books

by Theodore B. Kinni


Discipline Without Punishment
by Dick Grote

Disciplining employees has always been a task that most managers find onerous. Too often, discipline is simply a no-win proposition-the company and the employee both lose. Dick Grote's Discipline Without Punishment system is a long-overdue alternative to traditional punitive discipline programs.

Traditional disciplinary systems, explains Grote, are less concerned with changing behavior than establishing legal grounds for termination. In response, he has modified the verbal warning-written warning-suspension-termination systems into a system more in tune with today's business imperatives-trust, involvement and empowerment.

Perhaps the most interesting result of the Discipline Without Punishment system, which, based on the book's examples, has been adopted with impressive success, is that termination is no longer the logical and final step in the disciplinary process. Rather, it is considered separately and represents "the discipline system's failure."

Grote's system depends heavily on managerial coaching. In this plan, the employee's response drives consequences, and managers simply explain the alternatives and decisions employees must address. The most surprising proposal is the final step in the system-a company-paid day off. If unacceptable behavior persists, the employee receives a mandatory day off-with pay. Following this day, the employee must make a decision: either conform to expected behavior or find another job.

Discipline Without Punishment (Amacom, $24.95) represents exactly the kind of alignment that should develop between corporate policy and values. If your disciplinary policy hasn't been examined recently, this is the place to start an evaluation.
Circle No. 116

The New Competitor Intelligence
by Leonard M. Fuld

It's virtually impossible to read a book on benchmarking without finding references to Leonard Fuld and his work on competitor intelligence. This is a revised and updated edition of his classic sourcebook.

Beginning from Fuld's cardinal rule ("wherever money is exchanged, so is information") and ranging all the way to analysis case studies, the book fully covers its topic. The four-part structure defines the basics of the field, comprehensively lists information sources, teaches information analysis with accompanying case studies and offers a process for building your own corporate intelligence function.

Fuld does a fine job of identifying information sources, which he divides into two categories: basic and creative. Basic sources comprise governmental records, private publications, electronic data bases of all sorts, international data sources, patent searches, management bios, even business school case studies. Creative sources utilize the unique aspects of a particular industry-for example, the number of links sunk down a well shaft tells how deep the well.

Happily, Fuld also discusses the ethical considerations of intelligence gathering. In addition to printing the guidelines recommended by the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, his own company's "Ten Commandments" offer a useful example for budding analysts.

The New Competitor Intelligence (John Wiley & Sons, $24.95) is the reference of choice on the subject. It's hard to imagine a businessperson who won't benefit from it, but benchmarkers, sales pros and information researchers of all types will find it particularly valuable.
Circle No. 117

Accountability: It All Depends on What You Mean
by Theo Brooks

Accountability is one of the most misused, misunderstood and just plain missed words in the corporate lexicon. Yet, as Theo Brooks emphatically states in this practical examination of the concept, "accountability is to organizations what breathing is to bodies."

In this completely successful effort at examining the concept of accountability, Brooks begins by assigning six criteria to the concept. These criteria, each of which is signified with a single word, provide a working basis for managers who need to ensure that the flow of organizational accountability remains strong and unimpeded. They ask: Who? To? For? How? When? and What if?

For the accountability process to be complete, each criterion must be fully defined. When they are all present, a "unit of accountability" is formed, explains Brooks. These units can be traced using a simple, effective method he calls Triangular Mapping. Managers can easily use Triangular Mapping to examine and analyze organizational accountability. Brooks demonstrates how to do this with chilling efficiency in Chapter 8, where he analyzes the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster.

The second half of this book explains the underpinnings of accountability. Issues include legitimacy as power behind accountability, how trust must balance accountability and how contracts, sanctions and motives can be used to support accountability. He concludes with a series of one-page lists that condense the chapters into simple worksheets.

Accountability (Akkad Press, $19.50) is a unique find and well-worth its cover price. Managers everywhere will find the tools it provides helpful for constructing and maintaining on-the-job accountability.
Circle No. 118

Managing Globalization in the Age of Interdependence
by George Lodge

This recent volume in Warren Bennis' Executive Briefing Series promises to explain "what every manager needs to know about globalization . . . in just two hours." It doesn't live up to this overambitious billing, but George Lodge, whose credentials are impressive, does accomplish a fast and no-holds-barred introduction to the primary issues.

Lodge contends that socialism and communism are proven failures, and capitalism not only does not exist in its pure form but also is not up to the demands of a global economy. We need, he thinks, a new ideology, "communitarianism," where the needs of the community supersede the needs of the individual.

Unsurprisingly, Lodge designates the United States as the only world leader capable of introducing this new paradigm. He also pinpoints several organizations, including the World Bank and World Trade Organization, which, if properly modified, could serve as the governing bodies.

Along the way, the author serves up a grab bag of material that should fascinate readers with an interest in globalization issues. It is often frightening-technology and international trade run virtually uncontrolled in the global arena, and decision making is rarely concerned with the interests of the world as a whole.

Unfortunately, this briefing in international economics says little about the issues of managing a global business. Managing Globalization (Pfeiffer & Co., $19.95) is mainly a political treatise-interesting as background knowledge but rarely applicable in a practical sense.
Circle No. 119

other new books...


Learning Organizations, edited by Sarita Chawla and John Renesch
(Productivity Press, 547 pages, $35)
Thirty-nine advocates of the learning organization concept, including such well-known names as Peter Senge, Rosabeth Moss-Kanter and Charles Handy, have contributed to this wide-ranging collection. The essays cover four broad areas: guiding ideas, theories/methods/processes, infrastructure and arenas of practice.

Workplace Diversity, by Katharine Esty, Richard Griffin and Marcie Schorr Hirsch
(Adams Publishing, 209 pages, $10.95)
This paperback is aimed directly at front-line managers. Practical, hands-on advice is offered in several diversity categories, including gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation-even the endangered white male. Q&A, action steps and resource lists round out each section.

Crisis and Renewal, by David K. Hurst
(Harvard Business School Press, 229 pages, $24.95)
Crisis is the most effective change agent, says Hurst, so managers should learn to create and orchestrate crisis as a means to implement organizational change. This radical and readable book also advocates "ethical anarchy," a state conducive to crisis creation.

Why Teams Can Fail and What to Do About It, by Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard
(Irwin/AQP, 196 pages, $30)
An implementation troubleshooting guide for self-directed work teams that covers everything from the decision to create teams to the motivation of mature teams. The authors explore the common causes of team failure and offer solid advice for solving implementation barriers.

Customer Loyalty, by Jill Griffin
(Lexington Books, 242 pages, $23)
Customer satisfaction is only an entry fee in today's markets; customer loyalty is the real payoff. Griffin presents a seven-stage process called the Profit Generator System to develop loyal customers and explains how to identify and court customers with the greatest potential.

Cost Reduction Systems, by Yasuhiro Monden
(Productivity Press, 373 pages, $55)
In this Japanese translation, Monden describes how target costing and kaizen costing techniques combine to yield the lowest total cost over the entire product life cycle. Target costing, which has evolved from value engineering, is fully explained using a 14-step process.

Product Strategy for High-Technology Companies, by Michael E. McGrath
(Irwin, 284 pages, $40)
In this comprehensive look at high-tech product strategy, McGrath describes and analyzes a full spectrum of tactics, including price, time, global, cannibalization, expansion and innovation-based plans. Strategists, planners and senior executives in all product industries should find this book useful.