Can leadership lessons be learnt from the Mahabharata? Demystifying Leadership positively asserts that we can and probes inquiry in the lives of six characters-Bhishma, Ashvatthama, Karna, Shakuni, Kunti and Krishna. It studies these characters in inescapable situations as they navigate through life by demonstrating values, decision-making ability, integrity and principles. Within the given constraints, some of these characters swim and rise, while others sink in moral turpitude. Extrapolating these successful and not-so-successful character traits to corporate leaders and linking them to scholarship, the authors provide lessons for leaders and managers operating in diverse situations. Borrowing from different disciplines, such as literature, philosophy, politics and psychology, Demystifying Leadership proposes to link essentials of leadership in the form of a Leadership Triangle comprising six levels: positive personality, peace with personal identity, purpose, positive use of power and politics, paradoxical leadership and principled pragmatism. It takes a grounded approach in amalgamating mythology and leadership through scholarship and practice.

This book explores the nature and uniqueness of leadership in Iceland within a business and economic context. Starting with an analysis of Iceland’s geographical location, historical development and societal culture, the authors critically examine the major elements of the Icelandic business environment from an individual to a global level, and from economic prosperity to financial collapse. They particularly focus on leadership and human resource management within this unique societal culture and discuss the specific issues that are unique to Iceland, i.e. entrepreneurship, gender egalitarianism, equality, low power-distance, reflecting on, and orienting within contemporary leadership theories. The book covers a variety of analytical methods and cases, providing a unique introduction to leadership in Iceland, and opening avenues for further research into this relatively new phenomenon.

The purpose of this book is to clearly define an approach to school improvement that uses professional learning community (PLC) practices to achieve school improvement and success for every student. This book offers information, examples and case studies to clarify the concept of a PLC, to respond to critical issues in schools, and to support educational leaders in addressing the important mandates of accountability and school improvement. As school leaders proactively lead efforts to create learning communities, their schools, districts, and staff will incorporate knowledge, skills, and practices that focus on teaching and learning for all. The authors' findings will assist leaders, change agents, policy makers, and university faculty in guiding schools toward creating and maintaining PLCs as they sustain school improvement for student learning.

Demystifying Talent Management offers practical advice for all managers, HR professionals, senior leaders, and other employees on how to work together to build a talented and motivated workforce. The book addresses performance, development, coaching, feedback, compensation, and other elements of people management. Using simple, straightforward language, Kim Janson tells you how you can avoid confusion and conflicts when engaging in talent management. You'll learn: What performance is needed and expected: how to translate your company's strategy into individual performance; What it means to measure and track progress, simply and clearly; What you can and should do to help an individual's development; How to narrow your focus to improve a skill, knowledge, or experience; How to take both an individual's profile and the direction of the organization into account in career development and succession planning; How to make compensation (cash, public accolades, feedback, etc.) a true driver of results; How coaching and feedback are essential in bringing all the elements of talent management together. This book will guide you to a deeper understanding of the mechanics of talent management and development success so that all the stakeholders can come together in a win-win-win-win scenario.

This volume explores how educational leadership and administration (ELA) is constructed in the Middle East and North African region (MENA), and charts the development of ELA as a discipline. Against the backdrop of rapid growth and interest in the educational restructuring, educational reforms, policy and leadership landscape of the region, chapters investigate issues concerned with the production and utilization of knowledge in the field, and analyse the future of ELA in relation to the educational policies and practices in MENA countries. Featuring a broad range of geographically dispersed specialist contributors involved in leadership, policy, and administration, the volume ultimately sheds light on this little-researched area of study to demystify common tropes and misunderstandings surrounding ELA in the MENA region. This book will be of use to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students involved with international and comparative education, higher education management, and education policy and politics more broadly.

This book presents a solid, research-based conceptual framework that demystifies organizational learning and bridges the gap between theory and practice. Using an integrative approach, authors Raanan Lipshitz, Victor Friedman and Micha Popper provide practitioners and researchers with tools for understanding organizational learning under real-world conditions.

Today, with a new leadership in place, the People’s Republic of China enters a challenging new phase as an emerging economic superpower. The Chinese economy has dramatically changed over the three decades since Deng Xiaoping launched his economic reforms in 1978. It has been transformed from a command economy dominated by state-owned enterprises to a market socialist economy with a wide range of ownership forms, both public and private. In turn, its managers and management have correspondingly undergone a major sea-change. This edited collection attempts to demystify Chinese management, highlighting recent research into these significant changes and their implications in a wide range of business enterprises both in China and overseas. It points to the strategic challenges and issues in terms of realizing the managerial version of the ‘Chinese Dream’. The topics covered include business schools in China, corporate social responsibility, financial services, impression management, international human resource management, international competitive strategy choices, internationalization of firms and the role of science parks. The book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.