Reviews (45)

'The' book to read on the issue of the role of corporate power in the US
Disclaimer: I'm a bit more than half through the book - and ready to comment on it.
informative evaluation of a business dominated culture
A very good evaluation how business dominates govenments, now and in the past. It illustrates how everyone must be vigilent if an individual is to be of any importance in any society.The informed reader will find the book somewhat redundant, because the author tends repeat examples after he has clearly made his point.

Can't laugh away world spinning out of control
While some of the material here is not unique to Hartmann, it's the sort of thing you don't read out in the open.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business & Financial    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business And Society    5. Business Ethics    6. Business/Economics    7. Corporate & Business History - General    8. General    9. Political Freedom & Security - Civil Rights    10. Public Law    11. Consumer issues    12. Globalization    13. Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy   

Reviews (5)

Las Vegas history: from mob to corporate
The complete saga of Las Vegas from its early roots with the mob to modern corporate times is presented in a lively history of the city's real rulers in SHARKS IN THE DESERT: THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND CURRENT KINGS OF LAS VEGAS. Many made their fortunes developing the casino business the city is most famous for today - but many myths have surrounded their activities - myths which columnist Smith dispels in an investigative history which tracked mobsters and their connections to the city's rich and monied.
Great book and great shipping time
I received this book almost right away.It's a very good summary of the people of Las Vegas written by someone who knows, John Smith.

An excellent read and a superb history lesson
With "Sharks in the Desert" John L. Smith wrote one of the best books about Las Vegas ever. This book has a lot of substance and it is full of information. Although it's nonfiction, it reads like a novel. Lots of valuable quality research are packed into the 400 pages. Although we have seen the TV specials about Las Vegas history, it was so refreshing to read John's book -- this is a great read from the first page to the last. The reader learns about today's casino moguls and the harsh but real techniques to separate casino patrons from their money. It also tells the story how like a gigantic masterplan Las Vegas rose from the barren desert into today's Sodom and Gomorrah. Smith is excellent in telling it like it is and this book is a great educational tool for anyone who wants learn more about the meadows, i.e. Las Vegas, and the people who developed this desert oasis in the past and who run this town like clockwork presently. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Business    4. Business / Economics / Finance    5. Business Ethics    6. Casinos    7. Gambling    8. Gambling - General    9. Las Vegas    10. Nevada    11. Organized crime    12. American history: postwar, from c 1945 -    13. Biography: general    14. Entrepreneurship    15. Sports & Outdoor Recreation    16. The Americas    17. True Crime / General   

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business Ethics    3. Social Science    4. Sociology    5. Sociology - General    6. Business & Economics / Business Ethics    7. Organizational theory & behaviour   

Reviews (14)

The ideal guide for making and breaking arguments
So many significant decisions are made in the workplace based on majority opinion or by the highest ranking person in the room.
Even the best of us sometimes disappoint, ironically, and otherwise
As you can read from the excellent reviews of the fourth Edition of Attacking Faulty Reasoning (which anyone contemplating buying this volume should), Damer's "positive theory of argument" represents a huge breakthrough in informal logic.To my knowledge, Damer was the first to put foward a coherent schema of the fallacies of informal, organizing them as violations of four comprehensive rubrics, which stand as criteria for effective argument: 1) relevance 2) acceptability 3) sufficiency 4) resiliency (actually a change which Damer might have contemplated making in this new edition) - he uses 'rebuttal' - which, I suppose would have to be 'rebuttal-ness' - to stay in adjectival mode (appropriate to the idea of finding suitable and exhaustive 'criteria' for argument).Still, the term 'resiliency' more adequately than 'rebuttal' describes the criterion he is delineating in his theory.
Invaluble for everyday life, not just the classroom...
Although I gathered that this book was written primarily as a text for logic and critical thinking courses, it helped me immensely in terms of learning how to make sense of argumentative quality in everyday life, not only the classroom.I did not read this book for a class as I have graduated college, but I found it to be a real help in determining the strengths and weaknesses in arguments and other forms of persuasive speech that we encounter daily.
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Subjects:  1. Fallacies (Logic)    2. General    3. Logic    4. Philosophy    5. Reasoning    6. Business ethics    7. Business negotiation    8. Mathematics / Logic   

Editorial Review

David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford--consultants on professional-service management and customer-relation issues--believe nobody can become successful as a business guru until they first gain the confidence of their clients. In Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Ethics    4. Business consultants    5. Business/Economics    6. Consulting    7. Finance    8. Business & Economics / General    9. Business strategy   

Reviews (33)

An engaging personal saga of leadership and the inner life
Synchronicity is one of the most inspiring books I know on leadership. The book is a fascinating and holistic blend of the personal and the professional. Jaworski is a name you may already be familiar with. He is the son of Watergate prosecutor, Leon Jaworski. His career is facinating. He began his professional life as a high-powered attorney in Houston. He chased after and won all of the trappings of external success. Then, suddently, his wife announced she was leaving him, and he was forced to confront himself, his values, and the meaning and purpose of his life. The rest seems to flow out of this pivotal experience. Jaworski left the practice of law and went on to become founder, chairman, and CEO of the American Leadership Forum. This organization continues to serve established local leaders and promotes collaborative problem-solving in communities and regions for the public good. In the early 90's, he joined Royal Dutch Shell in London as head of Global Scenario Planning. The initiative he led there is credited as instrumental in the peaceful transfer of power in South Africa which put an end to the government of apartheid. At the time the book was published, Jaworski was with MIT's Center for Organizational Learning which later closed in 1997. His role there was to work with leading corporations on building learning organizations, a topic which still receives considerable focus in leadership circles. It's a concept that appeals to many, and yet few have succeeded in implementing one. The old models die hard. Still, change is in the air.
Reads like a good mystery novel
My colleagues and I have been designing and facilitating leadership development programs for about 20 years.I've also served as a VP of three Fortune 500 companies.I recommend this book to everyone who is a leader or who wants to be one.Not only does it contain THE secret to true leadership, Mr. Jaworski has written his account so that it reads like a good mystery novel.You wonder what will happen next.And he has written this book from his heart.I hope our paths cross one day soon.

Good Story about Personal Reinvention
I read the book on the recommendation of a coworker. For me, it opened up my eyes to finding my type of leadership-in my case servant-leadership. His journey of personal reinvention is a joy to read especially as he learns what is truly important in life. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Entrepreneurship    5. Leadership    6. Self-realization    7. Success    8. Business ethics    9. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (5)

Informative, and Fun to Read
A must-read. The author describes in details many different types of scams through which people get defrauded. The book is also fun to read because it shows how the scammers use people's psychological traits (like greed, insecurity, or even loneliness) to get them to part with their money. It's very interesting and you can actually see analogous strategies being played out in TV commercials or even in your daily interactions with people who try to get things from you. I feel much more prepared to deal with life after reading this.

Better Safe Than Sorry!
Reading Les Henderson's Crimes of Persuasion is much like observing a series of 40-foot long steel containers being dropped from a dockside ocean freighter onto a flat-bed truck.The impact, over and over again is huge, as the trailer bounces and flexes, as its tires resist the extra weight of each drop.With each page you keep saying to yourself, "That's how they do it!""That's how they organize!""That's the come-on!""So, that's the hook!"We learn all about the players in the game too:the "Fronter," the "Qualifier," the"No-Saler," the "Takeover" Man.We learn all about the mechanics of the games themselves--"clean sheeting," "blind pools," much more. ##### Sometimes it takes simple minds to understand complicated situations.Thank goodness. Because con games are usually very complex--thoroughly thought out, prepared, and worked by brilliant people--we "Marks" (simpletons--the victims), in this case have a chance.#####With the aid of this book you are prepared for just about anything the con man might throw at you.It's beautifuly Contents-ed and Indexed.Want to know about sweepstakes scams?Right there. Just look it up.How about telemarketing frauds, home equity, elder abuse, home repair, identity theft, internet shenanigans, etc.On and on.On and on.On and on.It's all right here.You only have to look it up.It's a great defensive tool for everyone, in this day and age of get-rich-quick, follow the bouncing ball, smoke and mirrors trickery. #####What's the underlying premise of con games?Gain your confidence. Pure and simple.Here's just one example:You get a call from a smooth-talking stock "Expert," who is pitching you because he knows you are an investor.He tells you to watch ABC co. stock; it's going up. A week later, after the stock of ABC co. has gone up, as he said it would, he calls you back and confides that the stock of XYZ co. is going down; keep tabs.When the stock drops, exactly as he said it would, you now have a level of confidence in him when he calls the third time.Right?That's the point.You are now "set-up," vulnerable to whatever kind of investment he may now say is desirable.How did he do it?How did he knowABC was going up and XYZ was going down?Easy.He started out with a list of 200 names from the phone book.He was right on 100 of them.He then called that 100 and was right again on 50.You were in that list of 50.Presto! #####In all, this book is about the most encylopedic tome for consumer protection I've seen, covering the whole gauntlet of cons, scams, and frauds like the proverbial "blanket."The next time you are in Ceasar's Palace, note the small warning sign by the door, "Gambling can be addictive; if you think you have a gambling problem, call the number below to contact Gamblers Anonymous."Similarly, if you think you might have a Susceptibility-to-Con-Games problem, ownership of this book, Crimes of Persuasion:Schemes, Scams, Frauds is your "Gamblers Anonymous".

Poor language makes this book uninteresting to read
The author certainly knows a lot about the subject, however he fails to make the book readable. Run-away sentences filled with precise numbers, most probably taken out of the sky, results in totally unreadable text. The book reminded me of a really boring free newspaper, except the editor never learned to use a spell checker.
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Subjects:  1. Business Ethics    2. Criminology    3. Social Science    4. Sociology    5. True Crime / General    6. Business & Economics / Personal Finance / General    7. Crime And Criminals    8. Fraud    9. General    10. True Crime   

Editorial Review

Cheating, argues author David Callahan, is no longer the exclusive purview of lowlife criminals, slick hucksters, and shady characters with ace cards shoved in secretive places. Now everyone's doing it and because everyone sees everyone else doing it, they keep on doing it. Callahan says the trouble begins in America's brutally competitive economic climate, which rewards results and looks the other way when it comes to the ethical and even criminal transgressions of those who come out on the winning end. Certainly there is no shortage of examples of cheating from the business community, and Callahan nimbly dissects the dishonest actions of the usual suspects (Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing) to demonstrate how that same mentality extends out to our educational system, amateur and professional sports, the news media, and even the lives of common citizens who, while they would never think of themselves as being cheaters, are nevertheless inclined to commit the occasional act of beneficial fudging. And while honesty is a nice ideal, Callahan says that cheaters cheat because, contrary to oft-repeated axioms, cheaters win: the chances of being caught are shrinking as are the punishments meted out should one be nabbed, and the benefits of a successful cheat far outstrip any potential threat. Further, Callahan posits that otherwise upright folks who would not cheat are drawn into the practice out of fear that they simply won't be able to make it in modern society otherwise. There's a lot of material for Callahan to work with here, given that every instance of cheating is fair game as source material and is able to be used to construct a theory of epidemic. And the range of material is so broad and the basic argument ("we cheat more") so simple that Read more

Reviews (41)

A good book for indiscriminate followers
If you are looking for a pro socialist (but surprisingly anti-postmodern) and horribly pessimistic view of American society, I recommend this book.If you like vague generalizations and loosely correlated (but very interesting) facts presented as truth, The Cheating Culture is for you.
The moral decline in america...from a liberal point of view
In today's society, steroid-enhanced sports figures cork their bats, while corporate executives cook their books. In the days after 9/11, banking institutions whose networking system crashed saw their clients draw out millions of dollars they did not own.Parents push to have their children wrongfully diagnosed with learning disorders so they can have extended time on tests.Lawyers exaggerate expense reports; doctors get kick-backs for promoting vitamins; and commission-based mechanics work to find expensive problems on well-running vehicles.
Cheating is everywhere

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Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business And Society    3. Business Ethics    4. Moral conditions    5. Professional ethics    6. Social Justice (Ethics)    7. Social Science    8. Social ethics    9. Sociology    10. Sociology - General    11. Sociology - Social Theory    12. United States    13. Social Science / Popular Culture   

Reviews (1)

You don't have to read it
This book covers 19 controversial issues. First the authors bring an issue, give some comments and give two articles that discuss the issue, but are contraversial to each other. Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Ethics    4. Business/Economics    5. Business & Economics / Business Ethics    6. Ethics & moral philosophy   

Reviews (28)

Don't waste your time or money on this...
...unless you've never read any of his other books.Don't get me wrong, I can't say enough good things about Robert Kiyosaki's books.If you haven't read them (Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cashflow Quadrant, etc.), I highly recomemd that you do.But there's nothing new in this book.It just a retread of ideas already presented in his other books, and not as well.If fact, reading it felt like a advertisment for his other books and products.

Great read. Very helpful.
The way the author explains money makes cents! Really. It's simple, and most people should be able to follow his instructions and get out of debt. It will require sacrifice and diligence, but without these you won't get anywhere anyways!

Helpful, though more of the same
This handbook has some key advice wrapped up in the Kiyosakian story telling his readers have become familiar with.It is a great book to start out with if you have no interest in the others, and a good book to share its debt reducing tips with friends.Simple things like, don't use ATMs that charge money.You're paying to use your own money.Your better off getting cashback, or using a check if you can. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Consumer Finance    5. Consumer credit    6. Debt    7. Finance, Personal    8. Financial security    9. Personal Finance - Financial Planning    10. Personal Finance - Money Management    11. Personal finance    12. Business & Economics / Personal Finance / Money Management    13. Business ethics   

Reviews (1)

Ethical Challenges
This is an excellent book.I read the introduction and did not want to put this book down. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Ethics    4. Business/Economics    5. Leadership    6. Organizational Behavior    7. Business & Economics / Organizational Behavior    8. Ethics & moral philosophy   

Editorial Review

Philosophy purists take note: yes, this is a business self-help book. But Tom Morris has plenty of philosophical street credibility: after getting his Ph.D. from Yale, he taught for 15 years at the University of Notre Dame (where stunts like bringing the ND marching band to class for an impromptu "pep rally" before a big test made him one of the most popular professors on campus). And Morris isn't dumbing down his message for the corporate culture. Rather, he's genuinely interested in fostering a workplace environment where one can seriously think about truth, beauty, goodness, and unity. "If we let the great philosophers guide our thinking," he says, "and if we then begin to become philosophers ourselves, we put ourselves in the very best position to move towards genuine excellence, true prosperity, and deeply satisfying success in our businesses, our families, and our lives. Why should we settle for anything less?" Why indeed? ... Read more

Reviews (16)

If an irrational populist ran a non-profit agency

Brilliant
When you ask business people what they think about ethics and morality, they usually answer that these are important things in today's business environment. When you ask them what they REALLY think about ethics and morality, most of them don't want to answer you in any detail. A few will reply that morality is "idealistic" and that one must be "pragmatic" in everyday business practice. The belief that "morality is a topic to be debated after the bills are paid" seems to be the dominant belief in business (and other) circles. Genuinely non-Aristotelian look at Business Leadership...
Despite a provocative and promising title, Tom Morris delivers neither a new nor a true approach to the art of business leadership.While the book is occasionally clever and sometimes humorous, the vast majority of this book is mostly just a hodgepodge of relativism only somewhat related to the art of management and leadership.In short, the content of the book leads the reader miles away from what might result from the title scenario.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Ethics    4. Business/Economics    5. Management    6. Management - General    7. Motivational    8. Philosophy    9. Work    10. Business & Economics / Management    11. Management & management techniques   

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business Ethics    3. Business/Economics    4. Leadership    5. Management - General    6. Social ethics   

Reviews (7)

One of the best books about the topic !
I'm German, but I have lived for some years in Maryland. Great primer for newcomers, helpful to practitioners
The book is a great resource for any newcomer to the subject(s) at hand. For those of us with actual hands-on experience in dealing with both, German and U.S. culture, the book is very helpful as it solidifies and/or corrects one's own perceptions and impressions.

Uncovering semi-conscious attitudes
An edifying and amusing examination of the different business methods and attitudes to personal relations in the two countries. An eye-opener to the inbuilt assumptions which cause so many misunderstandings in professionaland social life. A "must" for businesspeople who want to beglobal players. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business Ethics    3. Business/Economics    4. Operations Research   

Reviews (1)

Very well done.
The positives of this book are many.Most importantly, it is very well-organized compared to some of the other business ethics books I've read.Specifically, Hartman begins by introducing various ethical theories and strategies for ethical decision-making.She also covers ethical leadership, business and social responsibility, employee-employer relations, marketing, finance/accounting, and finally, the ethical implications of technology.By proceeding from general principles to specific cases, her approach should greatly help students acquire the tools they need to assess particular ethical dilemmas.Very nice.Her summary of each major section should greatly benefit students as well.On the negative side, the selected articles are at times a bit spotty in their coverage of a particular issue.Also, the articles tend to focus on very specific situations (e.g. the Enron debacle) instead of more general ones (e.g. "do businesses have social obligations to their consumers which affect the content and strategy of their marketing efforts?"). While this is fine as far as it goes, it would have been more consonant with Hartman's overall approach for her to include a few articles which address these "big picture" sorts of questions. All in all, this is a very beneficial text for an introductory course in business ethics.I recommend it to students and teachers alike. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Ethics    4. Business/Economics    5. Business & Economics / Business Ethics    6. Management & management techniques   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Ethics    4. Business/Economics    5. Conflict of interests    6. Legal ethics    7. Management - General    8. Medical ethics    9. Professional ethics    10. Business & Economics / Management    11. Ethics & moral philosophy   

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business Ethics    3. Diversity in the workplace    4. Sociology    5. Workplace Culture    6. Business & Economics / Business Ethics    7. Occupational & industrial psychology    8. Personnel & human resources management    9. Sociology, Social Studies   

Reviews (2)

Sensemaking fails to translate theory into practice
Weick's book is thoroughly researched, drawing its insights from psychological and organisational studies. Powerful insight into how people work together
This book has a very academic tone but it has some powerful implications for anyone in business. The book makes a number of points that are not intuitive but that are very powerful. For example, he talks about the advantages of speed, confidence, and plausibility in problem solving and why they may be more important than accuracy ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Communication in organizations    5. Industrial & Organizational Psychology    6. Management - General    7. Organizational Behavior    8. Psychology, Industrial    9. Business & Economics / Business Ethics    10. Occupational & industrial psychology    11. Organizational theory & behaviour