Victor looks similar to the other cars in his class, but under his hood is an engine that sounds like no one else's: VROOM ZOOM TIKKA TAKKA REV REV ZIKKA ZAKKA His engine helps him do interesting things the other cars can't, but the sound also gets him in a lot of trouble. Should Victor fix his engine? Or does the engine sound exactly the way it's supposed to?

Why do people choose the careers they do? What factors cause people to be satisfied with their work? No single work did more to make concepts like motive, goal incentive, and attitude part of the workplace vocabulary. This landmark work, originally published in 1964, integrates the work of hundreds of researchers in individual workplace behavior to explain choice of work, job satisfaction, and job performance. Includes an extensive new introduction that highlights and updates his model for current organization behavior educators and students, as well as professionals who must extract the highest levels of productivity from today's downsized workforces.

It has become a truism that "leadership depends upon the situation," but few behavioral scientists have attempted to go beyond that statement to examine the specific ways in which leaders should and do vary their behavior with situational demands. Vroom and Yetton select a critical aspect of leadership style-the extent to which the leader encourages the participation of his subordinates in decision-making. They describe a normative model which shows the specific leadership style called for in different classes of situations. The model is expressed in terms of a "decision tree" and requires the leader to analyze the dimensions of the particular problem or decision with which he is confronted in order to determine how much and in what way to share his decision-making power with his subordinates. Other chapters discuss how leaders behave in different situations. They look at differences in leadership styles, and what situations induce people to display autocratic or participative behavior.

Originally published in 1960, this study was carried out as part of the research of the Organizational Behavior and Human Relations Program of the Institute of Social Research. The primary purpose was to determine the effects of participation in decision-making on people with different personality characteristics. It was hypothesized that equalitarians and individuals with strong independence needs would be more positively affected by the opportunity to participate in making decisions than authoritarians and people with weaker independence needs. The results, based on data derived in an actual industrial setting, confirmed the hypothesis. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

In Great Minds In Management Ken G. Smith and Michael A. Hitt have brought together some of the most influential and original thinkers in management. Their contributions to this volume not only outline their landmark contributions to management theory, but also reflect on the process of theory development, presenting their own personal accounts of the gestation of these theories.The result is not only an ambitious and original panorama of the key ideas in management theory presented by their originators, but also a unique collection of reflections on the process of theory development, an area which to date little has been written about by those who have actually had experience of building theory.In their concluding chapter, Ken G. Smith and Michael A. Hitt draw together some common themes about the development of management theory over the last half a century, and suggest some of the conclusions to be drawn about how theory comes into being.

Describes the Vroom-Jago model for participation in management, a revision of the Vroom-Yetton model developed in 1973.

Essays discuss reward systems, employee relations, the power of managers, performance appraisal techniques, and management by objectives

Press 1 for technical support. Press 2 for broken hearts. Press 3 if your life has totally crashed. . . . Six friends work nights at a call center in India, providing technical support for a major U.S. appliance corporation. Skilled in patience–and accent management–they help American consumers keep their lives running. Yet behind the headsets, everybody’s heart is on the line. Shyam (Sam to his callers) has lost his self-confidence after being dumped by the girl who just so happens to be sitting next to him. Priyanka’s domineering mother has arranged for her daughter’s upscale marriage to an Indian man in Seattle. Esha longs to be a model but discovers it’s a horizontal romp to the runway. Lost, dissatisfied Vroom has high ideals, but compromises them by talking on the phone to idiots each night. Traditional Radhika has just found out that her husband is sleeping with his secretary. And Military Uncle (nobody knows his real name) sits alone working the online chat. They all try to make it through their shifts–and maintain their sanity–under the eagle eye of a boss whose ego rivals his incompetence. But tonight is no ordinary night. Tonight is Thanksgiving in America: Appliances are going haywire, and the phones are ringing off their hooks. Then one call, from one very special caller, changes everything. Chetan Bhagat’s delicious romantic comedy takes us inside the world of the international call center, where cultural cross-wires come together with perfect pathos, hilarity, and spice.