Turgay gets it right.

A few other observations...

It is very well written. Terse, no padding, well structured. You can get through it in an hour, cover to cover.

It is actionable. Everything discussed is straightforward to execute.

It is realistic. Fritz-Heinz and Phillips embrace HR politics.

It is ambitious. If you're taking care of ordinary HR administrivia without a sweat, this is your roadmap, a framework for getting you to the next level.

I like their ten measures of effectiveness:

10. Healthcare cost per employee.

9. Pay and benefits as a percentage of operating expense.

8. Cost per hire.

7. Return on training.

6. Turnover rate.

5. Turnover cost.

4. Time to fill jobs.

3. Return on human capital invested.

2. Human value added.

1. The one that means the most to your boss.

It's a pearl.

"In business we've stopped talking about personnel administration or even human resources management. Now we are dealing with the management of human capital...and human resources is right in the middle of it. It is no longer a cliche to say that people are the most important asset of an organization. People are the only dynamic asset. People are the causal force. Nothing happens without people. The human resources department's role is to help people be more effective in their work, as well as more satisfied. This effectiveness imperative is not measured in a flurry of programs. It is found in business results" (pp.1-2).

In this context, in Chapter VII, Jac Fitz-enz and Jack Phillips write that "As companies adjust to the new forces of the twenty-first century, HR has to find a basic model for staying in alignment with its customers. In times of great flux and uncertainty, the best approach is usually the simplest and closest to bedrock management. Basically, the human resources function has five responsibilities: planning, staffing, paying, developing and retaining human capital." Thus, in order to reveal interdependence among these functions, they introduce the HR Star model as following:

1. Workforce Planning- WFP is making a comeback. No matter what size your organization is, you have to look ahead to your future skills profile. If you devote a reasonable amount of time to planning, you will have it returned in reduced hiring time and cost, lower training costs of new employees, and probably higher productivity through a more stable and motivated workforce.

2. Staffing- Hiring during periods of sustained high growth becomes an all-consuming task. The only thing that will make it easier is having good data on the results of your current practices. Doesn't it make sense that if you know how much it costs, how long it takes, and the quality and availability of each of your major sources, you can do a better job?

3. Paying- Pay covers wages, salaries and benefits-the total cash investment in human assets. We can do a better job of managing that investment if we look at it from a resource viewpoint.

4. Developing- Employee development is no longer an option. Basic skills, management competencies and executive development are all priorities. If we don't develop effective leaders, we won't have to worry about basic skills because we will be out of business.

5. Retaining- When the supply is limited, a wise strategy is to pay attention to keeping what you have. Consider what it costs to lose a skilled employee: the direct cost of termination, hiring a replacement, vacancy costs and learning curve loss. These add up to more than one year's pay and benefits for an exempt person. Add to that the external costs in unhappy and lost customers, and the number goes out of sight. One study claims that the cost of losing an effective salesperson can take up to three years to recover.

Highly recommended.

This is one book you can't put down once you start reading it.
This book is so dynamic that you have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens.
You become so involved with the characters, one minute you are crying the next minute you are laughing. A very heart felt and warming story. (I believe this is a true story)
This is the TRUE meaning of Christmas.

A must read for everyone.

I loved this book! The story is so intriguing, and it made me love Christmas even more than I already did. It is the perfect stocking-stuffer: it is both meaningful and affordable! I am going to give copies to my neighbors and relatives this year.

This book puts it all together, with very savvy advice on not just what to do to launch and sustain a non-profit, but how to do it well, with realistic goals. My favorite sections are the ones on writing: how to develop a mission statement and a grant proposal. But all the nuts & bolts information about budgeting and raising money is excellent, too. The advice also is very flexible, so it can apply to nonprofits that are social service-oriented, arts-oriented, etc. A good starting point for all of us who want to turn dreams into realities.

Great book for someone starting at ground zero!

Before I found this book, I was struggling with my fear of overlooking some important aspect while starting a non-profit, the Financial Literacy Infusion Project (FLIP). My intrepidation was actually putting some of FLIP's potential funding in jeopardy. When I looked at the scope of topics in the table of contents, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was on my way to filling in some important "holes" I had overlooked and feeling confident that I was developing a strong foundation for FLIP.

Hutton & Phillips cover the gamut of starting and running a non-profit in a reader-friendly format. NP for Dummies is also loaded with references and resources for more information on any subject covered. The CD is also a definite, easy to use PLUS!

A must read for musclecar ethuiests.Also recommend that The "Generation X" crowd read, to fully appreciate what a "real car" was. The 442 W=Machines andHurst/Olds are well covered-And they were trully awsome. Just ask GTO owners.

This book is like my secound bible, i refer to it often. Super job in reviews, pictures, graphs, and those great stats that placed Oldsmobiles in a league of there own!

$Roger

new and creative vehicle for teaching/exploring analytic thought--the essay--similar in style to Yolam's "Love's Executioner"

This book is a great buy totally the best.

This is a very good book. Page after page of good photos of good package designs, from cartons, to bottles, etc. The designs will probably start to look a little dated by 2005, they are showing slight mid-ninetiesness, but they are still very good and have some life left in them- worth buying for the serious designer who needs a little inspiration now and then.

I think is a very good book, i don't have it, but i've seen it. I'm sorry my english is bad.

This book and this writer are just like Gerald A. Browne at his best in his prime, only the main characters and the supporting roles are more vicious and low. Great and smooth writing style, logic and interesting plot and scenario, unique yet weird characters. Simply wonderful! Just wish more readers could discover this great writer and his fantastic works. Mr. Finch should have a shot at the main-stream publishers with deep pocket for marketing promotion and strategy, because every one of his books should be in the top 10 bestsellers. Very glad to find a writer who could take over the retiring and downhilled Gerald A. Browne.

I gotta tell you the truth. I loved the book! It has excellent dialogue and it is well written. Maybe at some parts it can improve because at some parts I found it a little dull. I'd recommend this book for someone who wants a good book to read with not little but not too much action. The ending is excellent

In Chicago, last-year, my high-school's Drama and English classes had this as our semester- project...It was a blast! And we all could stop laughing! 'Penguin blues' may no longer be in circulation, but my graduating-class from last year is enternally GREATFUL Drama teacher had found this in book-form from her library! Drinking sucks at any age, but to us, this play underscores it bittersweetly through humor...we lost 3 of our class not long before it was decided to do this one-act gig, we dedicated the show to them. Will somebody out there PLEASE REPRINT THIS BOOK! The year that it was published or written may not be current, but the issues always are! I didn't know the guy who wrote this is also Neelix on Star Trek:Voyager...Not only can the dude act, but he CAN WRITE! Read the book, do the play and then check-out the dude behind them both! Trip-OUT! Graduate from '98, Chicago, ILL

This is the story of a voice over actor who meets a nun while they are both in alcoholic rehab. Gordon, sadistically abused by a nun in grade school, and Angelita, ashamed and in denial about her drinking, come together in a profound and surprising manner. The play is also very funny! And says some insightful and unexpected things about catholocism and booze. I think it would make a great movie; it certainly is a great play!

These perspectives have helped me to learn more about my patients and improve their overall treatment. The theories are laid out in a clear, understandable manor, so the non-psychiatrist may learn. P.S. Dr.McHugh is a gem!

The field of psychiatry may at first appear bewildering. People are complicated. The variety of ways in which thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can go awry are plentiful. The history of psychiatry has seen a number of attempts at reductionism in the face of this complexity, most notably that of the psychoanalytic school, the behaviorists, and the biological psychiatrists. These monolithic viewpoints have each distorted psychiatry, emphasizing some important features of mental life and its abnormalities while giving short shrift to others. Further the acrimony between adherents of these schools have left psychiatric trainees as well as the general public uncertain of what to believe about the nature of mental illness. In this book Drs. McHugh and Slavney have done a masterful job of making clear what we know in psychiatry and how we know it. Paul McHugh has been chairman of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins from 1977-2000; Phillip Slavney was director of residency training in the Hopkins psychiatry department for most of that time, and now directs consultation psychiatry there. Their book describes four perspectives of psychiatry, or ways of seeing disturbance of mental life, and shows how each is especially illuminating for particular types of psychiatric issues. The disease perspective is most useful for explaining major mental illnesses such as dementia, schizophrenia,and bipolar disorder. It is the most clearly biological, and invokes medications for treatment and laboratory methods for research. The life story perspective is most useful for a person who has suffered a setback and is demoralized. It emphasizes the uniqueness of each individual and the meaning that people's experiences have for them. The behavioral perspective concerns things people do that get them into trouble. Drug and alcohol abuse are the most common of these, but eating disorders and sexual disorders are included as well. Treatment in this perspective prioritizes stopping bad behaviors over understanding them. The dimensional perspective looks at the vulnerabilities that people have as a result of their lifelong traits. These vulnerabilities may arise out cognitive limitations or out of features of personality such as being impulsive or being a worrier. McHugh and Slavney draw on both their vast knowledge of the literature of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience, and their long experience of evaluating and treating patients in order to make the case for their perspectival approach to the field. They succeed impressively, I think, for two reasons. One reason is that the approach is such an intelligent and sensible one. The other reason is that they have had the benefit of 15 years between the first edition of their book and this second edition. Major changes and additions were made between the two and the result is greater clarity, especially in the opening chapters, as well as a fuller discussion of themes that were only touched on in the original edition. For example, new chapters were written in the behavioral perspective section on suicide and on hysteria. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand where psychiatry stands today. But more than that, it is essential because it makes clear on what psychiatry stands, i.e. what sets of reasoning have gotten us where we are. With this clarity the path towards new insights and new discoveries becomes navigable. In short, this book is a gem.

Before the age of the internet collectors of Philip K. Dick books had only this volume to help them out. It, too, is now a valuable collector's item in its own right. An essential tome for the fan of PKD and worth every penny of whatever they're charging for it -- Lord RC

For the serious collector of Philip K. Dick books Levack's bibliography is essential. Contains lots of b/w cover scans from before 1988, including some foreign. All kinds of obscure odds and ends in here too. A great book to have.