In order to succeed post-2000, companies must learn to creatively and strategically use their people to gain competitive advantage. The following recently published books expound on this basic theme:
Beyond Productivity: How Leading Companies Achieve Superior Performance by Leveraging Their Human Capital
By Gregory G. Dess and Joseph C. Picken
AMA Publications, 1999
Read this book to learn how to maximize the performance of your employees. It covers such issues as how to recruit talent, how to assess your organization’s potential for leveraging human capital, and how to ease individual and organizational learning.
Human Capital: What It Is and Why People Invest It
By Thomas O. Davenport
Jossey-Bass Inc., 1999
Explores the notion of the worker as investor, in which the worker is a free agent with growing power in the negotiation for labour. Davenport describes the practices of companies that successfully use their human capital and know how to direct it to areas critical for marketplace leadership.
The Passionate Organization: Igniting the Fire of Employee Commitment
By James R. Lucas
AMA Publications, 1999
This book argues that companies need to instill passion in their employees. Toward that end, it aims to reveal tricks that can help bring together a diverse, feisty staff and pull from them their best. These tips include how to align organizational goals with employees’ personal passions as well as how to tell whether employees are truly passionate about a company and their role in it.
A Better Way to Think About Business: How Personal Integrity Leads to Corporate Success
By Robert C. Solomon
Oxford University Press, 1999
This author argues that business ethics is not a contradiction in terms. He writes that corporations are members of the larger community and that without a base of shared values and trust, today’s national and international business world would fall apart.