Must-reads for Winter

Winning investors over, Baruch Lev

There was a time (the 1980s and 1990s) when it seemed easy for executives to please Wall Street. That hasn't been true for a while. The stock market has become an unforgiving place, and dealing with dissatisfied investors is part of the daily job of CEOs, CFOs, and investor-relations executives.

There are right ways and many, many wrong ways to face an angry mob. Nobody knows them better than Baruch Lev. He's done the research. He's analysed the data. And he has developed a set of authoritative, often surprising instructions for dealing intelligently with Wall Street.

This book tells what to do when your company disappoints investors, gets slammed by financial analysts, or finds itself mired in lawsuits all of which have a negative effect not just on stock prices but on employee recruitment (who wants to work for a losing company?), consumer behaviour (who wants to buy a major product of a failing firm?), and supply chain development (who wants to partner with a troubled enterprise?). Stripped of cliches and emotional arguments, and backed up by extensive research by Lev and other finance scholars, the book amounts to an indispensable capital-markets operating manual for executives. And its overarching message is an inspiring and perhaps surprising one: honesty turns out to be good for business.

Negotiation, David S Hames

This book provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental components of the negotiation process and the challenges that face negotiators. It contains, in a single volume, text material on current theory and research, readings
from diverse perspectives, cases that demonstrate how negotiation has been effectively or ineffectively applied in practice, role-playing exercises that enable students to hone their skills, and questionnaires that assess personal qualities that can
influence negotiation processes and outcomes.

Do the right thing: the importance of wellbeing in the workplace, Theo Theobald & Cary Cooper 

A common metaphor for modern life is "keep the plates spinning," but it is becoming increasingly hard to balance professional and private lives, and this takes its toll.

The authors examine the working relationship between the organisation and employee, and establish new ways that managers can broker a better deal for all concerned.

Respect, Jack Wiley & Brenda Kowske

Is it possible that the way to win in business is to give employees exactly what they want? Yes. As Respect reveals, managers and organisations who give their employees what they want outperform those who don't. This is no hunch – it's a fact based on more than 25 years of global research. Drs. Jack Wiley and Brenda Kowske have amassed a research database unlike any other, and it all started with this simple question: "What is the most important thing you want from the organisation for which you work?"

Organisations that apply this research have more engaged employees, more satisfied customers, and better shareholder returns. It all boils down to seven key elements, summarised by the acronym RESPECT. These are the seven things that employees really want: Recognition, Exciting Work, Security, Pay, Education, Conditions and Truth. 

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