The current world is absurd. Faced with climate change, health pandemics, and ever-growing inequality, it is striking how globally, governments and organizations are malingering to find effective responses to these crises, leading to absurd situations where we are facing the destruction of the planet, while humankind is not making the necessary transformation towards truly sustainable societies and workplaces. Focusing on these grand, global challenges from an absurdity and hypernormalization lens, the book aims to elucidate what is happening in contemporary society and workplaces, why there is so little improvement being made in relation to the grand global challenges, and how a more sustainable social transformation can be made in organizations. It offers a wide, yet in-depth, perspective on absurdity in society and the workplace and presents a theoretical framework, as well as in-depth case studies of sectors or organizations where absurdity manifests itself. Presenting an overarching new perspective on society and workplaces, this book helps students and academics make sense of what is currently unfolding, and what can be done. The book therefore bridges theory, science and the everyday practice of organizational life, and how individuals working in a variety of organizations can contribute to more sustainable economies and societies.

A "Business Week" bestseller, this original, contrarian philosophy challenges today's leaders to look past the quick fix and deal thoughtfully with the real complexities of managing people.

This is an Open Access book. Hoping to incubate a unique idea about workplace design, Dr. Agustin Chevez walked in isolation for 42 days from Melbourne to Sydney. His pilgrimage delivered 34 Signposts, a collection of insights which hold the promise to guide us to a better place to work. While firmly positioned within the shifting context of work, the Signposts point away from reactive solutions with a short shelf life. Instead, these markers are infused with a diversity of thought instilled by Agustin's pilgrimage and reclaim the forgotten qualities of solitude, boredom, adversity, and absurdity as mechanisms to deliver innovation and create improved working environments. On his way to Sydney Agustin relied on maps and people with local knowledge of the lands he traversed. Similarly, in this book, he consults people with local knowledge in various design disciplines, management, and technology as he navigates the many regions of the workplace and work practices covered by the Signposts. When he reaches the end of the known trails, he starts laying paths that take us closer to where the Signposts converge. Agustin writes from the perspective of a pilgrim, architect, workplace consultant, and researcher and invites you to join him as a fellow pilgrim. You will be rewarded with a journey that revisits our assumptions about the way we use space to host the ever-evolving notion of work - an expedition leading not only to better versions of the workplace, but a better version of ourselves. "This book takes about three hours to read, and it could take a lifetime to fully extract all the benefits that it contains. This does not suggest that there are not immediate benefits available from reflecting on and applying the Signposts that are core to the book's intellectual contribution." - Peer Review extract.

In Temporary, a young woman’s workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it’s shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, “there is nothing more personal than doing your job.” This riveting quest, at once hilarious and profound, will resonate with anyone who has ever done their best at work, even when the work is only temporary.

A consensus has developed in workplace studies around the concept of ‘well-being at work’ in an awareness that such apparently distinct aspects as health and safety, discrimination, labour market integration, and work-life balance converge in the workplace and are best treated as one complex phenomenon. This important book offers twelve contributions by distinguished international scholars from a range of disciplinary domains, providing an in-depth analysis of ongoing changes in the world of work and their impact on personal well-being. The contributors place specific workplace experiences in a comparative perspective, examining policy and regulatory initiatives and judicial rulings at national, regional, and international levels. The case studies are drawn from Italy, France, the United States, Russia, and developing countries. The essays examine recent legal developments in such topical issues as: – atypical and non-standard work; – child-care leave; – company-level welfare provisions; – disability; – harassment; – low-wage workers and employment benefits; – misperception discrimination; – public policy in care services; – unemployment and mental health; and – work/family conciliation policies. Providing a detailed overview of recent developments in policy and jurisprudence in a comparative perspective regarding discrimination, work-life balance, and workers’ integration into the labour market – as well as a guide to best practices in promoting well-being at work – this book will prove indispensable to labour and employment law practitioners, as well as to work organization, occupational medicine, mental health, and human resources professionals.

Amazon.com lists thousands of books dealing with Christian leadership. That begs the question, Why do we need another one? It's a good question but the answer is simple. Getting to the bottom of being a Christian leader in this complex and constantly changing global society is tough and we need a book that is not another easy how to. This book is not full of pat answers but draws from the wisdom of a wide range of Christian leaders including private sector chief executives, politicians, senior police leaders, international bankers and senior government officials. It provides prompts for thought, reflection, conversation and prayer, which will enable you to be more confident in your global worldview as a Christian leader.

Functional stupidity can be catastrophic. It can cause organisational collapse, financial meltdown and technical disaster. And there are countless, more everyday examples of organisations accepting the dubious, the absurd and the downright idiotic, from unsustainable management fads to the cult of leadership or an over-reliance on brand and image. And yet a dose of stupidity can be useful and produce good, short-term results: it can nurture harmony, encourage people to get on with the job and drive success. This is the stupidity paradox. The Stupidity Paradox tackles head-on the pros and cons of functional stupidity. You'll discover what makes a workplace mindless, why being stupid might be a good thing in the short term but a disaster in the longer term, and how to make your workplace a little less stupid by challenging thoughtless conformity. It shows how harmony and action in the workplace can be balanced with a culture of questioning and challenge. The book is a wake-up call for smart organisations and smarter people. It encourages us to use our intelligence fully for the sake of personal satisfaction, organisational success and the flourishing of society as a whole.