RUSA BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee
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A BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee working group, after year-long discussions, voted for three titles to be included in the outstanding category. Four additional titles were selected as noteworthy. In order to qualify for inclusion on the list, the works must have been published since May 2006, must be a source for frequently asked business reference questions, and must be suitable for mid-size to large academic and public libraries. The outstanding titles feature a new Web-based mapping application, an encyclopedia on the burgeoning topic of industrial and organizational psychology, and an encyclopedia to help us with those challenging statistics questions. Notable titles include a standard reference that is now electronic and three books that feature common business concepts and functions–new and classic.
Outstanding Titles
Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Ed. by Steven G. Rogelberg. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2006. 2 vols. $375 (ISBN 1-4129-2470-7).
In today’s global, competitive marketplace, firms are concerned with developing, retaining, and rewarding their workforce. With the proliferation of self-service human resource management applications, workplace issues are no longer the sole purview of the human resources department. Line managers need to be aware of legal and ethical issues as well as of the latest techniques to evaluate and motivate their employees. The Encyclopedia covers more than four hundred key topics that affect the workplace environment daily.
The editor is the director of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in organizational science and directs the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Graduate Program at University of North Carolina Charlotte. He was a consultant in private industry. The more than three hundred contributors are academics from universities worldwide and practitioners.
Signed entries, averaging three pages, provide an overview of the topic. Illustrating the timeliness and thoroughness of the volume, the entry for “Emotional Intelligence” defines the trait- and competency-based approaches as well as the measurement of EI and its predictive validity. It also mentions the popularity of a recent trade book that led to some relabeling of existing approaches and models. Cross-references and additional readings allow the advanced researcher to further explore the topic. Attesting to the academic level of this encyclopedia, the additional readings are monographs and academic journals, not Web sites. Graphs, charts, and tables clarify complex concepts.
The target audiences are undergraduates, beginning graduate students, the general public seeking non-technical explanations, and practitioners. This title handily gets a student started on such popular research topics as corporate social responsibility and succession planning. A small business owner can find ideas for managing cyberloafing at her company.