How to Get Real About Strategic Planning(journal article)

by Stephanie Overby

from CIO, Feb 2008, pp.22-28

"Everyone agrees that having a strategic plan for IT is a good thing but most CIOs approach the process with fear and loathing. In fact, the majority of CIOs (and the enterprises they work for) are faking it when it comes to strategic planning. Isn’t it time we all got real?"

Meeting the Challenge of Technology-driven Change wihin an Institutional Context: The Greek Case(journal article)
by Sophia Philippidou, Christos Tarantilis, Eric Soderquist, Maria Karageorgiou and Gregory Prastacos
from Public Administration (OnlineEarly Articles)
"Propelled by the driving forces of globalization and technology explosion, public institutions face the challenge of rapid and discontinuous change. Such change has come to undermine the relevance of traditional approaches on how an institution should be managed. We analyse a technology-driven change effort, the implementation of an Integrated Information System (IIS), that unfolds within the boundaries of the institutional context of the Hellenic Parliament. The purpose of our research, which reports on a qualitative field study, is to explore and understand how the particularities of technology-driven change on the one hand, and institutional change on the other, can be integrated, paying particular attention to how the different actors involved in the process interact and affect the unfolding of such a change effort."

Examining the Nature and Significance of Leadership in Government Organizations(journal article)
by Tracey Trottier, Montgomery Van Wart, XiaoHu Wang
from Public Administration Review, Vol.68 No.2, 2008, pp.319–333
"Though the mainstream organizational literature has advanced in the last 20 years with the integration of transformational and distributed leadership theories, as well as genuine attempts at comprehensive models, the public sector literature has lagged, especially in utilizing large-scale empirical studies. This study takes advantage of a very large government data set to test the utility of one of the best known theories, the "full range" leadership theory of Bernard Bass. It addresses three important research questions: How inclusive is Bass’s operational definition of leadership? How much of an impact do Bass’s leadership competencies have on follower satisfaction? Finally, how important is transformational leadership compared to transactional leadership in government settings?"

Measuring Street Cleanliness: A Comparison of New York City’s Scorecard and Results from a Citizen Survey(journal article)

by Gregg G. Van Ryzin, Stephen Immerwahr, Stan Altman

from Public Administration Review, Vol.68 No.2, 2008, pp.295–303.

"Public administrators at the local level often rely on citizen surveys to measure the outcomes or accomplishments of their service delivery efforts. However, many remain skeptical about the value of survey-based measures of local government performance, in large part because of the low empirical correlation between objective and subjective performance measures reported in the literature. Using data from New York City’s street cleanliness scorecard, a well-established outcome measure, combined with responses from more than 4,000 respondents to a citizen survey, the authors find a clear and consistent correlation between the scorecard and citizen ratings of street cleanliness in their neighborhoods. These results demonstrate that citizen judgments about government performance can correspond closely with more objectively measured outcomes—and that citizen surveys can provide valid and useful performance measures, at least for some local government services."

Transparency and sustainability of the public balance sheet: perspectives from APEC(journal article)
by Tom Dickson and Alva Lim
from Economic Roundup, Spring 2007.
"This article is based on the paper prepared for the 2007 APEC Finance Ministers’ Process. Good fiscal risk management is identified as a policy priority in the Hanoi Medium Term Agenda, agreed by APEC Finance Ministers in 2006. The article raises issues for discussion and provides an overview of emerging practices in the area of fiscal sustainability. The paper
concludes by summarising key principles drawn from these practices. Achieving economic and social objectives depends on managing risks to fiscal sustainability. This paper aims to facilitate discussion on appropriate ways to enhance fiscal transparency and sustainability by managing key risks from off-balance sheet government activities."

Dinosaurs beware(journal article)
by Deborah Tarrant
from Management Today, Jan Feb 2008, pp.12-16
"Today's challenge for all levels of business to embrace the new sustainability world order is ignored at their peril. This includes developing leading solutions against those far-sighted competitors taking us into a new age."

Green tape(journal article)
by Darren Baguley
from Management Today, Jan Feb 2008, pp.24-27
"Does the ratcheting up of environmental standards mean a new era in green tape for SMEs?"

A revolution in healthcare: Medicine meets the marketplace(journal article)
by Fred Hansen
from Institute of Public Affairs Review, Vol. 59 Issue 4, Jan 2008, pp. 42-45
"With competition nearly absent and with unchecked increases in demand over the last two decades, health markets in industrialised countries are undergoing intense change at tsunami-like speed, responding to levels of health expenditure that are growing twice as fast as the economy at large. This article looks at where healthcare markets are heading due to the quality and state of government run health services."

Challenges Confronting Economic Policy Advisers(journal article)
by Ken Henry
from Public Policy, Vol.2 No.2, 2007, pp. 89 - 98
"For the most part, the work of the public service involves the implementation of government policy decisions and the administration of programs. But the public service also provides policy advice to governments."

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

John 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.

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The Australian franchising handbook

Richard Evans

Provides advice for those considering becoming a franchisee, such selecting a franchise opportunity that’s right for you, complying with the rules and regulations, and the importance of having an exit strategy.

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Public relations for dummies

Eric Yaverbaum

"Friendly guide combines the best practical tools with insight and flair to provide guidance on every aspect of PR, so you can launch a full-throttle campagin that’ll generate buzz - and build your bottom line." - cover.

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Food politics : how the food industry influences nutrition and health

Marion Nestle

Chapters include: Politics versus science: opposing the food pyramid, Influencing government: food lobbies & lobbyists, Exploiting kids, corrupting schools, and Degulating dietary supplements.

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Predictable surprises : the disasters you should have seen coming, and how to prevent them
Bazerman, Max H. & Watkins, Michael

Explains "the cognitive, organizational, and political biases that make predictable surprises [such as 9/11 and Enron] so common, and outline proactive steps leaders can take to overcome them." - cover.

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What price a creative economy?

Cunningham, Stuart / Currency House

Contends that the definition of the creative economy should be expanded to include technical writers, amateurs involved in creating digital content and designers who have revolutionised banking and finance.

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Sustainable value : how the world’s leading companies are doing well by doing good

Chris Laszlo

"Showcases mainstream global industry leaders who are successfully integrating sustainability into their core activities, not only from a sense of moral correctness, but because it makes good business sense." - introduction.

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Creativity : unconventional wisdom from 20 accomplished minds
Meyers, Herbert M. & Gerstman, Richard

Well-known directors, business-people and authors explain how they see the process of solving problems, dreaming up new ideas and how they are motivated to be creative.

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OECD factbook 2007 : economic, environmental and social statistics
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"More than 100 indicators covering such areas as the economy, agriculture, education, energy, environment, foreign aid, health and quality of life, industry, information and communications" (and more).

Now available in Library & Research Services' Reference Collection.

International economics
Appleyard, Dennis R., Field, Alfred J., & Cobb, Steven L.

Covers theories of trade, trade policy, international monetary economics, macroeconomic policy, and issues in world monetary arrangements.

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Co-movement of Australian State business cycles (journal article)

by David Norman and Thomas Walker

from Australian Economic Papers Vol. 46 No. 4, December 2007, pp. 360-374

"We use a variety of techniques to examine the nature and degree of co-movement among Australian state business cycles. Consistent with the results of Dixon and Shepherd (2001), we find that these cycles move quite closely together, with particularly strong links between the cycles of the larger states. ... Our model implies that the major source of this co-movement in state activity is the commonality of shocks affecting state cycles. In contrast, spillovers of region-specific shocks appear to play only a minor role in creating co-movement, though region-specific shocks themselves have a moderate influence on cyclical fluctuations."