Providing a holistic view of accountability, this book clarifies the purposes of accountability; identifies what triggers accountability exchanges; generates a set of responsibility and accountability constructs; and, links these constructs to the accountability process and to the influences that impact on this process.
E=mc2 You may think you know what this familiar formula means, but until you read Sam Silverstein’s breakthrough book, you will not know its true power or its potential. This is the Accountability Formula™, and it forms the heart of the Theory of Accountability™. Silverstein’s Theory of Accountability has nothing to do with physics, the speed of light, or the relationship between space and time. It has everything to do with personal and organizational growth, and with establishing the kind of leadership in your own life that makes excuses a thing of the past…and inspires true commitment from others. The Theory of Accountability states: Our lived EXPERIENCE is the direct result of our MINDSET and our COMMITMENT SQUARED. Silverstein’s new book examines each of these critical elements in depth, and shows you how to leverage the power of accountability to create a sustainable high-performance life and organization. E stands for Experience. Our experience is the results: the outcomes we achieve in our life, in our business, and everywhere else. It is what we produce. Our experience impacts the lives of everyone we come in contact with. The problem is, all too often, our experience is erratic, random, unplanned, and dysfunctional--with results to match. M stands for Mindset. The accountable mindset is based on a conscious decision to embrace possibility rather than fear. When decisions are driven by fear, our experience and the experience of everyone we come in contact with suffers. On the other hand, when decisions are driven by a set of beliefs that are based on valuing people, and on a foundation of abundance rather than scarcity, our experience improves. C2 stands for Commitment Squared. How do we ensure that our mindset is driven by possibility and abundance, rather than by fear and scarcity? By focusing on our ability to make, keep, and expand specific commitments. There is truly awesome power in commitment. The quality of the results you achieve is always based on two things: how committed you are to people, and how committed you are to your mindset and your core beliefs. These are the two commitments of the accountable person. When both kinds of commitments are in full play, when you are all in, you are living to your full potential. Such commitments are like compound interest, because they produce increasingly greater results over time. Sam’s latest book offers leaders a proven system for taking control of your life and transforming yourself and your organization…by harnessing the awesome power of accountability.
What creates corporate reputations and how should organizations respond? Corporate reputation is a growing research field in disciplines as diverse as communication, management, marketing, industrial and organizational psychology, and sociology. As a formal area of academic study, it is relatively young with roots in the 1980s and the emergence of specialized reputation rankings for industries, products/services, and performance dimensions and for regions. Such rankings resulted in competition between organizations and the alignment of organizational activities to qualify and improve standings in the rankings. In addition, today’s changing stakeholder expectations, the growth of advocacy, demand for more disclosures and greater transparency, and globalized, mediatized environments create new challenges, pitfalls, and opportunities for organizations. Successfully engaging, dealing with, and working through reputational challenges requires an understanding of options and tools for organizational decision-making and stakeholder engagement. For the first time, the vast and important field of corporate reputation is explored in the format of an encyclopedic reference. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Corporate Reputation comprehensively overviews concepts and techniques for identifying, building, measuring, monitoring, evaluating, maintaining, valuing, living up to and/or changing corporate reputations. Key features include: 300 signed entries are organized in A-to-Z fashion in 2 volumes available in a choice of electronic or print formats Entries conclude with Cross-References and Further Readings to guide students to in-depth resources. Although organized A-to-Z, a thematic “Reader’s Guide” in the front matter groups related entries by broad areas A Chronology provides historical perspective on the development of corporate reputation as a discrete field of study. A Resource Guide in the back matter lists classic books, key journals, associations, websites, and selected degree programs of relevance to corporate reputation. A General Bibliography will be accompanied by visual maps noting the relationships between the various disciplines touching upon corporate reputation studies. The work concludes with a comprehensive Index, which—in the electronic version—combines with the Reader’s Guide and Cross-References to provide thorough search-and-browse capabilities
The central message of this book is that leadership serves as a blueprint to transform Africa into a global powerhouse. There is an urgent need to refocus our efforts on the African Continent and her people, while at the same time forging ahead with democratic, accountable, people-centred, ethical and transparent governance and leadership. Corruption has undoubtedly become a hostile enemy in robbing the poor, violating the trust of the people and eroding the moral fibre of society. Abuse of power, position or office compounded by greed, self-enrichment and acts of dishonesty has dire consequences for mankind, and, as such, each contribution in this book promotes Africa’s vision to sustain humanity and its people, away from social ills such as extreme poverty, distinct inequalities and large-scale unemployment. What is needed is a new generation of bold, passionate, confident, inspiring leaders to make a difference and leave an edible mark in the global arena. This is the fundamental spirit of leadership for the Africa that this book wants and wishes to nurture. We cannot go back and change the past, but we can learn lessons, both good and bad, and change the future towards a bigger, better, and brighter tomorrow!
Is your HR strategy aligned to the organisation’s strategy? Do your HR practices deliver that strategy on the ground? How can you validate that you are in sync with your business’s aims? This book gives you the tools to align HR strategy with HR practices and the business strategy.
"The authors come up with some innovative tools, namely the “Catalogue of transparent lobbying”. They look at and evaluate the impact on both key stakeholders (lobbyists and targets of lobbying), monitoring of lobbying activities and sanctioning for breaches of rules. This tool holds out benchmarking capacity of sound framework for understanding of lobbying in the context of democracy, legitimacy of decision-making and accountability."David Ondráčka, member of global Board of Transparency International, head of Transparency International, Czech Republic "Transparent Lobbying and Democracy provides a comprehensive view into the phenomenon of lobbying... As a well-established scientist specializing in democracy, civil society and the public sphere, I see it as a useful and enriching contribution to the debate on lobbying, its necessary transparency and its role in the democratization process. This book has the potential to reach an international audience of experts and interested lay persons, and both complement and compete with publications on similar issues."Karel B. Müller, University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic This book deals with the current, as yet unsolved, problem of transparency of lobbying. In the current theories and prevalent models that deal with lobbying activities, there is no reflection of the degree of transparency of lobbying, mainly due to the unclear distinction between corruption, lobbying in general, and transparent lobbying. This book provides a perspective on transparency in lobbying in a comprehensive and structured manner. It delivers an interdisciplinary approach to the topic and creates a methodology for assessing the transparency of lobbying, its role in the democratization process and a methodology for evaluating the main consequences of transparency. The new approach is applied to assess lobbying regulations in the countries of Central Eastern Europe and shows a method for how lobbying in other regions of the world may also be assessed.
Our world is under pressure, with growing inequalities in wealth and access to food and clean water. We depend too heavily on polluting fuels and diminishing natural resources. Traditional cultural practices are being swamped by global popular culture. The Thai model of sufficiency thinking aims to transform the mindset of a whole population to achieve the seemingly impossible: enriching everyone's lives in a truly sustainable way. Innovative management practices developed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand have been applied across Thailand in agriculture, education, business, government and community organisations for over two decades. In this book, chapters written by eminent Thai scholars explain sufficiency thinking and review its implementation in different sectors including community development, business, agriculture, health care, schools, and even in prisons. Is Thailand unique in having discovered the holy grail of a more responsible form of capitalism? No, it is not, but it is the first country whose government has adopted this kind of thinking as national policy. '...we obviously need to revise dramatically our thinking about the outlines of a just economy and a decent society in which everyone can lead dignified lives. Sufficiency Thinking provides creative approaches to this quandary and this important volume is a brilliant addition to the growing literature critical of mainstream business-as-usual ideology.' - John Komlos, Professor Emeritus, University of Munich
State education departments and school districts face an important challenge in implementing a new law that requires disadvantaged students to be held to the same standards as other students. The new requirements come from provisions of the 1994 reauthorization of Title I, the largest federal effort in precollegiate education, which provides aid to "level the field" for disadvantaged students. Testing, Teaching, and Learning is written to help states and school districts comply with the new law, offering guidance for designing and implementing assessment and accountability systems. This book examines standards-based education reform and reviews the research on student assessment, focusing on the needs of disadvantaged students covered by Title I. With examples of states and districts that have track records in new systems, the committee develops a practical "decision framework" for education officials. The book explores how best to design assessment and accountability systems that support high levels of student learning and to work toward continuous improvement. Testing, Teaching, and Learning will be an important tool for all involved in educating disadvantaged studentsâ€"state and local administrators and classroom teachers.
By mandating high standards for all students, the No Child Left Behind Act has promised to close the achievement gap and bring all students up to proficient levels by 2014. The challenge is in connecting the goals of NCLB legislation with the realities of change in the classroom.
Scholars from history, economics, political science, and psychology describe the present state of school accountability, how it evolved, how it succeeded and failed, and how it can be improved. They review the history behind the ongoing conflict between educators and policymakers over accountability and testing, describe various accountability schemes, and analyze the costs of accountability. Case studies of three states with strong school systems compare how accountability works in practice. Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).
