This text provides a good balance of theory and practice. It combines cutting-edge research on groups with practical management principles. The text is organized into 3 primary tasks for the leader/manager: 1) Accurately assessing and improving team performance; 2) Managing the internal dynamics of teams (diversity, conflict, and creativity); and 3) Optimally leveraging the team within the larger organization. It is written for both team leaders and team members.
He concludes with a chapter that asks, "What does it mean to be 'literary'?" What distinguishes "high art" from a baseball novel, or a mystery, or a romance novel, or pornography? Making the Team suggests that drawing the line may be a more vital concern - not just for scholars, but for Americans at large - than anything critics have argued about for a very long time.
University" Drawing upon research from leading scholars in the fields of social psychology, organization behavior, sociology, and cognitive psychology, this invaluable resource for both young managers and seasoned executives alike covers both basic and cutting-edge team building and management principles as it outlines in a clear, step-by-step fashion how to improve the functioning of teams within an organization. Introduces the basic building blocks for analyzing and perfecting teamwork; addresses the assessment of a team's performance and productivity; and discusses when and how to reward teamwork in organizations. Focuses on "internal dynamics," i.e, structuring tasks, selecting people, and fostering team relationships; how teams communicate, process information, and create a collective team intelligence; and ways to bring out a team's maximum creativity. Covers "external dynamics," i.e, team boundaries, inter-team relations, networking, and boundary-spanning; dual-tasks of effective leadership; issues of conflict and competition between teams in the organization; and the impact of information technology on both global and local teamwork. Begins each chapter with a case study of a real team and company, and includes practical appendices that include tips on how to run a meeting; discussions on how to build and maintain an effective study group; and examples of 360-degree evaluations. For organizational managers and team leaders.
When Hannah doesn't make the Grade 8 girls basketball team and her best friend June does, Hannah misses playing basketball and being part of a team. Worse, she and June don't spend as much time together and start growing apart. How can Hannah ensure that she makes the team next year while all the other players are playing more and getting better this year? As she develops her basketball skills and confidence, she realizes she stands a good shot at making the high school team. But can she ever get her friendship with June back?
John is a keen basketball player. He dreams of playing for his country one day. His life revolves around basketball team practices and games. It's hard to fit in homework and his job delivering papers, but John manages. Then one day, everything changes. [back cover].
The Alec London Series is a series written for boys, 8 – 10 years old. Alec London is introduced in Stephanie Perry Moore's previously released series, The Morgan Love Series. In this new series, readers get a glimpse of Alec's life up close and personal. The series provides moral lessons that will aid in character development, teaching boys how to effectively deal with the various issues they face at this stage of life. The series will also help boys develop their english and math skills as they read through the stories and complete the entertaining and educational exercises provided at the end of each chapter and in the back of the book. Alec London is a fourth grader whose world is spinning out of control. On the first day of fourth grade Alec gets picked on by his classmate, Tyrod because he dad is the schools new principal. Alec, refusing to become the "principal's pet", attempts to fix things by lashing out at Tyrod. As a result he is sent to the principal's office where he receives a lecture on anger from his dad. In the midst of trying to adjust having his dad at school with him, Alec finds himself struggling even more when his mom decides to move to L.A. to pursue an acting job, leaving her family behind. Alec is angry and sad and he feel betrayed by his mom for leaving him for a job. Alec grandma moves in with them after his mother leaves to help keep the family going until she comes back. Alec is not happy with his mom's move nor his grandma's move. When Alec, out of frustrations says he wishes his grandma was not there and she overhears him and then later has a heart attack, Alec feels guilty. In an attempt to help lift Alec's spirit and encourage him to use his anger for something good, Alec's dad suggests that he try out for the school football team. When Alec makes the team, beating out his brother Antoine for a starting position, there is trouble. Antoine becomes jealous because Alec is not only doing better than him in school but now in football too. Dad steps in and makes the boys work things out. Through football, lessons from his father and the story of Joseph, Alec learns about how God allows things to happen in people's lives to help them grow and to learn how to trust and depend on Him to work things out.
Phoebe O’Brien is glad to finally be starting middle school— for one main reason: she can try out for the school’s equestrian team. What she didn’t expect, however, was that making the team would drive a wedge between her and her BFF, Kallie. She also didn’t realize being a member of a team might also require a sacrifice that could possibly jeopardize her own performance at their first equestrian team meet. Follow Phoebe and her horse, Dakota, as they try out for the equestrian team, participate in team practices, and compete at their first meet. Practice and run the same showmanship and horsemanship patterns as they do. Experience her encounters, both good and bad, with the other girls on the team. And share in her validation that hard work pays off; maybe it’s even better than winning a blue ribbon!
Three sisters who were also Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders reveal the behind-the-scenes glamour, exploitation, and excitement they experienced as members of the most famous cheerleading squad in the country. Reprint.
One day in front of the television would convince any alien that the entirety of American culture is built around sports. Politics and business are abustle with sports metaphors and endorsements by athletes. "Home runs," "bottom of the ninth," "fourth and ten," "slam dunk," and similar phrases litter the daily vocabulary. No matter how dire the news, sports will be reported as usual. How did this single-minded fascination come to be? Mark Dyreson locates the invasion of sport at the heart of American culture at the turn of the century. It was then that social reformers and political leaders believed that sport could revitalize the "republican experiment," that a new sense of national identity could forge a new sense of community and a healthy political order as it would serve to link America's thinking classes with the experiences of the masses. Nowhere was this better exemplified than in American accounts of the Olympic Games held between 1896 and 1912. In connecting sport to American history and culture, Dyreson has stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. A volume in the series Sport and Society, edited by Benjamin G. Rader and Randy Roberts
