open-book management

Examples of open-book management in the following topics:

• Complaint Procedures

  • Though employees are the stakeholders who are arguably most visible to management on a day-to-day basis, they do not often command the majority of attention in terms of decision-making influences.
  • Grievance and due process systems allow employees to address grievances and to argue their point if they feel they are wronged by management or another employee.
  • Open-book management empowers employees with the information they need to see the reality of the organizational situation and to give relevant and helpful input (Case, 1997).
  • Similar to open-book management are open-door policies, where management makes it clear that employees can informally raise issues or give input at any time.
  • Team mechanisms such as quality circles, work teams, and total-quality management teams provide employees with the ability to synthesize their individual input into a better solution to organizational problems.

• Providing employee voice and influence

  • Many managers recognize the importance of giving their employees a voice, but often this open communication does not result in authentic employee involvement or influence on the actual decision making process (Golan, 2003).
  • Action provides the follow up that allows management to make it apparent to employees that they have influence; it also allows management to see real change and benefit from the insight provided by employees.
  • Open book management empowers employees with the information they need to see the reality of the organizational situation and to give relevant and helpful input (Case, 1997).
  • Similar to open book management are open-door policies, where management makes it clear that employees can informally raise issues or give input at any time.
  • The open-door policy page on the Central Parking Corporation website provides an example of such a policy and the procedures employed by the company for submitting and receiving employee input (Central Parking Corporation, 2004).

• Who Should Read This Book?

  • This book is meant for software developers and managers who are considering starting an open source project, or who have started one and are wondering what to do now.
  • It should also be helpful for people who just want to participate in an open source project but have never done so before.
  • Prior experience with open source software, as either a user or a developer, is not necessary.
  • Those who have worked in free software projects before will probably find at least some parts of the book a bit obvious, and may want to skip those sections.

• The Need for Management

  • IBM is still in business today due to the management skills of Louis V.
  • Services could be sold as an add-on to companies that had already bought IBM computers, while barely profitable pieces of hardware were used to open the door to more profitable deals.
  • The purpose of management is to serve customers.
  • Yet, if one looks through most management books for a definition of management, 99.9 percent of the time the word customer will not be mentioned.
  • Equally remiss is the fact that most definitions of management neatly filter out service in their descriptions of management.

• Sources

  • Much of the raw material for the first edition of this book came from five years of working with the Subversion project (subversion.tigris.org).
  • Subversion is an open source version control system, written from scratch, and intended to replace CVS as the de facto version control system of choice in the open source community.
  • Other projects and organizations that have influenced this book include:
  • The many open source anti-surveillance and censorship-circumvention tools supported by the Open Internet Tools Project.
  • The Arches Project, an open source web application for managing archeological digs, created by the Getty Conservation Institute and the World Monuments Fund.

• When to think about using database management software

  • Microsoft's widely-used database management software is called ACCESS, and versions of Microsoft Office that use ACCESS are available for purchase.
  • On the other hand, open source database management software is also available at no cost to you.
  • As of this writing, the worldwide community for ACCESS is much larger, and there are many books written about it.
  • However, according to the Gartner Group, a highly-respected technology research company based in the US, open source database management software is becoming more attractive.
  • "During 2008, since our last note about open-source database management systems (DBMSs), we have seen an increase in the interest and use of open-source DBMS engines in a production environment.

• The Impact of the Office Environment on Employee Communication

  • Effective communication among team members and others requires a physical environment that facilitates interaction so individuals can coordinate activities, discuss and plan tasks, and manage interpersonal relationships effectively and efficiently.
  • Individual offices can also preserve confidentiality and discretion as needed, which is especially useful for meetings between managers and their team members or when personnel matters are discussed.
  • Mail area – An open or semi-open space where employees can pick up or deliver mail or packages
  • Locker area – An open or semi-open space where employees can store their personal belongings
  • Library – A semi-open or enclosed space for reading and storing books, journals, and magazines

• Open Content, Paid Courseware

  • It's easy to adopt one of our more than 20 introductory-level textbooks off the shelf; it's simple to also customize a book to your heart's desire using our straightforward drag-and-drop editor.
  • You can also author your own content modules and seamlessly fold them into your customized version of our book!
  • From that point on, you will have the option to either freeze your book as is or integrate the periodic updates we make to the included content modules—so nothing changes under your feet without you knowing.
  • As an educator, you can create a class on Boundless, link your custom book to the class, and draw upon our giant library of quiz and reading assignments to send to your students, or create your own assignments.
  • If you or your school uses a learning management system (LMS), such as Canvas or Blackboard, chances are we've got you covered!

• Preface

  • The Global Text Project (http://globaltext.org/) was initiated in early 2006 to develop a series of free, open content, electronic textbooks.
  • The first book in the series is on information systems, because the founders of the Global Text Project are both
  • Information Systems professors who knew many other IS academics who wanted to help start the book.
  • Creation of an open content textbook on information systems required the cooperation of the worldwide community of faculty and their students, as well as practitioners.
  • The idea of having students write a book as a part of a course assignment proved to be bear fruit as a books on IT Management and Change Management were created by graduate classes at the University of Denver and the University of Washington, respectively, during the spring of 2009.

• Be Open From Day One

  • Start your project out in the open from the very first day.
  • Being open source from the start doesn't mean your developers must immediately take on the extra responsibilities of community management.
  • At each step in a project, programmers face a choice: to do that step in a manner compatible with a hypothetical future open-sourcing, or do it in a manner incompatible with open-sourcing.
  • In the long run it usually does, and most of this book is about how to do it effectively.
  • Developing in the open does not change this, it just ensures that everything done in the project is, by definition, done in a way that's compatible with being open source.