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Book reviews for "Taylor,_William_Robert" sorted by average review score:

The Strategic Human Resource Leader: How to Prepare Your Organization for the Six Key Trends Shaping the Future
Published in Hardcover by Davies-Black Pub (1998)
Authors: William J. Rothwell, Robert K. Prescott, and Maria W. Taylor
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Key HR Leadership Roles for the Future
"What does the future hold for the HR function and for HR practitioners? Many studies have been undertaken to answer this question. However, three of them stand out as being the must comprehensive: (1) the 1995-1996 Hman Resource Planning Society State-of-the-Art Study (R.Eichinger & D.Ulrich); (2) the Penn State Executive Programs Management Skills Assessment-Human Resources, which was conducted between 1985 and 1997 (A.Vicere & R.Prescott); (3) A 21st-Century Vision of Strategic Human Resource Management (W.Rothwell, S.Schechter & S.McLane). A review of tese studies shows that the HR field is on the verge of moving beyond its recently acquired responsibilities for performance consulting and business partnering to assume strategic leadership" (p.26).

In this context, W.J.Rothwell, P.K.Prescott, and M.W.Taylor review these studies as following:

I- 1995-1996 HR Planning Society State-of-the-Art Study.

1. Seven most essential skills for HR executives today:

* Business savvy and acumen

* Leading organizational change initiatives using personal power and indirect influence skills

* Deep and working knowledge of the basic HR technologies

* Global strategic thinking and planning skills

* Change management technology

* Analytical, conceptual, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills

* Financial analysis and costing skills

2. Seven most essential skills for HR executives in the future:

* Master global operating skills

* Business and financial savvy

* Strategic, visioning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills

* Using information technology

* Deep HR technology savvy

* Change management skills

* Organizational effectiveness

II- Penn State Executive Program Mnagement Skills Assesment-Human Resources (1997)

1. Six general roles of the new HR leaders: Partner, problem solver, model manager, oracle, conduit, and change agent.

2. Most important competencies of the HR leader:

* Is committed to the success of the organization

* Acts consistently in a manner that instills trust

* Is an effective listner

* Exhibits high standards of performance

* Can manage conflict effectively

* Works effectively with other managers outside the HR function

* Recruits and selects high-quality professionals

* Communicates effectively both orally and in writing

* Understands the overall corporate mission

* Develops HR plans that are clearly linked to the mission and strategy of business units

III- A 21st-Century Vision of Strategic Human Resource Management (1995-1996): The results of the study indicate differences between the most important present and future competencies required for success by HR leaders (see pp.29-30, and Appendix 1).

Within this general framework, they write that "taken together, these three studies provide compelling evidence that HR practitioners of the future must demonstrate exemplary leadership skills if they are to be successful. For HR practitioners, it is no longer enough to be a compliance-oriented practitioner, a supportive, or even a performance consultant. Exemplary HR practitioners of the future will be leaders who are capable of demonstrating a new value-added component to their organizations by managing and developing knowledge capital. By comparing the studies (just summarized above), we can see that six key roles for HR leaders have emerged: change agent, HR strategist, business strategist, HR functional aligner, partner to general managers, and problem solver and consultant."

Highly recommended.

Crucial career heads-up for HR practitioners!
Following an initial, probing discussion of the history and present problems plaguing human resource management, the authors present a vision of a new HR function. They carry these ideas forward in terms of six trends: the advance of technology; globalization; cost containment; increasing speed in market change; the increasing importance of knowledge capital; and the overall pace and scope of change. They discuss how to apply insights about these trends to shaping and leading the HR function, specifically in terms of action plans and the requisite leadership competencies to implement these plans. The book contains work sheets for guiding professionals in action planning. Importantly, the results of research underlying the book are included. A worthy contribution to the human resource management field and something of a career heads-up for HR practitioners.


Contemporary Issues in Leadership
Published in Paperback by Westview Press (13 July, 2001)
Authors: William E. Rosenbach and Robert L. Taylor
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A Good Intermediate Text
This book is best for those who have already read a couple of books on leadership, particularly those by Warren Bennis and James MacGregor Burns since these two figure's ideas are present in many of this book's pages. That is not to say there are no new paths taken. Sashkin and Rosenbach's "A New Vision of Leadership" is eye-opening in its redefinition of transformational leadership. This essay also does well in illustrating the differences between leadership and management, a division I was not sure existed until I picked up this book. Payne, Fuqua, and Canegami's "Women as Leaders" was equally fresh and eye-opening. This is a good book to read to start developing more complex ways of looking at leadership.


The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin
Published in Hardcover by New York Review of Books (12 March, 2001)
Authors: Mark Lilla, Ronald Dworkin, Robert B. Silvers, Aileen Kelly, Steven Likes, Avishai Margalit, Thomas Nagel, Charles Taylor, Michael Walzer, and Bernard Williams
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Mark Lilla and Ronald Dworkin together???
Can't wait to see this one. Lilla and Dworkin is like a collaboration between Ken Vandermark and Wynton Marsalis.


A Deed of Death: The Story Behind the Unsolved Murder of Hollywood Director William Desmond Taylor
Published in Hardcover by Knopf (1990)
Author: Robert Giroux
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Logical and Interesting
"A Deed of Death" is well worth reading . It provides some interesting information and the author discusses the possible suspects in considerable detail. His final "Summing Up" as to the likely guilt( or otherwise) of certain people is logically set out and the arguments he presents appear to be well supported by acceptable evidence. Perhaps a bit too much space was devoted to seemingly unrelated career details of Mable Normand such as her problems with Samuel Goldwyn which didn't seem to have anything to do with the Taylor case. Also, the author chose not to expand on the fact that Taylor was due to appear in court on the day of his murder as a defence witness for his butler who had been arrested in WestLake Park not long before on a morals charge. Kirkpatrick in "A Cast of Killers" obviously considered this fact to be more significant than Mr Giroux. But, overall this book is very entertaining and the author has managed to dig out some new facts about the central character which are enlightening . Bill Taylor comes across as being a thoroughly decent man who has been wrongly maligned over the years.


American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto
Published in Hardcover by Harvard Univ Pr (2000)
Authors: Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh and William Julius Wilson
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Misguided thesis
Venkatesh is pushing the thesis that the lives of the residents in the 'projects' have been too pessimistically portrayed by other authorities, and that for long periods of time they in fact managed to get along pretty well, through various informal and often criminal survival mechanisms they developed.

That is, as I say, his thesis. I am reminded of a story of a man who fell out the 40th story window of an office building. Mid way down, with his eyes firmly closed, he imagined himself flying.

"So far, so good," he said.

This author records comparable delusions, and the state of free-fall that of necessity must end. He thinks he is recording something better than that.

likinstik
"American Project" started out with the best of intentions, but along the way ,the author became a little repetitive. He should've explored the lives of the tenants a bit more. I think that would've made their situation a bit more understandable for the unaware. But, I give the author credit for trying to explain the lives,situations and forces, which keep the people disconnected from the rest of Chicago.

A sociologist explores life in a public housing high-rise
Venkatesh has done a superb job of describing the interrelationships between tenants, and the relationship between tenants and management, as well as chronicalling the changes in these relationships since Robert Taylor was constructed in the early 60's. Anyone who wants to move beyond the headlines, and find out more about the strengths and weaknesses of life in a public housing development should read this book.

That said, the author's background and training as a sociologist comes through loud and clear, and ultimately limits his book. While Venkatesh does a good job of detailing the social relationships among the players, he virtually ignores the larger political issues. Why was management so inept as to be virtually non-existent? Why did the drug/crime culture take hold, and how did the gangs transfor themselves into multi-state corporate enterprises? Most importantly, given that CHA is now in the process of demolishing virtually everyone of the buildings which form Robert taylor Homes, how do we avoid creating the same problems in the next generation of public housing.

Excellent bibliography, by the way. A very good place to dig for resources for anyone wanting to study the history of the Chicago Housing Authority since 1960.


Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character
Published in Paperback by Oxford Univ Pr on Demand (1993)
Author: William Robert Taylor
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Disappointing
If you think this book details the divurgence of American culture in the 1800s, you will be disappointed. Author spends too much time encapsulating the plots of dozens of novels, some of them rather obscure. His main point of the south as a declining culture and thus a culture winding its way to secession out of frustration is dubious. Author spends a lot of time detailing the decline of Virginia's worn out tobacco plantations but chooses not to discuss the spectacular economic growth of the South's western cotton plantations.


The Air Force Pilot Shortage: A Crisis for Operational Units?
Published in Paperback by RAND (2000)
Authors: William W. Taylor, S. Craig Moore, and Charles Robert Roll
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Brain Tumors: An Encyclopedia Approach
Published in Hardcover by W B Saunders Co (15 February, 2001)
Authors: R.B. Anderson, Condon, Robert Green, Knight, V. Mahadevan, Vishy Mahadevan, V. Mehadevan, S. Muirhead-Allwood, Schwartz, and Smith
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Cardiology (Primary Care Essentials)
Published in Paperback by Blackwell Science Inc (15 October, 2001)
Authors: John, MD Sutherland, Norman Begg, Debbie Durham, William H. Faulkner, Jeremy Hawker, David W. Hay, Carolyn Kaut Roth, M. Rutter, Robert T. Smith, and E. Taylor
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Contest for Cultural Authority: Hazlitt, Coleridge, and the Distresses of the Regency
Published in Hardcover by Wayne State Univ Pr (2000)
Author: Robert Keith Lapp
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