Rosabeth Kanter
Harvard
Jerald Greenberg's Book Recommendations
VALUES OF THE GAME by Bill Bradley
"This former U.S. Senator, basketball star, and presidential hopeful explores how values on the court are portrayed in life off the court, and vice versa. Basketball as a metaphor for such life values as courage, discipline, resilience, respect, and of course, teamwork, makes for highly insightful reading."
• TYRANNY OF THE BOTTOM LINE by Ralph Estes
"The author explores the dynamics underlying how corporations make good people do bad things. His analysis shows how the original purpose of the corporation has become perverted through unbalanced focus on the bottom-line mentality."
• HEALTHY COMPANY: EIGHT STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP PEOPLE, PRODUCTIVITY, AND PROFITS by Robert H. Rosen & Lisa Berger
"Although now dated, this book is full of good examples of companies that have benefited by treating employees with dignity and respect. It provides fascinating cases of how doing good for employees means doing good for the company as well."
• THE AMERICAN MOSAIC by Anthony Patrick Carnevale and Susan Carol Stone
"This is the definitive guide to the history and nature of diversity in the American workplace. Although some of the statistics are now out of date, this book provides the most compelling analysis of how the American workplace became the racial and ethnic mosaic it is today."
• IN THE AGE OF THE SMART MACHINE by Shoshana Zuboff
"This book is a classic, and one of the few works describing social and interpersonal responses to technology in the workplace. Interestingly, many of the author's prognostications have proven to be correct."
• NERDS 2.0.1. by Stephen Segaller
"This book accompanies the PBS series on the birth of the Internet. It is a humbling look at how just a few people (not including Al Gore) revolutionized the world."
• KIND OF BLUE: MAKING OF THE MILES DAVIS MASTERPIECE by Ashley Kahn & Jimmy Cobb
"This book chronicles the making of a classic jazz album. Not only does it provide insight into the creative process, but also the social norms and business practices in the recording industry in the 1950s."
• BLUR: THE SPEED OF CHANGE IN THE CONNECTED ECONOMY by Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer
"Much has been written and said about how quickly technology has changed the world. However, this book does the best job of chronicling the maddening pace of the connected economy."
• THE EXCUSE FACTORY: HOW EMPLOYMENT LAW IS PARALYZING THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE by Walter K. Olson
"The American legal system has created a situation in which many employers are reluctant to fire bad employees. This book's tales of how this dynamic has come about and how it is wreaking havoc in the economy are enough to make readers scream for common sense to prevail."
• REPUTATION by Charles J. Fombrun
"This book provides compelling evidence of the value associated with a positive corporate reputation--a belief that long has been claimed, but only recently has been examined scientifically."
Biographical Info:
Jerald Greenberg is the Irving Abramowitz Memorial Professor of Business Ethics at The Ohio State University. For more information on Mr. Greenberg, please visit:http://fisher.osu.edu/facultyguide/faculty/greenberg/greenberg.htm
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DESTINY OF CHANGE by Kenneth R. Schneider
"This is a wonderful book for people who want to think about the role of the individual and individual ethics in industrial society. I have spent a number of years thinking, teaching and writing about how people behave in their business roles. While there is much argument to the contrary, I believe that people do not behave so differently at work and at home - that they are not ethical at work and not at home. Schneider's book provides a way to think about individual morality and the importance of the fostering a moral culture."
• THE SNEETCHES AND OTHER STORIES by Dr. Seuss
"Several of the stories in this book offer wonderful illustrations of important management lessons. In particular, "The Sneetches" and "The Zax". "The Sneetches" provides a lovely illustration about the dangers of assimilation and the power of recognizing and accepting one's differences and strengths. "The Zax" is a fine story about conflict management or the lack thereof. Two Zax come head to head as they are walking in different directions - one going South and one going North. The beauty of these stories is that they provide very clear messages in a totally non-threatening way and let people relax with what are often difficult subjects."
• GEEK LOVE by Katherine Dunn
"While this would likely strike most readers as an extremely odd choice of favorites, this book changed the way I think about my own view of normal and the erroneous judgments I may have made about people's preferences. In particular, this work changed the way that I think about what constitutes "normal" and how that term is used, particularly to describe physical appearance. In her unusual story, Dunn tells the story of a family that purposely produces children who have physical "abnormalities". The children are loved by the parents not in spite of their physical differences but because of those differences. The children and the parents value the differences in ways that are very uncommon in our society."
• THE SMALL ROOM by May Sarton
"This is the story of a woman professor having to come to terms with her discovery that a favorite student has cheated. Her story resonated naturally resonated with me, as a woman professor who seeks to be compassionate but not a pushover, fair and just. Around the time I read the book I had dealt with my first case of cheating in my classroom. I was devastated - surprised and disappointed, having somehow expected that if I was friendly, fair, kind, and so on, that all of my students would respond in a like manner. Sarton's work allowed me both to see the incident in a less personalized way and to think about my own naivete as a contributing factor in my strong reaction."
• IN THE SKIN OF A LION by Michael Ondaatje
"I do not think I fully understood the concept of epiphany before I read this book and it is that thought which I continue to hold onto. There is a scene in which a nun falls from a bridge and is, miraculously caught be a man doing construction work on the bridge. In the moment of her fall she understood that she did not want to be a nun. Ondaatje's brilliant description of that moment of self-realization and revelation spoke to me about how we can come to know ourselves and that the truth about what we need is usually within us. I now keep a dish of beautiful stones on my desk - I called them epiphany stones. Though I often want to throw them at people so that they can really see their lives, I use them only to remind myself that people have the capability to see the truth."
• NO FUTURE WITHOUT FORGIVENESS by Desmond Mpilo Tutu
"As a person who has worked in the area of conflict management (University Ombudsperson), taught courses in Negotiation, conducted employee and management conflict management seminars and now functions as a Dean of an Undergraduate Program, I have had many occasions to see and work with people's anger and hurt. As the major force behind the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, Desmond Tutu has provided all of us with another way, his "third way" of healing hurt and diminishing anger. There is not a day that goes by that I do not reflect upon his teachings and use his work as my own example. In particular, the notion that a person's life can actually be enriched by pain and conflict and then forgiveness gave me a different way to talk to employees, students, and parents who were angry or hurt or carrying a long grudge. In this book, Tutu writes with humor, seriousness, and compassion about his life, his work and the lessons he has learned. Clearly this learning has not come without cost but he is wise and brave and I was the lucky recipient of his strengths."
Biographical Info:
Nancy Hauserman is an Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Teaching Program, and a Williams Teaching Professor at theUniversity of Iowa. Nancy Hauserman ,earned her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rhode Island and her J.D. from the University of Iowa. She is a Professor in the Department of Management and Organizations, College of Business Administration and holds the Williams Teaching chair in the College. In August 1999, she was appointed Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Program in the Tippie College of Business. She served as as Ombudsperson for the University of Iowa for three years. Professor Hauserman teaches courses in introductory law, ethics, critical incidents in teaching and diversity issues.
She has been recognized as an outstanding teacher and has won several awards and honors at the University of Iowa.
She has published in the areas of sexual harassment, ethics, whistleblowing, media law, and economic aspects of family law. She has conducted workshops and training sessions in both the public and private sectors in the areas of conflict management, ethics, diversity, and sexual harassment in the United States, Finland, Sweden and Russia. She frequently serves as an expert witness in sexual harassment cases.
Marianne Jennings's Book Recommendations
• BUSINESS AS A CALLING: WORK AND THE EXAMINED LIFE by Michael Novak
"This book is required reading for my first year MBA students because Mr. Novak found the moral foundation of business and explains it. Indeed, Mr. Novak may be philosophy's only advocate for capitalism. His work stands alone among the socialists of the academy. Without going so far as to equate retained earnings with the Holy Grail, this book inspires business people to conduct their business with conscience. When business students grasp that neither capitalism nor they, for pursuing a role in that system, are evil, they aspire to higher moral and ethical standards. You can't go wrong with a writer who explains the wisdom of the founders as follows, "In God we trust. Everybody else gets checks and balances.""
• THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by F.A. Hayek
"Just the dedication of the book makes it a page-turner, "To Socialists of all parties." Hayek didn't win the Nobel in Economics until 1974, 30 years after this book first made its shocking splash. Hayek writes a tribute to individualism, a case for truth, a rejection of ends justifying means and a call for limited government, all in 262 pages. An enticing quote on the role of commerce in increasing the standard of living for all, "It may sound noble to say, 'Damn economics, let us build up a decent world' - but it is, in fact, merely irresponsible." Hayek predicted the sixties, explained them in advance of Woodstock and even saw the postmodernists coming while they were passing through modern. A must-read for anyone who thinks Ben & Jerry and the Body Shop are the only businesses to do things right."
• THE MORAL COMPASS by William J. Bennett
"William Bennett has never lost his faith in good leaders or his ability to spot them, in present day or the annals of history. Mr. Bennett is inspirational in his choice of tales for this 800-page tome that has a story for every speech, a tale for every sales meeting and a moral on every page. He has romance and loyalty in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. He shows that self-deprecation is a tool of leaders in his tale of George Washington taking out his reading glasses as he speaks to inspire his soldiers. His segment on "Easing the Path" is a reminder of the obligation of those who have been given much to be expected to give more in return. Character and integrity tales inspire through the entire middle of the book. When you think you cannot go on, when you don't know if you have what it takes, if you are thinking of wavering on principle, pick up this book and read. Two minutes to two weeks later, depending on how you are hooked and how long you have, you'll find your inspiration."
• PROVERBS, THE BIBLE
Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbor. -Proverbs 19:4
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. -Proverbs 17:28
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty... -Proverbs 16:32
Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish. -Proverbs 12:1
The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it. -Proverbs 29:7
"Need I say more? You can't find tidbits like these on the flips charts at any retreat."
• CAPITALISM: THE UNKNOWN IDEAL by Ayn Rand
"Miss Rand was quoting Alan Greenspan decades before his Federal Reserve stint and Andrea Mitchell days. She draws on papers he presented in 1959 and includes his 1966 essay on "Gold and Economic Freedom" as part of this collection of her essays and those of others to make the case against altruism. Her discussion of the antitrust suit against Alcoa could be a description of today's Microsoft case; just substitute company names. She pierces through psychology as the study of man and his tendencies without acknowledging that man is conscious and the study of politics and economics without acknowledging that man is the driving force in both. An intellectual smart-mouth, Miss Rand challenges conventional thinking about what is moral and right in commerce, demanding more depth and fewer platitudes."
| • Long Walk to Freedom
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This is an inspiring story about leadership in the most difficult of circumstances. | 
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