Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56535
Facing a multitude of pressures, from globalization to the IT revolution, institutions of higher learning must realign themselves to deliver education in the 21st century. That's the premise at the heart of Turnaround Leadership for Higher Education by Michael Fullan of the University of Toronto and Geoff Scott of the University of Western Sydney. In particular, say the authors, universities need to move the emphasis off research and onto teaching and learning, while at the same time focusing on "practical reasoning" as a way of creating and disseminating knowledge. To prepare graduates to function in a complex world where workers need integrated skills, universities must move toward interdisciplinary programs that teach critical thinking and practical know-how. According to the authors, "In a sense, universities need to practice this on themselves in order to learn how to teach it." It won't be easy, they say, but they offer ways to create the "change-capable university"—and the visionaries who must lead it. (Jossey-Bass, $35) for a skill set that's hard to quantify, and a smart one at that. (Harvard Business Press, $29.95) Anyone who behaves like a jerk at the office is costing the com- pany money. In The Cost of Bad Behavior, Christine Pearson and Christine Porath spin a fascinat- ing tale of escalating incivility in American business. They lay out some of the actions that constitute incivility, including taking credit for other people's work, texting during a meeting, and forwarding e-mails to make the sender look bad. Harm- less, you think? Pearson, a profes- sor at Thunderbird, and Porath, an assistant professor at USC, disagree. They write, "People who were treated uncivilly purposely punished their organizations by reducing the time they spent working. Some targets spent work time looking for other jobs or helping others do so." Porath and Pearson estimate that this lost time annually adds up to losses of $300 billion for U.S. com- panies. They also provide formulas that enable managers to calculate the cost of incivility. More hopefully, they examine com- panies such as Cisco and Starbucks that go to immense effort to create pleasant workplaces. "Nobody wins when it comes to incivility," they write. Readers will respect- fully agree. (Portfolio, $25.95) "Particularly in difficult and competitive times, effective negotiation across an organization can mean the difference between success and failure," write Hallam Movius and Lawrence Suss- kind in Built to Win. Yet few CEOs have invested the time and resources to make negotiating skills a core competence of the company. Movius is a principal at the Consensus Build- ing Institute with appointments at Harvard and the University of Vir- ginia, while Susskind is a professor at MIT, and both of them believe companies can improve their employ- ees' negotiating abilities through a shift in training and mindset. Such a shift gives negotiators a clearer sense of what constitutes success and enables them to judge which counteroffers might be acceptable to their bosses. The authors advocate the "mutual gains approach," in which negotiators under- stand their mandates, come armed with the "best alternatives to negoti- ated agreements," are prepared to offer "bundles" of options, focus on long-term value, and continually fol- low through in ways that improve relationships. The book takes a close look at a complex topic, providing a roadmap to better understanding. (Harvard Business Press, $29.95) Customer service and advanced technology have a symbiotic and tortured rela- tionship. In Your Call Is (not that) Important to Us, Emily Yellin traces the history of the phone-based cus- tomer service industry from oper- ator-assisted phone calls to auto- mated call centers. And she makes it clear that communications tech- nology is a double-edged sword. A company might pay $7.50 per customer contact when the caller speaks to a live person, but only 32 cents when the customer is routed to an automated phone system. Those savings don't look so good when irate customers use the Internet to tap into massive public fury about dreadful customer service. Yellin shares the PR nightmares faced by companies like Comcast and Verizon when customer rage lit up the blog- osphere. David McQuil- len of Credit Suisse seems to sum up her position when he says, "When you deliver bad experiences…it costs you money. So deliv- ering positive experiences is good for business." (Free Press, $26) ■ z BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2009 65