Biblio
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(1988). Who Am I? What Am I: Search for Meaning in Your Work.
"Work is one of the most important sources of personal meaning, and, therefore, self-acceptance. Research on the unemployed underscores this conclusion emphatically. Furthermore, the same research insists that the degree of self-depreciation felt by a person out of work can only be realized by experience."
(1990). A whack on the side of the head: how you can be more creative.
"If you think you're creative, then you'll put yourself in situations where you can use your creativity, where you can take a few risks and try some new approaches, and where you come up with new ideas." (p. 166)
(1995). Wellness 9 to 5: Managing Stress at Work.
"My encounter with job stress is part of an epidemic. In the United States, over 75 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are to treat stress-related complaints, and the vast majority of these complaints are job-related (Wallace, 1992). Work site stress can kill the very spirit of who we are as individuals. Our dreams, aspirations, creative goals, and hopes to 'make a difference' wither and die if the stress of daily work obscures our capabilities." (p. 5)
(1997). Work for a Living and Still Be Free to Live.
"...humiliations from within and without were the chief complaints. Above all [Terkel] noted, 'To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.'" (p. 8)
(2004). We Got Fired!: . . . And It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us.
"If I have one piece of advice to young people, it's to break rules. Let's first assume you are delivering way more than what is expected of you. You have to do much more than the expected to compete today, because there are plenty of people out there happy to do the minimum. If you are already overdelivering, and breaking a rule will help you deliver more, then go ahead. Ask yourself a question: Will breaking a rule really help everyone out, not just myself? Is the answer yes? Then go ahead and break the rule. I'm not talking about doing anything criminal or unethical. I mean not following some stupid policy or convention. You'll have more fun and everyone will learn more. Most of all, you'll deliver more." (p. 264)
(1998). When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses: How to Survive in a Crazy and Dysfunctional Workplace.
"This is not the first time you've heard how an evaluation report mashed the brains of an employee. Why so powerful? It's this. The assessment of performance comes from the one person above all others who can most affect the emotions of an employee, one's supervisor. That changes the meaning of everything. That document can alter reality: Good can become bad, up can become down, and smart become dumb." (p. 135)
(2001). Weaving complexity and business: engaging the soul at work.
356. Abstract
"How then do we begin to generate caring and connected relationships at work? We begin with awareness. We begin by being aware of the world of relationships and by paying as much attention to these micro dynamics in organizations—how they influence social processes and psychological health of individuals—as we currently do to macro issues, such as economic performance and strategies." (p. 305)
(1987). When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough.
"Martin Buber, an important twentieth-century theologian, taught that our relationships with others take either of two forms. They are either I-It, treating the other person as an object, seeing him only in terms of what he does, or I-Thou, seeing the other as a subject, being aware of the other person's needs and feelings as well as one's own." (p. 54)
(2001). When Corporations Rule the World.
"Human well-being will never be secured by the kind of economic growth demanded by a rogue financial system that values people, planet, and the civilizing bonds of culture and community only for their current market price. It comes down to a question of how we want to live. If we want societies that value life more than money, we must re-create our institutions accordingly." (p. 229)
(1987). When Smart People Fail.
"There are several basic kinds of organizational environments: corporate, entrepreneurial, intrapreneurial (independent responsibility within a corporate structure), partnership, or complete autonomy (in the case of the artist). Sometimes the real you is in the wrong environment." (p. 109)
(1995). Wrestling with depression: a spiritual guide to reclaiming life.
"Our society teaches us to be open to receiving communication as long as that communication is nonthreatening. However, because we are always in competition with one another, the communication is usually threatening. This leads us to forms of protection such as facades and interpersonal isolation, both of which promote depression....
Each cover-up or facade makes us more unreal to ourselves. Eventually we are out of touch with some areas of ourselves." (p. 89)
(2003). Writing Secure Code, Second Edition.
(1990). The Workplace Within: Psychodynamics of Organizational Life.
"Irrational processes highlight the limits of classical organization theory. Theorists such as Simon, Thompson, and Galbraith* have argued that all organizations face continuing uncertainties and have suggested that organizational routines and structures, such as maintaining inventory to meet unpredictable demands for products, are mechanisms for reducing uncertainty. But because these theorists have not linked the experience of uncertainty to people's feelings of anxiety, they have posed the issue of uncertainty too narrowly and have proposed solutions that rely on such rational methods as mathematical calculation and organization design. When anxiety intrudes, rational procedures are distorted by irrational processes. For example, the managers of the manufacturing and sales departments in many companies fight chronically with one another over inventory policy, each blaming the other for the gap between market demand and company supply. Because they feel anxious, they project their sense of blame and failure outward, often scapegoating the person they must cooperate with to reduce the uncertainty they face." (p. 3)
(1997). Win32 System Programming.
(1994). The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor.
The Institutional Imperative
"...an unseen force he calls 'the institutional imperative'—the lemminglike tendency of corporate management to imitate the behavior of other managers, no matter how silly or irrational it may be. It was, Buffett confesses, the most surprising discovery of his business career. At school he was taught that experienced managers of companies were honest, intelligent, and automatically made rational business decisions. Once out in the business world, he learned instead that 'rationality frequently wilts when the institutional imperative comes into play.' " (p. 84)
"...an unseen force he calls 'the institutional imperative'—the lemminglike tendency of corporate management to imitate the behavior of other managers, no matter how silly or irrational it may be. It was, Buffett confesses, the most surprising discovery of his business career. At school he was taught that experienced managers of companies were honest, intelligent, and automatically made rational business decisions. Once out in the business world, he learned instead that 'rationality frequently wilts when the institutional imperative comes into play.' " (p. 84)
Compare with "group narcissism" (Fromm) or "institutional narcissism" (Duncan). Also Howard Schwartz, et. al.
(2000). Working with Emotional Intelligence.
"There is a politics of empathy: Those with little power are typically expected to sense the feelings of those who hold power, while those in power feel less obligation to be sensitive in return. In other words, the studied lack of empathy is a way power-holders can tacitly assert their authority." (p. 144)
(2004). Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise Through Dramatic Change.
"This codification, this rigor mortis that sets in around values and behaviors, is a problem unique to—and often devastating for—successful enterprises." (p, 185)
(2004). When You Work for a Bully: Assessing Your Options and Taking Action.
"Neither your identity nor your value as a person is determined by how hard you work, much less how many hours you put in." (p. 190)
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