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The 13 Key Performance Indicators for Highly Effective Teams
by Allam Ahmed George Siantonas Nicholas SiantonasAn organisation's most important asset is its people. And critical to an organisation's success is the extent to which its people interact effectively – both with each other as team members and with the wider organisation. This is why managing teams has become a key area for a growing number of organisations around the world. While many organisations are world-class at managing their materials and machinery, they fall short in managing the human side of their activities.This book outlines the challenges faced by both team leaders and team members in 21st-century workplaces. It proposes 13 key performance or "team health" indicators for highly effective teams based on research data collected from a large range of industry sectors, team sizes and organisations in the UK. It contributes to the understanding of the nature and functioning of team cohesiveness by describing teamwork as a multi-component variable and identifying the factors that impact on teams and the implications of teamwork for organisations.The book sets out to aid organisations by introducing a Team Performance Diagnostic (TPD) tool. The TPD enables organisations to gain an accurate and detailed insight into the real-time performance of their teams, helps team managers to understand the underlying 'people' issues within the team and how to reach higher levels of team performance quickly. The TPD has been widely used in major multinationals and the UK public sector to pinpoint hard-to-find opportunities to achieve rapid improvements.The research suggests that the use of TPD contributes to more free-flowing feedback both within the team and in the organisation as a whole, and that successful teams are indicative of a healthy organisational culture.This book is an essential guide for senior managers and policy-makers dealing with team effectiveness, and will be highly useful for students of business and management.
Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity
by Akbar S. Ahmed Hastings DonnanThis book examines the cultural responses of Muslims to the transformations, contradictions and challenges confronting contemporary Islam as it moves towards the twenty-first century. The diffusion of populations, the globalization of culture and the forces of postmodernity have shaken the world like never before. These developments have generated a debate among Muslims which, as the contributors to this volume show, will have far-reaching consequences not just for the Muslim world, but for relations between Islam and the West more generally.
Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise
by Akbar S. AhmedCan West and East ever understand each other? In this extraordinary book one of the world's leading Muslim scholars explores an area which has which has been almost entirely neglected by scholars in the field - the area of postmodernism and Islam. This landmark work is startling, constantly perceptive and certain to be debated for years to come.
Resistance and Control in Pakistan
by Akbar S. AhmedHow can people in the West make sense of contemporary unrest in the Muslim world? Is Islamic fundamentalism to be understood purely in religious terms?In Resistance and Control in Pakistan, one of the world's leading authorities on Islam, Akbar S. Ahmed, illuminates what is happening in the Muslim world today and assesses the underlying causes. He does this by telling the dramatic story of the revolt of the Mullah of Waziristan in northwest Pakistan and by placing it within the context of other movements occurring elsewhere in the Islamic world. He also examines the social structure and operative principles in Muslim society and scrutinizes the influence of religion in a society that is undergoing modernization. Till now, there has been little available literature on this topic. This book, written by an eminent scholar with an international reputation fills this gap, giving students of politics, sociology and Asian studies a revealing examination of the Muslim world today.
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin
by Akbar AhmedEvery generation needs to reinterpret its great men of the past. Akbar Ahmed, by revealing Jinnah's human face alongside his heroic achievement, both makes this statesman accessible to the current age and renders his greatness even clearer than before. Four men shaped the end of British rule in India: Nehru, Gandhi, Mountbatten and Jinnah. We know a great deal about the first three, but Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, has mostly either been ignored or, in the case of Richard Attenborough's hugely successful film about Gandhi, portrayed as a cold megalomaniac, bent on the bloody partition of India. Akbar Ahmed's major study redresses the balance. Drawing on history, semiotics and cultural anthropology as well as more conventional biographical techniques, Akbar S. Ahmad presents a rounded picture of the man and shows his relevance as contemporary Islam debates alternative forms of political leadership in a world dominated (at least in the Western media) by figures like Colonel Gadaffi and Saddam Hussein.
Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam
by Akbar AhmedFollowing up on his 2007 work, Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, in which he traveled the Islamic world with a team of researchers to investigate the diversity of Muslim societies abroad, Ahmed (Islamic studies, American U. in Washington, D. C.) here reports on a similar project in which he traveled through Muslim communities across the United States administering questionnaires and conducting interviews in order to explore social patterns and attitudes of American Muslims in the context of the broader history of American racial and religious relations. He begins with an ethnographic discussion of American identity in general before turning to an examination of the ethnography of Islam in America, within which he offers separate discussions of African American Muslims, Muslim immigrants, and white and Latino Muslim converts. He also includes chapters comparing the American experiences of Muslims to that of Jews and Mormons. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization
by Akbar AhmedGlobalization, the war on terror, and Islamic fundamentalism-followed closely by a rise in Islamophobia-have escalated tensions between Western nations and the Muslim world. Yet internationally renowned Islamic scholar Akbar Ahmed believes that through dialogue and understanding, these cultures can coexist peacefully and respectfully. That hope and belief result in an extraordinary journey. To learn what Muslims think and how they really view America, Ahmed traveled to the three major regions of the Muslim world the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization is the riveting story of his search for common ground. His absorbing narrative and personal photos bring the reader on a tour of Islam and its peoples. Ahmed sought to understand the experiences and perceptions of ordinary Muslims. Visiting mosques, madrassahs, and universities, he met with people ranging from Pakastan President Pervez Musharraf to prime ministers, princes, sheikhs, professors, and students. He observed, listened, and asked them questions. For example, who inspires them? What are they reading? How do the Internet and international media impact their lives? How do they view America, the West, and changes in society? Ahmed's anthropological expedition enjoyed extensive access to women and youths, revealing unique information on large yet often misunderstood populations. Lamentably, he found high levels of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism and a widespread perception that Islam is under attack from the West. But he also brought back reason for hope. He returned from his groundbreaking travels both impressed with the concerned, kind nature of the individuals he encountered and invigorated with the vitality and passion they displayed. Journey into Islam makes a powerful plea for forming friendships across religion, race, and tradition to create lasting peace between Islam and the West.
Millennium and Charisma Among Pathans: A Critical Essay in Social Anthropology (Routledge Revivals)
by Akbar AhmedFirst published in 1976, this Routledge Revivals reissue presents an analysis of the Swat Pathans, the people of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, who belong administratively to Pakistan despite being a fiercely independent group, with their own codes and ways of life. Akbar S. Ahmed, who knows the Swat Pathans well through his family connections, presents a clear and sophisticated analysis of their complex society. The study provides an anthropological and critical re-examination of the ethnography of the Swat Pathans and the author suggests specific alternative models of social organization. The book also represents an important contribution to the general debate in the social sciences between the ‘methodological individualists’ and the ‘methodological holists’, and challenges some of the theoretical and methodological premises in anthropology. In particular the author is critical of Professor Fredrik Barth’s study of Swat Pathans, for he believes that the ‘Swat models’ have inadvertently become the basis for generalized, and often incorrect, understanding of models of Pathan socio-political organization in the social sciences.
The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos
by Sohrab AhmariWe&’ve pursued and achieved the modern dream of defining ourselves—but at what cost? The New York Post op-ed editor makes a compelling case for seeking the inherited traditions and ideals that give our lives meaning.&“Ahmari&’s tour de force makes tradition astonishingly vivid and relevant for the here and now.&”—Rod Dreher, bestselling author of Live Not by Lies and The Benedict OptionAs a young father and a self-proclaimed &“radically assimilated immigrant,&” opinion editor Sohrab Ahmari realized that when it comes to shaping his young son&’s moral fiber, today&’s America comes up short. For millennia, the world&’s great ethical and religious traditions taught that true happiness lies in pursuing virtue and accepting limits. But now, unbound from these stubborn traditions, we are free to choose whichever way of life we think is most optimal—or, more often than not, merely the easiest. All that remains are the fickle desires that a wealthy, technologically advanced society is equipped to fulfill.The result is a society riven by deep conflict and individual lives that, for all their apparent freedom, are marked by alienation and stark unhappiness.In response to this crisis, Ahmari offers twelve questions for us to grapple with—twelve timeless, fundamental queries that challenge our modern certainties. Among them: Is God reasonable? What is freedom for? What do we owe our parents, our bodies, one another? Exploring each question through the life and ideas of great thinkers, from Saint Augustine to Howard Thurman and from Abraham Joshua Heschel to Andrea Dworkin, Ahmari invites us to examine the hidden assumptions that drive our behavior and, in so doing, to live more humanely in a world that has lost its way.
Doping and Public Health
by Nader Ahmadi Arne Ljungqvist Göran SvedsäterDoping – the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods – has long been a high-profile issue in sport but in recent years it has also become an issue in wider society. This important new book examines doping as a public health issue, drawing on a multi-disciplinary set of perspectives to explore the prevalence, significance and consequences of doping in wider society. It introduces the epidemiology of doping, examines the historical context, and explores the social, behavioural, legal, ethical and political aspects of doping. The book also discusses possible interventions for addressing the problem on organisational and societal levels. Doping and Public Health incorporates the latest research to provide a comprehensive guide to the key aspects of doping as a social phenomenon. Divided into six parts, this collection of studies offers detailed insight into: ideals of health and fitness in today’s society reasons behind the use of doping medical and social consequences of doping the importance of a doping-free society challenges to the detection and prevention of doping the global anti-doping movement. This book is a valuable resource for sport students, instructors and sport professionals, and will also be of interest to educators and policy-makers working in the areas of health, criminology, sociology and law.
Meaning-making Methods for Coping with Serious Illness (Routledge Advances in the Medical Humanities)
by Fereshteh Ahmadi Nader AhmadiThis book provides an alternative, complementary approach to the existing conventional approaches to religious and spiritually oriented coping. By focusing on the role of culture, the authors take into account the methods employed by a vast number of people who do not directly identify themselves as religious. The empirical data used in this book derive from studies conducted in several countries; Sweden, China, South Korea, Turkey and Malaysia, across which religion plays a different role in the social and cultural life of individuals. This approach and these empirical data are unique and allow comparisons to be made between different cultural settings. By introducing the concept of meaning-making coping, the authors explore the influence of culture on choice of coping methods, be they purely religious, spiritual or existential. The term "existential meaning-making coping" is used to describe coping methods that are related to existential questions; these methods include religious, spiritual and existential coping methods. Meaning-making Methods for Coping with Serious Illness contributes to new approaches and theoretical models of coping. As such it is an invaluable resource for health care, medical, public health and sociology students and researchers. It will also be of interest to educators and policy-makers working in the area of health.
Mindfulness Among Students
by Atefeh AhmadiThis book utilizes quantitative research methods to identify the relationship between the level of mindfulness and demographic factors among university students in Malaysia. More specifically, it explores the mindfulness, its benefits and relationship with demography, and the field of study of university students. While Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale questionnaire (Brown & Rayan, 2003) was used for the quantitative approach, findings in the book were also ascertained through descriptive and co-relational statistics test. The research presented in the book moves beyond the individual level of mindfulness towards "organizational mindfulness", and will be useful for psychotherapists, high school counselors and teachers.
The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (Global Diversities)
by Irfan Ahmad Jie KangThis open access book argues that contrary to dominant approaches that view nationalism as unaffected by globalization or globalization undermining the nation-state, the contemporary world is actually marked by globalization of the nation form. Based on fieldwork in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and drawing, among others, on Peter van der Veer’s comparative work on religion and nation, it discuss practices of nationalism vis-a-vis migration, rituals of sacrifice and prayer, music, media, e-commerce, Islamophobia, bare life, secularism, literature and atheism. The volume offers new understandings of nationalism in a broader perspective.The text will appeal to students and researchers interested in nationalism outside of the West, especially those working in anthropology, sociology and history.
Service-Learning: Theory and Practice
by Iqbal Ahmad Rani GulThis book examines key concepts, principles, and applications of the service-learning approach. Service-learning is a community-based educational approach to improve a student’s academic, personal, leadership, civic, and professional development through civic engagement. Unlike other traditional approaches to education, service-learning students can use their classroom-based knowledge and skills in a real-life context in collaboration with community organisations and residents. This volume explores the theory, research, and practices of how service-learning is understood, implemented, and evaluated in different contexts. It provides essential guidelines to implement and integrate service-learning at educational institutions through extensive discussions on the principles, philosophical challenges, opportunities, and its applications. Key themes include: • Theory of service-learning • Concept of service-learning • Challenges to service-learning • Applications of service-learning • Service-learning as professional development • Service-learning as communication Accessibly written, this book would be of interest to faculty, students, community organisations, and researchers working in the areas of education, pedagogy, sociology, and social work.
African Identities: Contemporary Political and Social Challenges (Routledge Revivals)
by Pal Ahluwalia Abebe ZegeyeThis title was first published in 2003. Aimed at examining contemporary debates and issues which are at the cutting edge of the social sciences, Pal Ahluwalia and Abebe Zegeye have put together a book on subjects of critical importance to the African condition. A combination of empirical and theoretical materials, this text introduces new perspectives.
Central Nervous System Metastases
by Manmeet Ahluwalia Philippe Metellus Riccardo SoffiettiThis book provides a comprehensive overview of brain metastases, from the molecular biology aspects to therapeutic management and perspectives.Due to the increasing incidence of these tumors and the urgent need to effectively control brain metastatic diseases in these patients, new therapeutic strategies have emerged in recent years. The volume discusses all these innovative approaches combined with new surgical techniques (fluorescence, functional mapping, integrated navigation), novel radiation therapy techniques (stereotactic radiosurgery) and new systemic treatment approaches such as targeted- and immunotherapy. These combination strategies represent a new therapeutic model in brain metastatic patients in which each medical practitioner (neurosurgeon, neurologist, medical oncologist, radiation oncologist) plays a pivotal role in defining the optimal treatment in a multidisciplinary approach.Written by recognized experts in the field, this book is a valuable tool for neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, neuroradiologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, cognitive therapists, basic scientists and students working in the area of brain tumors.
Epistemic Paternalism
by Kristoffer Ahlstrom-VijAny attempt to help us reason in more accurate ways faces a problem: While we acknowledge that others stand to benefit from intellectual advice, each and every one of us tends to consider ourselves an exception, on account of overconfidence. The solution? Accept a form of epistemic paternalism.
In the Interest of Others: Organizations and Social Activism
by John S. Ahlquist Margaret LeviA groundbreaking study of labor unions that advances a new theory of organizational leadership and governanceIn the Interest of Others develops a new theory of organizational leadership and governance to explain why some organizations expand their scope of action in ways that do not benefit their members directly. John Ahlquist and Margaret Levi document eighty years of such activism by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the United States and the Waterside Workers Federation in Australia. They systematically compare the ILWU and WWF to the Teamsters and the International Longshoremen's Association, two American transport industry labor unions that actively discouraged the pursuit of political causes unrelated to their own economic interests.Drawing on a wealth of original data, Ahlquist and Levi show how activist organizations can profoundly transform the views of members about their political efficacy and the collective actions they are willing to contemplate. They find that leaders who ask for support of projects without obvious material benefits must first demonstrate their ability to deliver the goods and services members expect. These leaders must also build governance institutions that coordinate expectations about their objectives and the behavior of members.In the Interest of Others reveals how activist labor unions expand the community of fate and provoke preferences that transcend the private interests of individual members. Ahlquist and Levi then extend this logic to other membership organizations, including religious groups, political parties, and the state itself.
Violence in the Heights: The Torn Social Fabric of Inner-city Neighborhoods (Criminology and Justice Studies)
by Eileen M. AhlinGiven the media attention and research focus on big cities with large minority populations, people have grown accustomed to associating violence with these attributes. Violence in the Heights counters that narrative to provide a fresh perspective on inner-city violence with a close look at violence and associated social disorder in a cluster of neighborhoods in a mid-sized, predominantly White city. Eileen M. Ahlin studied 42 residents and their perceptions of and responses to violence to give voice to their experiences. Ahlin provides a historical overview of the neighborhoods and highlights a series of pivotal violent events, and discovers how they differentially impacted residents and their perceptions of safety. Residents reveal how institutional and demographic shifts reduced interpersonal connections and weakened the community's social fabric. A unique take on inner-city violence, Violence in the Heights also details why residents move to other communities when violence increases or, if they remain, adapt to changing conditions. This book will interest mainstream readers interested in learning about urban affairs and the human-interest story as it will track why inner-city residents stay in their neighborhoods or move to other communities when violence increases. This book will also serve as an academic text to outline the changes in violence and community disorder in a mid-sized city that is predominantly White, an understudied aspect of urban violence.
Women, Sexuality and the Changing Social Order: The Impact of Government Policies on Reproductive Behavior in Kenya (Routledge Revivals)
by Beth Maina AhlbergThis book, first published in 1991, examines the effect of government policies and social restrictions on the reproductive behaviour and family life of the women of Kenya, especially the Kikuyu people. Importation of techniques for social and behavioural regulation from the developed nations, the social restructuring that followed the colonial intervention, the Mau Mau uprisings and current widespread concern with AIDS have disrupted traditional influences on Kenyan reproductive behaviour and family life. In response to these changes, women mobilised into a movement comprised of small local women’s groups scattered throughout Kenya that attempt to educate and influence both its members and government policy. The successes and failures of this movement offer important lessons for the rest of Africa and the developing world.
Childhood, Literature and Science: Fragile Subjects (Routledge Advances in Sociology)
by Jutta Ahlbeck Päivi Lappalainen Kati Launis Kirsi TuohelaHow do we understand, imagine and remember childhood? In what ways do cultural representations and scientific discourses meet in their ways of portraying children? Childhood, Literature and Science aims to answer these questions by tracing how images of childhood(s) and children in Western modernity are entangled with notions of innocence and fragility, but also with sin and evilness. Indeed, this interdisciplinary collection investigates how different child figures emerge or disappear in imaginative and social representations, in the memories of adult selves, and in expert knowledge. Questions about childhood in Western modernity, culture and science are also addressed through insightful analysis of a variety of materials from the Enlightenment age to the present day – such as fiction, life narratives, visual images, scientific texts and public writings. Analysing childhood as a discursive construction, Childhood, Literature and Science will appeal to scholars as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in fields such as: Childhood Studies, History, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Literature and Sociology of the Family.
The Female Turn: How Evolutionary Science Shifted Perceptions About Females
by Malin Ah-KingThis book traces the history of how evolutionary biology transformed its understanding of females from being coy, reserved and sexually passive, to having active sexual strategies and often mating with multiple males. Why did it take so long to discover female active sexual strategies? What prevented some researchers from engaging in sexually active females, and what prompted others to develop this new knowledge? The Female Turn provides a global overview of shifting perceptions about females in sexual selection research on a wide range of animals, from invertebrates to primates. Evolutionary biologist and feminist science scholar Malin Ah-King explores this history from a unique interdisciplinary vantage point. Based on extensive knowledge of the scientific literature on sexual selection and in-depth interviews with leading researchers, pioneers and feminist scientists in the field, her analysis engages with key theoretical approaches in gender studies of science. Analyzing the researchers’ scientific interests, theoretical frameworks, specific study animals, technological innovations, methodologies and sometimes feminist insights, reveals how these have shaped conclusions drawn about sex. Thereby, The Female Turn shows how certain researchers gained knowledge about active females whereas others missed, ignored or delayed it – that is, how ignorance was produced.
Graduate Citizens: Issues of Citizenship and Higher Education
by John Ahier John Beck Rob MooreFollowing the introduction of student loans and tuition fees, the situation of students and new graduates has changed considerably. Set in this context, Graduate Citizens is a thought-provoking, and insightful look at the current generation of students' attitudes towards citizenship and matters of social and moral responsibility.Drawing on small-scale case studies of students in two universities, the authors explore students' changing sense of citizenship against the backdrop of recent changes in higher education. It addresses students' approaches to being in debt, the role of their families in providing support and their attitudes towards careers. Questioning the claim that the current generation of students is politically apathetic, this book shows that they are in fact socially concerned with, though distant from, official, mainstream politics. It investigates students' responses to such political and economic phenomena as globalisation and the ever-increasing promotion of market forces.Graduate Citizens illuminates and explores the links between reforms in higher education, student experience of university and issues of citizenship. It poses questions about the condition and future of citizenship in Britain and discusses the implications for citizenship education.
Invitations To Love: Literacy, Love Letters, And Social Change In Nepal
by Laura M. AhearnInvitations to Love provides a close examination of the dramatic shift away from arranged marriage and capture marriage toward elopement in the village of Junigau, Nepal. Laura M. Ahearn shows that young Nepalese people are applying their newly acquired literacy skills to love-letter writing, fostering a transition that involves not only a shift in marriage rituals, but also a change in how villagers conceive of their own ability to act and attribute responsibility for events. These developments have potential ramifications that extend far beyond the realm of marriage and well past the Himalayas. The love-letter correspondences examined by Ahearn also provide a deeper understanding of the social effects of literacy. While the acquisition of literary skills may open up new opportunities for some individuals, such skills can also impose new constraints, expectations, and disappointments. The increase in female literacy rates in Junigau in the 1990s made possible the emergence of new courtship practices and facilitated self-initiated marriages, but it also reinforced certain gender ideologies and undercut some avenues to social power, especially for women. Scholars, and students in such fields as anthropology, women's studies, linguistics, development studies, and South Asian studies will find this book ethnographically rich and theoretically insightful. Laura M. Ahearn is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University.
Food Trucks, Cultural Identity, and Social Justice: From Loncheras to Lobsta Love (Food, Health, and the Environment)
by Julian Agyeman Caitlin Matthews Hannah SobelAspects of the urban food truck phenomenon, including community economic development, regulatory issues, and clashes between ethnic authenticity and local sustainability.The food truck on the corner could be a brightly painted old-style lonchera offering tacos or an upscale mobile vendor serving lobster rolls. Customers range from gastro-tourists to construction workers, all eager for food that is delicious, authentic, and relatively inexpensive. Although some cities that host food trucks encourage their proliferation, others throw up regulatory roadblocks. This book examines the food truck phenomenon in North American cities from Los Angeles to Montreal, taking a novel perspective: social justice. It considers the motivating factors behind a city's promotion or restriction of mobile food vending, and how these motivations might connect to or impede broad goals of social justice. The contributors investigate the discriminatory implementation of rules, with gentrified hipsters often receiving preferential treatment over traditional immigrants; food trucks as part of community economic development; and food trucks' role in cultural identity formation. They describe, among other things, mobile food vending in Portland, Oregon, where relaxed permitting encourages street food; the criminalization of food trucks by Los Angeles and New York City health codes; food as cultural currency in Montreal; social and spatial bifurcation of food trucks in Chicago and Durham, North Carolina; and food trucks as a part of Vancouver, Canada's, self-branding as the “Greenest City.”ContributorsJulian Agyeman, Sean Basinski, Jennifer Clark, Ana Croegaert, Kathleen Dunn, Renia Ehrenfeucht, Emma French, Matthew Gebhardt, Phoebe Godfrey, Amy Hanser, Robert Lemon, Nina Martin, Caitlin Matthews, Nathan McClintock, Alfonso Morales, Alan Nash, Katherine Alexandra Newman, Lenore Lauri Newman, Alex Novie, Matthew Shapiro, Hannah Sobel, Mark Vallianatos, Ginette Wessel, Edward Whittall, Mackenzie Wood