Lisa Mainiero

Based on the extensive research of a Yale Ph. D., this book explores the presence of office romances, such as what it takes to make an office romance work, what threatens it, and how it affects career advancement for those involved. After surveying one hundred executive women about their opinion on and experiences with love in the workplace, Dr. Lisa A. Mainiero has put together a guide filled with everything there is to know about the evolution of the office romance. Beginning with commentary on what brought about the epidemic of meeting, dating, and mating in the workplace, readers will find tips on risks to avoid when dating coworkers, as well as the benefits of maintaining the right kind of office romance and just what it takes to make sure it doesn't go south. From information on relationships between unequals within the office ranks to how corporate culture can affect romance, this book spills all the details on why dating in the workplace works great for some but can be threateningly dangerous for others.

The implementation of new ideas in organizations is often hampered by the political dynamics of lateral relationships. The authors of this book offer a balance of theory and cases designed to give managers and executives strategies for dealing with power relationships in an effective way. This book highlights common mistakes people make in managing lateral relationships. Most problems concern misunderstandings about the political realities that arise from underlying power distribution inherent in any organization. The authors offer a roadmap based on real-life dilemmas faced by both new and seasoned managers in order to help solve seemingly unsolvable problems. Using ideas from the resource-dependence paradigm, they model and diagram lateral relationships in a way that create effective plans of action. Managers, executives, and MBA students will find this synthesis of theory and practice an important tool for building a model for success. Part I gives the reader an understanding of the workings of lateral relationships within organizations. It goes on to provide specific models and strategies for working within these relationships. Part II details specific scenarios that will be faced by managers and executives and offers ways to cope with them. The increasingly diverse workforce and growing reliance on team management only intensifies the need for more effective lateral relationship management. This book provides the application of theories and skills vital to coping in such an organizational environment.

This book traces the origins of worker participation in management and decision making, examines the repertoire of empowerment and participatory techniques as applied throughout the world, and assesses, by means of empirical evidence, their effectiveness in the day to day managerial work. Both theoretical and empirical bases of participation and empowerment are presented and their relationship with leadership, goal setting, and problem solving phenomenon analyzed. The book concludes with a chapter describing a comprehensive model of the dynamics of employee participation and its influence on work outcomes is suggested.