Effective recruitment and selection practices [book]

Authors: Alan Nankervis, Robert Compton & Bill Morrissey

"Provides practical guidance on the critical issues surrounding the areas of: policies & procedures; communication and liaison with line managers; internal recruitment; references and referees; entitlement to work in Australia. ... Incorporates changes in legislation, such as transition from Work Choices to Forward with Fairness, and includes changes and developments in practices due to technology, workplace trends and the current economic situation." - cover.

Find it at: 658.311 EFF 2009 or Click here, and request a copy from the library!

Keep on tracking
Matty Soccio explores tracking, measurement and monitoring to help marketers conquer their fear of failure.
from Marketing Magazine, February 2010
"It can be taken as fact that the majority of marketers want to be stimulated – you want to be involved with the fun parts of campaigns, kept in the loop during the creative process as the agency goes about its business making something spectacular for you to take back to the CEO and have him say, “This looks brilliant, well done, here’s a 50 percent raise!”
But when the commotion dies down and the last of the leftover stuffed toy promotional products have been packed into a box, what do you have to show for it? A discernable ROI? Hardly.
Tracking and measurement begins even before an eccentric creative has had time to head to the toilet to dream up a ‘creative strategy’. It starts with your brand – how are your consumers ‘consuming’ your product or service? Why do they and how often? But, most important of all, what does your data tell you about the ROI your campaign produced?"
Ask us for a copy of this article.

How China's leaders think : the inside story of China's reform and what this means for the future [book]

Author: Robert Lawrence Kuhn

"Draws on personal, candid conversations with over 100 Chinese leaders across all sectors to delve into the way Chinese leaders think. Author Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn presents an insider's view of how those who lead China feel about their country's growing global strength - in trade, business and finance; in diplomacy, defense and security; in science, technology and innovation; in culture, media and sports - and how this impacts the world." - from publisher.

Find it at: 951.06 HOW 2010 or Click here, and request a copy from the library!

When project-based management causes distress at work (journal article)
By Alain Asquin, Gilles Garel and Thierry Picq
from International Journal of Project Management Vol. 28 Issue 2 Feb 2010, pp. 166-172
"The aim of this paper is to explore the collateral effects of project-based management. Our purpose is not to deny the value of projects to corporate performance but to encourage companies to pay greater attention to the collateral effects this form of management causes for both individuals and groups. To this end, an exploratory research exercise was devised as a means of gathering evidence from interviews conducted outside the workplace but in a sufficiently rigorous manner to guarantee its authenticity. Three categories of risks were identified, together with nine main pathologies. These results reveal the need for a more detailed study in order to encourage the human resources function (HRF) to engage with the issues raised."
Contact the Library for a copy of this article.

Fierce leadership : a bold alternative to the worst "best" business practices of today [book]

Author: Susan Scott

"The goal of this book is to help you spot the crazy practices that are holding you back, the practices that leave you crazy, cursing, and covered in cat hair, and replace them with practices that will significantly improve both your performance and the pleasure in everything you do and the results you generate." - page 12.

Find it at: 658.4092 FIE 2009 or

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Risk management : principles and guidelines [Ref Standard]

Authors: Standards Australia International & Standards New Zealand

"Provides a generic guide for managing risk. It may be applied to a wide range of activities or operations of any public, private or community enterprise, or group." - publisher's website.

Now available in Library & Research Services' Reference Collection at:

Ref Standard AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009.

The Supervisor's survival guide : a practical guide to successful supervision [book]

Author: Kris Cole

A practical, concise guide with easy-to-implement ideas, tips and explanations, this book will assist the reader in attaining management and team leadership success.

Chapters include: Be a peak performer : personal skills for supervisors -- Manage your time and reduce your stress : making the most of the time available -- Develop winners : improving results through training -- Deal with the tough stuff : managing conflict and improving and appraising performance -- Deal with the headaches that surround every supervisor : planning, solving problems and making decisions.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

Or find this book at: 658.302 SUP 2002

Enterprise supply chain management : integrating best in class processes [book]

Author: Vivek Sehgal
"Provides an enterprise view of the supply chain functions and describes the underlying concepts for these processes, what they achieve, and how they are executed. It covers the planning and execution processes for demand, supply, and logistics management and explains how supply chains are modeled for optimal performance. Written in a clear, concise, and easy-to-understand fashion, drawing examples from diverse industry verticals, this book is equally useful to the business and the IT managers." - from publisher.

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The Element : how finding your passion changes everything [book]

Author: Ken Robinson with Lou Aronica

Draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and many others, including business leaders and athletes, showing how all of them came to recognize their unique talents and were able to make a successful living doing what they love.

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Designing local skills strategies [online]

Edited by: Francesca Froy, Sylvain Giguère, Andrea Hofer/ OECD

Drawing from a wide array of case studies, this book analyses best-practice local strategies for increasing workforce skills. And it also takes a close look at the opportunities and challenges presented by international migration. The in-depth case studies in this report range from Shanghai's "Highland of Talent Strategy" to new "career ladders" which help immigrants escape low-skilled, low-paid employment in New York. National and local-level recommendations on local skills development are provided, for both OECD and non-OECD countries.

Managing flexworkers: holding on and letting go (journal article)
By Julia Richardson
from Journal of Management Development Vol 29 Iss 2 2010, pp. 137 - 147
"The purpose of this paper is to explore what it means to be a manager in the context of working from home, or “flexworking”, as an increasingly common work practice."

The craft of project shaping (journal article)
By Charles Smith and Mark Winter
from International Journal of Managing Projects in Business Vol 3 Iss 1 2010, pp. 46 - 60
"This paper aims to look closely at the actuality of project formation to investigate the performance of project shaping – those acts performed by individuals to make that form of “sense” that constitutes a new project, and to propose a framework for mapping the skills of those individuals who are directly involved in shaping projects."
Contact the Library for a copy of this article.

Prepare now for the recovery [Audio CD ROM]

Author: Michael Schildberger / Business Essentials

Introduction -- Economic update -- Prepare now for the recovery -- Negotiating a better lease -- Do you deliver what you promise? -- Managing redundancy -- Young entrepreneur : on track for growth -- The big hurdle : leadership after you -- Sharemarket update -- Tax update -- Are you killing your co-workers?

Grab a copy from the library!

A Taxing debate : climate policy beyond Copenhagen [book]

Author: Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA)

Essays include: Reforms in the greenhouse era : who pays, and how? / Michael Porter -- Consumption-based emissions policy : a vaccine for the CPRS 'trade flu’? / Geoff Carmody -- R&D Policy / CRA International -- Forging a global agreement on climate change : realities, politics and practicalities / ITS Global.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

Inhuman resources : a guide to the psychos, misfits and criminally incompetent in every office [book]

Author: Michael Stanford

"An invaluable (and laugh-out-loud funny) reference for anyone who works in an office, Inhuman Resources turns the spotlight on the toxic individuals in today’s workplace, providing insights into their childhood, character traits, their future demise/success, and most importantly how they spread their poison via office email." - cover.

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What's not to like? - The economy (article)
by John Langmore
from Inside Story. 06/01/2010
"American Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman argues that a financial transaction tax “would be a trivial expense for people engaged in foreign trade or long term investment; but it would be a major disincentive for people trying to make a fast buck (or euro, or yen) by outguessing the markets over the course of a few days or weeks.” “What’s not to like?” he asks. Critics claim that it would be avoided, but the centralisation of such transactions makes them relatively easy to monitor – if there is a will to do so. The tax is one way of shrinking bloated financial sectors and of raising revenue from those who have benefited most from the explosive growth in the volume of international financial transactions."

Female power (journal article)
from The Economist, Vol 394 No 8663, 2/1/2010
"The article examines employment of women in developed countries. Working women compose approximately half of the U.S. labor force, and the number of women executives has increased dramatically. Social policies, particularly those relating to parenthood and child care, have not changed at the same pace, especially in the U.S."

The 8 values of highly productive companies : creating wealth from a new employment relationship [book]

Author: Tim Baker

"Instead of helping, most current human resource development approaches are hindering - and in doing so - damaging business in the current climate of accelerated change and uncertainty ... By using the roadmap outlined in this book, managers have at their disposal a unique methodology that shows how you can positively alter the culture of a workplace for the well-being of both parties in the employment relationship." - preface.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

Regions matter : economic recovery, innovation and sustainable growth [online]
Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Why do some regions grow faster than others, and in ways that do not always conform to economic theory? This is a central issue in today's economic climate, when policy makers are looking for ways to stimulate new and sustainable growth.

OECD work suggests that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to regional growth policy. Rather, regions grow in very varied ways and the simple concentration of resources in a place is not sufficient for long-term growth. This report draws on OECD analysis of regional data (including where growth happens, country-by-country), policy reviews and case studies.

How to organise & operate a small business in Australia : how to turn ideas into success [book]

Author: J. W. English

Covers preparing for self-employment, developing a business strategy, marketing strategies, financial management and introduces the IDEAS system to identify business opportunities with genuine commercial potential.

Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.

Assessing the ethics of implementing performance appraisal systems (journal article)
By George P. Sillup and Ronald Klimberg
from Journal of Management Development Vol 29 Iss 1 2010, pp. 38 - 55
"The purpose of this paper is to try to understand better whether performance appraisal (PA) helps performance evaluators (PEs) to manage more effectively and meet employees' expectations in US-based corporations."

Strategic Human Resource Practices: Introducing Alternatives for Organizational Performance Improvement in the Public Sector (journal article)
By Jungin Kim
from Public Administration Review Vol 70 Iss 1 2010, pp. 38 - 49
"Can public sector organizations increase productivity through competition in spite of inherent limitations, such as budget constraints? This study addresses that question by examining the impact of four factors that contribute to employees' expectations regarding competitive work environments on organizational performance in terms of overall quality of work and client satisfaction. The four factors measured include rewards for merit such as salary and benefits, opportunities, organizational rules, and the capacity to deal with risks as perceived by employees. Using data on public and nonprofit sector employees, expectations for merit rewards were positively related to employees' perception of organizational performance when the conditions of performance-based organizational rules and risk-taking behaviors were also satisfied. Moreover, employees' perceptions of organizational performance tended to increase when they felt that organizational rules were oriented toward performance plus organizational members and top leaders exhibited greater risk-taking behaviors. However, no correlation was evident between employees' expectations of opportunities and perceived organizational performance."

Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change (journal article)
By Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 88 Issue 1 Jan 2010, pp. 137-140
"The article focuses on career development and job change. The challenges, transaction costs, and risks associated with job moves are discussed. The authors' research with executives is noted. The mistakes in career development that job hunters make are not doing enough research on the job market, leaving a job for one that offers more money, job-hopping instead of career planning, overestimating one's value to an organization, and thinking in a short term perspective. Questions that should be asked throughout the process of a job change are mentioned. The effect of psychological, social, and time pressures on a job move is mentioned."

Breakthrough Ideas for 2010 (journal article)
By Teresa M. Amabile
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 88 Issue 1 Jan 2010, pp. 41-57
"The article presents The HBR List of breakthrough ideas for 2010 which is compiled by this journal in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The ten problems and the innovative solutions are discussed in each essay. The article titles are "What Really Motivates Workers," "The Technology That Can Revolutionize Health Care," "What the Financial Sector Should Borrow," "Getting the Drugs We Need," "A Market Solution for Achieving 'Green'," "A Faster Path from Lab to Market," "Hacking Work," "Spotting Bubbles on the Rise," "Creating More Hong Kongs," and "Independent Diplomacy.""

Corporate responses to climate change : achieving emissions reductions through regulation, self-regulation and economic incentives [book]

Author: Rory Sullivan

"Analyses current business practice and performance on climate change, in the light of the dramatic changes in the regulatory and policy environment over the last five years. More specifically, it examines how climate change-related policy development and implementation have influenced corporate performance, with the objective of using this information to consider how the next stage of climate change policy - regulation, incentives, voluntary initiatives - may be designed and implemented in a manner that delivers the real and substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that will be required." - cover.

Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.

Superfreakonomics : global cooling, patriotic prostitutes, and why suicide bombers should buy life insurance [book]

Authors: Stephen Dubner & Steven Levitt

"Four years in the making, 'Superfreakonomics' will once again transform the way we look at the world. It reveals, among other things, why you are more likely to be killed walking drunk than driving drunk; how a prostitute is more likely to sleep with a policeman than be arrested by one; why terrorists might be easier to track down than you would imagine; how a sex change ould boost your salary; and how there really is a cheap fix for climate change." - from publisher.

Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.

Borrowing brilliance : how to build on the ideas of others : the six steps to business innovation [book]

Author: David Kord Murray

Great thinkers through history - Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs - have understood this and used it to their advantage. Now you can too, with the help of David Murray's practical six-step 'borrowing' process.
Borrowing isn't really intellectual theft; it's the core creative thinking technique. Contrary to what many of us believe, creativity can be learned and is easily within reach. Using practical lessons from the careers of brilliant thinkers, Murray lifts the veil off the creative process, showing us how to tap into our own creativity and become the innovators we'd love to be.

Start by borrowing this book! Click here to request a loan.

On the last day of Copenhagen, world leaders gave to me… no meaningful negotiated outcome (article)
by Alex Desbarres
from Datamonitor, 21/12/2009
"In its pre-Copenhagen White Paper, Datamonitor argued that significant efforts would be made to reach an ‘international agreement’ at Copenhagen; efforts which would undoubtedly be acclaimed as a resounding victory for all nations involved and for the prospects for greater long-term international co-operation between developed and developing nations. However, Datamonitor also predicted that such efforts would fall short of a binding international framework that would curb climate change to the extent that scientists deem necessary, and that the conference could not deliver a final agreement on a new, credible and meaningful climate change framework. As originally suspected, the conference has only managed to forge a rough international ‘understanding’ which is to be finalized in the many months and years to come."

Video stores, travel agents face slow death by technology (article)
by Stuart Fagg
from ninemsn Money 05/01/10
"Video rental stores, travel agents, photo developers and land-line telephone providers are set for a gloomy year as consumers abandon traditional businesses and turn to technology.
With consumers increasingly downloading movies and the number of pay TV and free-to-air TV channels increasing, video rental stores will see a $20 million hole in their revenues this year, according to economic forecaster IBISWorld. "

The Approachable manager : 24 daily practices for getting employees to come to you [book]

Author: Scott Ginsberg

"Offers principles and practices for getting employees to come to you! Inside learn phrases that payses, creating a question-friendly environment and growing bigger ears!" - from publisher.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

China's new place in a world in crisis : economic geopolitical and environmental dimensions [online]

Editors: Ross Garnaut, Ligang Song and Wing Thye Woo

"How have China's growth prospects been affected by the global crisis? How will the crisis and China's response to it affect the prospects for progress on the great internal issues in China's development? How will the crisis and the international community's response to it affect the rapidly emerging new international order, in which China and other major developing countries have much larger roles?" - page 8.

The Art of organizing anything : simple principles for organizing your home, your office, and your life [book]

Author: Rosalie Maggio

"Are you overwhelmed by clutter? Do you have a hard time finding things in your home or office? The disorder in your life may be keeping you from accomplishing your goals. [This book] helps you streamline your life at home and at work, reduce stress, be more efficient and locate all those misplaced items." - cover.

Want to borrow a copy from the library? Click here to email through your request.

Beyond GDP: We need a dashboard for the whole economy (journal article)
by Mike Holderness
from New Scientist No 2731, 21 October 2009
"HOW much political power can one number exert? Gross domestic product (GDP) is a strong candidate for the world's most potent numerical indicator. Politicians use it to rank states in order of production, and to guide policies to maintain their place in the pecking order. Its year-on-year changes dictate whether an economy is "in recession", which in turn influences what you pay for the loan to buy your home or run your business - and, indeed, the price of fish.
But look under the hood at the factors that feed into the calculation of GDP and you'll see some strange goings-on. For one thing, it's full of virtual production and trading. People who own their houses, for example, are deemed to pay themselves rent, which is included in GDP; it has to be this way, to keep the books tidy."

The right way to invest in infrastructure
by Michael Lind
from McKinsey Quarterly December 2009
Contact the library for a copy of this article.
"In the current debate about how to build a durable economic recovery, it’s welcome news that infrastructure spending is gaining attention. In a December 8 speech on jobs and economic growth, President Obama called for a boost in public investment in infrastructure—beyond what his earlier stimulus package included—to modernize the US transportation and communications networks. The president’s proposal reflects a consensus among economists that investment in infrastructure is one of the most effective ways to use government spending to promote economic activity. "