Performance Culture

This book is about the stuff you learn when you've worked for a boss you'd swear jumped out of a Dilbert cartoon; worked in a business whose performance careened up and down like a runaway clown car; faced legal or ethical problems that needed the wisdom of Solomon to sort out while they roiled your guts at night; or sat on the stand across from some third-rate Perry Mason or tried to be one yourself.

Want to know more about the life of Taylor Swift? Listen to this audiobook to learn all about Taylor's childhood, family, career, boyfriends, favorite things, and more!

The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies, James Charney, MD, a practicing psychiatrist and long-time cinephile, examines films that delve deeply into characters’ inner worlds, and he analyzes moments that help define their particular mental illness.

Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule - until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream.

In Whatever Works, Thalma Lobel explores groundbreaking psychological research on job performance, satisfaction, and creativity. Did you know that just doodling in a certain way can increase your creativity? That looking at something green for forty seconds will improve your attention? That crossing your legs similarly to an interviewer could get you the job? That the mere presence of a smartphone on your desk can lessen your performance, even if it's turned off? These are the invisible factors that nudge our behavior on a daily basis.

Perfunctory efforts to show investment in a business relationship don't cut it anymore. Business professionals working across national and cultural boundaries need to form authentic relationships that drive rapport, camaraderie, and optimal team performance—and Forging Bonds in a Global Workforce provides the most thorough and practical approach to date on this issue. Renowned academics in the field of intercultural relationship-building Andy Molinsky and Melissa Hahn deliver an easy-to-understand approach to help you supercharge your global relationship-building skills.

Are you building a typical team...or a high-performance tribe? The motivational power of the desire to belong is the key element for ensuring employee satisfaction and retention, as well as your company’s long-term success.

Armstrong on Reinventing Performance Management presents a holistic approach to performance management, drawing on Michael Armstrong's vast research and experience. Most organizations have performance management processes in one form or another, but these are often based on formal annual reviews, forced rankings and directly linked to pay decisions. These traditional approaches are often at the expense of ongoing, continuous feedback and focus on looking back at what has or has not been achieved rather than looking forward.

In the past decade, there has never been such a pop culture titan as Game of Thrones. We all now live in the seven Kingdoms of Westeros, yearn for the Iron Throne, believe in dragons and know the magic word that makes them breathe fire. What is it in the HBO show, spawned by George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, that has propelled it into the cultural Hall of Fame and made it such a global phenomenon, with loyal fans from all nationalities, cultures, ages, genders, and even tastes?

In A Vulgar Art, Ian Brodie uses a folkloristic approach to stand-up comedy, engaging the discipline's central method of studying interpersonal, artistic communication and performance. Because stand-up comedy is a rather broad category, people who study it often begin by relating it to something they recognize - "literature" or "theatre"; "editorial" or "morality" - and analyze it accordingly. A Vulgar Art begins with a more fundamental observation: Someone is standing in front of a group of people, talking to them directly, and trying to make them laugh.

At the peak of the civil rights movement, Lydia Abarca was the first ballerina in a Black ballet company to grace the cover of Dance magazine. Alongside founding members Shelia Rohan and Gayle McKinney-Griffith and first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells, Abarca invited a bright light to shine on Black professional classical dancers. Grit, determination, and exquisite artistry propelled these swans of Harlem to dizzying heights as they performed around the world for audiences that included celebrities, dignitaries, and royalty.

The Evolution of HR: From Personnel Management to People and Culture. This was such an interesting book to write, as we define what the People and Culture Officer responsibilities should be. Over the years, the field of Human Resources has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from a traditional focus on personnel management to a more strategic emphasis on people and culture. This shift has been driven by changing workforce dynamics, increased competition for talent, and a growing recognition of the importance of employee engagement and well-being in driving organizational ...

In How You Get Famous, journalist Nicole Pasulka raucously documents the rebirth of the New York drag scene, following a group of iconoclastic performers with undeniable charisma, talent, and a hell of a lot to prove. In the past decade, drag has become a place where edgy, competitive showoffs can find security in a callous and over priced city, a shot at real money, and a level of recognition queer people rarely achieve. But can drag keep its edge as it travels from the backroom to the main stage?

In a long line of beloved books, Loud Pictures stands as Marc Spitz’s final project. This big, broad, noisy, and expansive exploration of art marries the two things Marc loved most—movies and rock and roll. In many ways, films can become imprinted on our brains because of their soundtracks.

First there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer; then its spin-off, Angel; then the cult hit Firefly and its follow-up film, Serenity. They all had two things in common: their creator, Joss Whedon...and their surprising psychological depth. Revisit the worlds of Joss Whedon...with trained psychologists at your side. What are the psychological effects of constantly fighting for your life? Why is neuroscience the Whedonverse's most terrifying villain? How can watching Joss' shows help you take on your own psychological issues?

The paranormal investigator series picks up with what we are calling series two. This series will feature more Famous investigators both real and fictional. This book will explore not only the lives of these investigators but their specialized fields of study. Collin de Plancy, like most other demonologists who came before him, followed the tradition of cataloging demons according to their names and titles. Dictionnaire Infernal is his most renowned work. Reginald Scot wasn't at first convinced of the idea of witches.

Wheely Good Team Building: A Fable About Unlocking Synergy on Eight Wheels Is your team stuck in a rut? Are meetings more like collisions, and deadlines a distant dream? Feeling the strain of a disjointed workforce? This heartwarming tale follows a struggling team through an unconventional team-building retreat. Through laughter and wobbly triumphs, they learn valuable lessons that translate far beyond the rink walls. Drawing on the power of experiential learning and novelty, you’ll discover how to: Master focus techniques you can use anywhere, even in the face of distractions, to boost ...

With increased demand for hybrid and fully remote work styles, most firms understand that some form of distance work is here to stay—and have put some remote protocols in place. But many companies either see the shift to remote work as a threat to their culture and management style, or they just don’t know how to make the transition. It’s time to take advantage of the many opportunities remote work presents. This book will tell you how.

Pop culture and parody author Valerie Estelle Frankel examines the sources and predicts a Game of Thrones ending for each one. What will the Ragnarok ending look like? Or the Narnia ending? Who will live, who will die, and how goofy can the war of ice and fire possibly get?

Why are you so tired—even after a full night’s sleep? Why does life feel like an endless to-do list, even when you're technically “free”? This incisive and darkly insightful book uncovers the root cause behind modern exhaustion: a culture that masks coercion as choice and self-worth as productivity. Why You're Exhausted dismantles the illusions of motivation culture, toxic positivity, and relentless self-optimization. Drawing from philosophy, social psychology, and cultural critique, it reveals how we've become both boss and worker in our own lives—chained not by others, but by ...