Leadership Studies Pub. Date: 04 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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