Average customer rating:
|
Screening the Holocaust: Cinema's Images of the Unimaginable (Jewish Literature and Culture)
Ilan Avisar
Manufacturer: Indiana Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
History & Criticism
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
| Dance
| General
| Reference
| Theater
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0253303761 |
Average customer rating:
|
Cry for Luck: Sacred Song and Speech Among the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok Indians of Northwestern California
Richard Keeling
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Voice
| Instruments & Performers
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Ethnomusicology
| Ethnic & International
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ethnic & International
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religious & Sacred Music
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American
| Earth-Based Religions
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Music
| Judaism
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850-1990
ASIN: 0520075609 |
Book Description
The "sobbing" vocal quality in many traditional songs of northwestern California Indian tribes inspired the title of Richard Keeling's comprehensive study. Little has been known about the music of aboriginal Californians, and Cry for Luck will be welcomed by those who see the interpretation of music as a key to understanding other aspects of Native American religion and culture.
Among the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok peoples, medicine songs and spoken formulas were applied to a range of activities from hunting deer to curing an upset stomach or gaining power over an uninterested member of the opposite sex. Keeling inventories 216 specific forms of "medicine" and explains the cosmological beliefs on which they were founded. This music is a living tradition, and many of the public dances he describes are still performed today. Keeling's comparative, historical perspective shows how individual elements in the musical tradition can relate to the development of local cultures and the broader sphere of North American prehistory.
Average customer rating:
|
American Indians and Their Music
Frances Densmore
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Religious & Sacred Music
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American
| Earth-Based Religions
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Music
| Judaism
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0766172856 |
Book Description
Music is closely intertwined with the life of every race. We understand the people better if we know their music, and we appreciate the music better if we understand the people themselves. A portion of this book is devoted to the history and customs of the Indians, and a portion to their music in its various phases. Partial Contents: tribes and social organization; languages; arts and crafts; ceremonies; dances; games; mounds; Indian and the White man; famous Indians; why do Indians sing? words of Indians songs; children's songs; love songs; musical and wind instruments; rattles; adaptations of Indian music. Illustrated.
Average customer rating:
- A great cultural history of Ojibwe music and re-membering.
- A skillful examination of Ojibwe hymn singing
- A skillful examination of Ojibwe hymn singing
|
Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion (Religion in America)
Michael D. McNally
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Ethnomusicology
| Ethnic & International
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Hymns
| Religious & Sacred Music
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Imperialism & Independence
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American
| Earth-Based Religions
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Hymns
| Music
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0195134648 |
Book Description
The Ojibwe or Anishinaabe are a native American people of the northern Great Lakes region. 19th-century missionaries promoted the singing of evangelical hymns translated into the Ojibwe language as a tool for rooting out their "indianness," but the Ojibwe have ritualized the singing to make the hymns their own. In this book, McNally relates the history and current practice of Ojibwe hymn singing to explore the broader cultural processes that place ritual resources at the center of so many native struggles to negotiate the confines of colonialism.
Customer Reviews:
A great cultural history of Ojibwe music and re-membering........2004-10-16
Discussing American nationalism (or the maintenance of counter-nationalisms) from the perspective of various Amerindian nations is especially problematic, for these nations and populations remain under colonial geographical and cultural occupation to this day in a sense that is not true for other populations in the United States. In Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion, Michael McNally works to uncover the politics of ritual power and performance with regard to the practice of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) hymn singing. For the Ojibwe, the very real development in harmonic and narrative structure of Christian hymn-singing, nonetheless camouflaged the incommensurability and resilience of Ojibwe language to subjugation from colonial missionary concepts and relations to sacrality. Thus, as McNally demonstrates, a close analysis of Ojibwe hymnody as developed before the 1870's reveals a strong continuity with this-worldly concerns of Ojibwe religion and living life in proper relation to the web of nature through an economy of power (manidoo), rather than an emphasis on Christian transcendence as exemplified by the original English words. Moreover, the Ojibwe Christians, the Anami'aajig, among whom this tradition is strong, see their religious commitment in terms of the practice or ritual prayer, and acting as ones-who-pray, rather than in terms of believing a set of theological suppositions. These ritual prayers turns out to be very different than the hymns intended to be passed along by Christian missionaries.
McNally accomplishes this project by setting up the history of Ojibwe/Missionary encounter alongside the original missionary hymns side by side with the Ojibwe versions, and then English retranslations of the Ojibwe. The retranslations show that Ojibwe (Chippewa) language is itself quite resistant to co-optation by Christian missionaries. While the same words often show through the translations--the words themselves, like "world," "heaven," and "sin" just do not mean the same thing. What this implies is that two cultures can sing the exact same words in a hymn, but yet be singing totally different songs. For example, "sin" (baataziwin) and "grace"(zhawenjiigewin) don't have the character of human helplessness and outside holy intervention in Ojibwe. The terms used imply a simple temporary upset of the integrated relationships of Nature (Bimaadiziwin) the actions undertaken in pity to repair these relationships. Throughout the songs transcendence largely becomes immanence, although the language is as faithful as possible. And the form of performance changed too--as the Ojibwe hymnody largely became associated with moments of grieving and potential loss of persons to the community, and the Ojibwe continued to largely reject or become indifferent to other forms of Christian religious instruction, even as they began to identify themselves as Christians.
This is especially important as two sets of communities took shape in Ojibwe culture over time, one community less assimilated and less economically developed (in an `Anglo' sense) and one more assimilated and more economically integrated into the dominant narrative of `mainstream' American life. The culture of the former became folklorized, preserved as historical artifact yet emasculated from the power to address its more assimilated audience. Yet the practice of hymn prayer itself indigenizes Christianity to Anami'aawin, and its continued practice functions to re-member and maintain a "geography of home," a "singing sodality," or a continued nation identity of Ojibwe in the midst of all-too common violent death/loss of community members, not to mention other ongoing issues related to being occupied and colonized. This habitus of hymnody, this "embodied history" then is the practice of `accommodating' hope, the practice of `resistant' community-indeed the practice of cultural nationalism, in the face of many forces of dis-memberment, through the ongoing American nationalist colonization.
But we cannot stop there, for while we could argue that the preoccupation of white American-ness since the early days of its inception was the place of "Indianness," within a cultural politics of core and periphery, this would misplace the agency examined in McNally's work, which is that of the Ojibwe. In the face of being marginalized (to put it mildly) hymn singing functions to rekindle the identity of the Ojibwe, drawing the departed away from physical death (a limnal periphery to the world in terms of Ojibwe cosmology) into an ongoing core of Ojibwe religious personhood. This is simultaneously replicated in the larger pattern of re-membering the Ojibwe core away from "forgetting," [a cultural death], and contesting "American"ness, which is, for the Ojibwe, perhaps the ultimate peripheralization.
I do want to point out that this project resists the term "religion" in many ways, which is vitally important to undestand. McNally's own conception of Ojibwe hymnody frames it as lifeway "practice," and the process of creating this sound object is for him always already bound in the historical process of Ojibwe language. In Ojibwe religiosity, as with many Amerindians, the emphasis is on personhood, power, and place all negotiated within the field of language, which reflects the underlying assumptions of the lifeway.
Moreover, for the Ojibwe the hardships of contemporary life become a form of `penitential supplication' in their lifeway/religion. Deliberately produced Ojibwe hymn sound objects then occur in the context of the promotion and re-membering Bimaadiziwin ("Nature," understood both as it is and as it should be) in the face of physical challenges like the death of persons, and cultural "forgetting," which is itself a kind of death. Therefore this music exists neither purely as entertainment culture, as in modern capitalist societies, nor as a worship of transcendence, as in most forms of Christianity. Yet it undergoes historical shifts like aspects of any other "culture in motion." Whereas once Ojibwe music was primarily concerned with thaumaturgical power, the "new Ojibwe" music was transformed by its encounters with missionary, as well as other ongoing pressures related to continuing occupation, into a negotiated process/product of colonization. Specifically McNally terms Ojibwe hymn music a "rekindling" of and within the habitus of Ojibwe Bimaadiziwin- a praxis of hope and "re-membering" of the community in the face of dismemberment pressures.
A skillful examination of Ojibwe hymn singing.......2001-05-17
"McNally carefully outlines the place of music within Ojibwe culture and contrasts Ojibwe ideas concerning music with the place of hymnody among nineteenth-century evangelical Protestants. He argues convincingly that the performance of translated musical texts gave nineteenth-century Ojibwe a distinctive idiom for religious expression. Today, Ojibwe hymn singing continues to provide a rich resource of language and culture and promotes the survival of their culture. Highly recommended."
A skillful examination of Ojibwe hymn singing.......2001-05-17
"McNally carefully outlines the place of music within Ojibwe culture and contrasts Ojibwe ideas concerning music with the place of hymnody among nineteenth-century evangelical Protestants. He argues convincingly that the performance of translated musical texts gave nineteenth-century Ojibwe a distinctive idiom for religious expression. Today, Ojibwe hymn singing continues to provide a rich resource of language and culture and promotes the survival of their culture. Highly recommended."
Average customer rating:
|
Rituals of Fertility and the Sacrifice of Desire: Nazarite Women's Performance in South Africa (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)
Carol Ann Muller
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Ethnomusicology
| Ethnic & International
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religious & Sacred Music
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Theory
| Theory, Composition & Performance
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Women's Studies
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Entertainment
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Religion & Spirituality
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (Global Music Series, 1)
ASIN: 0226548201 |
Book Description
With close to one million members, the Church of the Nazarites (ibandla lamaNazaretha) is one of the most popular indigenous religious communities in South Africa. Founded in 1910 by Isaiah Shembe, it offers South Africans—particularly disadvantaged black women and girls—a way to remake and reconnect to ancient sacred traditions disrupted by colonialism and apartheid. Ethnomusicologist Carol Muller explores the everyday lives of Nazarite women through their religious songs and dances, dream narratives, and fertility rituals, which come to life both musically and visually on CD-ROM.
Against the backdrop of South Africa's turbulent history, Muller shows how Shembe's ideas of female ritual purity developed as a response to a regime and culture that pushed all things associated with women, cultural expression, and Africanness to the margins.
Carol Muller breaks new ground in the study of this changing region and along the way includes fascinating details of her own poignant journey, as a young, white South African woman, to the "other" side of a divided society.
Book Description
In this highly original and moving volume, an anthropologist, a historian, and a Native singer come together to reveal the personal and cultural power of Christian faith among the Kiowas of southwestern Oklahoma and to show how Christian members of the Kiowa community have creatively embraced hymns and made them their own.
Kiowas practice a unique expression of Christianity, a blending that began with the arrival of missionaries on the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in the 1870s. In these pages, historian Clyde Ellis offers a compelling look at the way in which many Kiowas became Christian over the past century and have woven that faith into their identity. The personal and cultural significance of traditional songs and their close connection to the power of hymns is then illuminated by anthropologist Luke Eric Lassiter. Like traditional Kiowa songs, Christian hymns help restore and minister to the community; they also can be highly individualistic since many are composed and shared by church members themselves at different times in their lives. In the final section of the book, which is accompanied by a CD of twenty-six Kiowa hymns, Kiowa singer Ralph Kotay tells of the personal meaning and value of the hymns and of the Christian faith in general.
This remarkable, sensitive book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the complexity of Native lives today and offers a subtle yet penetrating look at the legacy of Christianity among Native peoples.
Average customer rating:
|
Expressive Genres And Historical Change: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, And Taiwan (Anthropology and Cultural History in Asia and the Indo-Pacific)
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Religious & Sacred Music
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Folk & Traditional
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Indonesia
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Taiwan
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Papua New Guinea
| Australia & Oceania
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Folklore & Mythology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Research
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0754644189 |
Average customer rating:
|
Indigenous Religious Music (SOAS Musicology Series)
Manufacturer: Ashgate Pub Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Religious & Sacred Music
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Theory
| Theory, Composition & Performance
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Entertainment
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0754602494 |
Book Description
What does the music of indigeneous cultures sound like?
What does it mean to those who create it?
And why is "world music" so popular today?
Celebrating the diversity of indigenous nations, cultures and religions, the articles which comprise this edited academic volume [part of the SOAS Ethnomusicology Series (University of London)], discuss the musics performed by a wide variety of peoples as an integral part of their cultural traditions. These include, for ex., examinations of the various styles of Maori, Inuit, and Australian Aboriginal musics, and the special role of music in Korean Shaman rituals.
Music forms a key component of many such rituals and belief systems and examples of these are explored amongst the peoples of Uganda, the Amazon rain forest, Korea, and Africa. Through analysis of these rituals and the part music plays in them, the essays also open up further themes including social groupings and gender divisions and engage with issues and debates on how we define and approach the study of indigeneity, religiosity and music.
This book has ten chapters, written by experts, and also includes a CD of music from many of the traditions represented. This book is one which gives readers the opportunity to not only read about--but experience--the lived realities of indigeneous religious musics today.
Average customer rating:
|
Kiowa Hymns (2 CDs and booklet)
Ralph Kotay
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Christian
| Religious & Sacred Music
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Native American
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American
| Earth-Based Religions
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Hymnals
| Worship & Devotion
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Books on CD
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: 0803227663 |
Book Description
This remarkable two-disc collection features sixty-six Native Christian hymns sung by the Kiowa elder and singer Ralph Kotay. Particularly well-known for their song traditions, which range from peyote and powwow songs to hand-game and church songs, the Kiowas are a Southern Plains Indian tribe that today resides in southwestern Oklahoma. The Kiowa Christian hymn tradition first emerged around the turn of the twentieth century and combined the sound, structure, and style of European-American Christian hymns with pre-Christian Kiowa songs. In the early twentieth century, Christian churches enjoyed a dominant position in the Kiowa community, as did Kiowa hymns.
By the mid-twentieth century, however, Kiowa traditions—which now included Kiowa church traditions—were on the wane; of special concern was the declining use of the Kiowa language. Kiowa elders began to recognize that preserving and maintaining Kiowa hymns was of particular importance in preserving and maintaining the Kiowa language. In 1962 a committee of Kiowa Indians collected several dozen Kiowa Christian hymns in a manuscript, written phonetically in Kiowa with English translations. Passed from hand to hand for the last four decades, the hymnbook has long been out of print and survives today only because individuals have copied it over and over again.
To preserve the knowledge of these songs for future generations, Kotay sat down on a sultry July afternoon at his home in Apache, Oklahoma, and recorded them. The resulting collection will help ensure that these hymns remain a rich and enduring part of the cultural heritage of the Kiowa people.
Average customer rating:
|
Native American Teachings
Joseph Rael
Manufacturer: Council Oak Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
General
| Ethnic & International
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Motivational
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Native American
| Earth-Based Religions
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Occult
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Inspirational
| Spirituality
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Music
| Books on Cassette
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Books on Cassette
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
Inspiration & Philosophy
| Religion & Spirituality
| Books on Cassette
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
General
| Books on Cassette
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: 0933031955 |
Book Description
Miguel Najdorf has been described as a flamboyant poet of the chessboard, but he is perhaps best known for his opening variation of the Sicilian Defense--often used to good effect by Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Here is an informed biography, complemented by one hundred select games, all fully annotated by well-respected authors, that demonstrate his originality and brilliance.
Customer Reviews:
Najdorf - the person and the games of his life.......2005-09-16
After reading Najdorf Selected Games by Alexander Beliavsky one cannot avoid the feeling of nostalgia.
Imagine a tournemant where you get crushed by former World Champion Euwe after a thrilling fight. Then you take on mark Taimanov one of the new soviet stars and trounce him in a Kings Indian game that will live foirever. Thereafter you thash Tigran Petrosian but thereafter get punished by Efim Geller for treating one of his friends like that. That was Zürich 1953 and those were the days...
Najdorf competed there with a decent although not brilliant result. His mastery in tactics and discoveries in the opening (Najdorf variation and different bransches of the Kings Indian for example) took him to heights only a handful of hard-teaining Soviet could match. Unfortunately he didn't get his chance to fight for the WC 1948 which poosibly was his best chance.
Therefore we remember Najdorf as one of those outstanding players next to WC-level and Najdorfs other life, aside from chess, was probably no less interesting.
That is something of what you will find in Najdorf Selected Games. I would be a fool not to recommend this book. Enjoy!
Download Description
"Enthusiastic employees outproduce and outperform. They step up to do the impossible. They rally each other in tough times. Most people are enthusiastic when they're hired: hopeful, ready to work hard, eager to contribute. What happens to dampen their enthusiasm? Management, that's what.
The Enthusiastic Employee draws on 30 years of research and experience to show you exactly what managers do wrong¿and what they should do instead.
Drawing on detailed case studies and employee attitude surveys in hundreds of companies, the authors offer research-proven solutions¿not fads, nostrums, or phony shortcuts. Along the way, you'll identify the dollars-and-cents business case for high employee morale, learn exactly what employee morale means, and discover the specific management practices that offer the greatest positive performance impact.
The definitive guide to encouraging, sustaining, and profiting from employee enthusiasm!
- Techniques shown to increase employee performance 30-40%¿and increase stock performance, too!
- Proven solutions, real data, not fads! Based on research with 2,500,000+ employees in 237 companies
- Fairness, achievement, camaraderie: delivering the three core elements of a healthy workplace
- Stop your organization's managers from demotivating your employees
- Build a real partnership culture for the long term
"
Customer Reviews:
Follow It.......2007-07-15
"The Enthusiastic Employee" by Louis Mischkind, Michael Irwin Metzer, and David Sirota is a quality book for employers and employees. From entry-level workers, to lower, mid, and upper-level managers. All parties can benefit by just being aware of the points in this book even if they don't even implement some of or all of the concepts. (Awareness.)
The "Enthusiastic Employee" contains numerous important points. There is quality. But, will these ideas and concepts be followed and implemented? I don't think this question is cynical; in today's world many workers are realistic. The contemporary studies and polling reflect this phenomena.
And herein lies the rub: One of the positive points advocated in this book is that the concepts in it can help increase a company's stock performance, too. Investors will be happy. As for the research, the authors studied 4 million workers in over 89 countries around the world. Domestically, American labor laws are the worst in the industrialized world.
Three styles of management noted are: Autocratic, Laissez-Faire, and Participative. The latter involving communication that is sent and received up and down organizational and communication channels. A two way flow. This is theoretical. Idealistic but not followed for many, and implemented by some. The organizations that implement this according to the book, are listed.
The Window Dressing:
There are 4 parts. The chapters:
Chapter 1: What Workers Want - The Big Picture
Chapter 2: Employee Enthusiasm and Business Success
Chapter 3: Job Security
chapter 4: Compensation
Chapter 5: Respect
Chapter 6: Organization Purpose and Principles
Chapter 7: Job Enablement
Chapter 8: Job Challenge
Chapter 9: Feedback, Recognition, and Reward
Chapter 10 Teamwork
Chapter 11 The Partnership Organization
Chapter 12 Translating Partnership Theory in Partnership Practice
Part IV: Appendices
The quotes in the "Enthusiastic Employee" seem well chosen.
Books such as this can be helpful - if followed. However, the statistical surveys on U.S. management practices and about how employees feel about their jobs shows a distinct dichotomy.
This is a refreshingly optimistic book with positive ideas.
A Real Understanding of People.......2007-01-12
A scholarly but very practical book on how to help the people of a company maximize their performance and contribution. The three writers obviously understand the key motivating elements necessary for superior company results. Following the suggestions will inevitably improve operations.
Many similar concepts to those in the book "In the Best Companies - People Are Everything.
The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want.......2006-11-10
Great book! As a long time manager and executive, I kept saying, yes, yes! Looking at the quantitative research findings validated much of my thinking about people, organizations and leadership.
It helps sort out what is important for leadership of an organization. A great read for anyone in leadership.
I couldn't put it down once I got started.
What Does it Take to Motivate Employees?.......2006-07-04
"The Enthusiastic Employee" was written to extend the knowledge of what works and what doesn't to managers at all levels. What sets this book apart from most management books is the fact that it is based on official research. The authors do not merely present their own ideas on what sound management is all about. They actually back up everything they recommend using years of official research. Case studies and official employee attitude surveys spanning a period of about thirty years form the basis of the advice given in this book. This adds to the book's overall usefulness because it illustrates, in black and white, exactly what employees want in their jobs and what management needs to do in order to facilitate change and improve working conditions and performance.
I manage a few employees and my own experience at management was one of the key reasons why I wanted to read this book. I never considered myself a superior manager. I always assumed I had plenty to learn and this book, with its optimistic title and statistical nature, seemed like a good place to start. I opened the pages and started to read. Much of what I read was common sense but there are a few facts about employee/management relations that surprised me. For example, everyone knows that employees are more motivated to perform when they feel they are being properly compensated for their work but what many managers do not realize is that there is a limit to the added morale and added productivity that a pay raise will bring. If pay is lower than the industry norm, employees will rightfully feel disrespected and this will be reflected in their work performance. But if pay is raised too high, it can lead to a feeling of suspiciousness among employees and it often will not result in enough increase in productivity to justify the extra expense that comes with higher pay. Most of us don't think about this at all. We assume that higher pay will always lead to a more satisfied and more productive workforce.
Other surprises abound in this book and they help to keep it interesting. One thing I did not realize is that the majority of employees like their jobs. Based on official survey data, the majority of employees responded that they either love their job or they at least have good feelings about it. Dissatisfied workers are in the minority and this is probably due to the fact that an unhappy employee usually doesn't last in a particular organization for very long. Those who answered that they don't like their jobs are also the most likely to leave voluntarily or be forced out of an organization, helping to keep the numbers who don't like their occupation at a low level. I was surprised by these findings because I always assumed that the majority of workers do not like what they do for a living. The negative reports you read in newspapers and listen to on television about low employee morale are the primary reason I felt the way I did. The official research presented in this book, however, proves that this is false- the majority of workers have at least an average or better level of job satisfaction.
This book is intended for it to be used as an official blueprint for change and it even includes a management questionnaire at the end of the book that asks some of the key questions regarding employee relations. The answers to these questions are then evaluated so that a management team will then know whether or not the time is right to proceed to the next step and revamp its existing approach to management. Including employees in important decisions, making them feel like they are part of the team, and other changes need to be made in order to bring an organization into the twenty- first century. This book provides the guidance necessary to make these crucial changes. The old, authoritarian approach to management is a thing of the past and managers need to realize that it is time to change and move toward a more employee- centered work environment where everyone is treated like a partner in the success of the company.
The statistical emphasis of this book might make it seem more mechanical in nature and less personal but I think it adds an important component of credibility. So many management books are written each year and most of them are based solely on one person's theories or opinions. The Enthusiastic Employee relies on concrete facts to back its claims, allowing management to see the actual concerns stated directly by employees along with the remedies to the problems employees experience each day. Many pages in this book drive home important points by including the actual complaints or praise that employees stated when asked different questions on official surveys. These examples serve to prove the importance of the key components to sound management and what needs to be done at the management level to make employees more responsive, more enthused, and more satisfied.
To sum up this book, employee enthusiasm and the greater productivity that comes with it can be accomplished by doing one thing: giving employees what they want. Employees are very specific in what they feel are important components in their workplace and while it is unrealistic to think that every desire of every individual employee can be implemented, the bulk of employee needs and wants can be satisfied. The results of moving an organization in an `employee satisfaction' direction are almost always positive, with employees showing up to work motivated and ready to achieve. The necessary steps to reach this goal aren't always easy but it is important to get started quickly and The Enthusiastic Employee is a very helpful guide for achieving these goals. It offers a fresh perspective on management that doesn't rely solely on opinions to back its claims but instead provides official research that shows what employees want in their place of employment and what needs to be done to get there. It is a very useful book for management at all levels.
Why is this great book at ranked at 21,463 in today's Amazon Sales Rank?.......2006-05-28
When I scan through the impressive comments here, I am amazed that this book isn't purchased by everyone who wants to motivate employee performance to the highest levels. The authors refer to it as The Three Factor Theory, but it hasn't been a theory for me since I first learned how to give employees what they want over thirty years ago in the J.C. Penney Company.
In addition to the equity, achievement, and camaraderie factors, I also enjoyed their explanation of why participatory management is far superior to autocratic or laisez faire management styles when it comes to motivating top performance.
With the current focus on the many benefits of employee engagement, I would think this book would a primary source of information for learning how to involve employees in the success of a business or a business team. Does anyone doubt that equity, achievement, and camaraderie should be primary goals for organizational excellence?
It may be a little more academic for some readers, but that's what research is all about. A little dry, but they nailed what will motivate people to perform with energy, excitement, and enthusiasm.
Books:
- Script Magic : Subconscious Techniques to Conquer Writer's Block
- Star Wars: The Magic of Myth (Star Wars)
- Technologies of Truth: Cultural Citizenship and the Popular Media (Technologies of Truth)
- The Bent Lens: 2nd Edition : A World Guide to Gay & Lesbian Film
- The Big Book of Biker Flicks: 40 of the Best Motorcycle Movies of All Tiime
- The Complete Book of Bible Prophecy
- The Complete James Bond Lifestyle Seminar
- The Critical Eye: An Introduction to Looking at Movies
- The Film Art of Isaac Julien
- The Girl's Got Bite : Unofficial Guide to Buffy's World
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Entrepreneur's Notebook: Practical Advice for Starting a New Business Venture
- The Ovulation Method: Natural Family Planning
- Shot/Countershot: Film Tradition and Women's Cinema
- Marketing Across Cultures
- Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 4th Edition
- The Mom Inventors Handbook: How to Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing
- The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.
- Mgma Physician Compensation and Production Survey 2002
- Paradoxes of Prosperity: Why the New Capitalism Benefits All
- The Broken Places: A Novel