A clearer, more accurate performance management strategy Over the past two decades, performance measurement has profoundly changed societies, organizations and the way we live and work. We can now access incredible quantities of data, display, review and report complex information in real time, and monitor employees and processes in detail. But have all these investments in collecting, analysing and reporting data helped companies, governments and people perform better? Measurement Madness is an engaging read, full of anecdotes so peculiar you'll hardly believe them. Each one highlights a performance measurement initiative that went wrong, explains why and – most importantly – shows you how to avoid making the same mistake yourself. The dangers of poorly designed performance measurement are numerous, and even the best how-to guides don't explain how to avoid them. Measurement Madness fills in the gap, showing how to ensure you’re measuring the right things, rewarding the behaviours that deserve rewarding, and interpreting results in a way that will improve things rather than complicate them. This book will help you to recognize, correct and even avoid common performance measurement problems, including: Measuring for the sake of measuring Assuming that measurement is an instant fix for performance issues Comparing sets of data that have nothing in common and hoping to learn something Using targets and rewards to promote certain behaviours, and achieving exactly the opposite ones. Reading Measurement Madness will enable you to design a simple, effective performance measurement system, which will have the intended result of creating value in your organization.

Enter the “fascinating” and frightening world of modern forensic psychology as experienced by one of the most respected practitioners in the field today (Robert K. Tanenbaum, New York Times–bestselling author). At the heart of countless crimes lie the mysteries of the human mind. In this eye-opening book, Dr. Cheryl Paradis draws back the curtain on the fascinating world of forensic psychology, and revisits the most notorious and puzzling cases she has handled in her multifaceted career. Her riveting, sometimes shocking stories reveal the crucial and often surprising role forensic psychology plays in the pursuit of justice—in which the accused may truly believe their own bizarre lies, creating a world that pushes them into committing horrific, violent crimes. Join Dr. Paradis in a stark concrete cell with the indicted as she takes on the daunting task of mapping the suspect’s madness or exposing it as fakery. Take a front-row seat in a tense, packed courtroom, where her testimony can determine an individual’s fate—or if justice will be truly served. The criminal thought process has never been so intimately revealed—or so darkly compelling—as in this “excellent and entertaining” journey into the darkest corners of the human mind (Booklist).

Escaping a destructive love affair in New York, Phil Renfield recovers his ability to love in the arms of English artist Johnny Marston and in the lush paradise of the island of Crete. But a storm is brewing over the blue Aegean, and his name is Manoli-Greek, beautiful, arrogant, and capable of stirring up a hurricane of shame and jealousy that leads quickly to violence. Gordon Merrick was the author of more than 10 novels, including "Perfect Freedom" and the much-loved Peter and Charlie trilogy-"The Lord Won't Mind, One for the Gods, " and "Forth Into Light." He died in Sri Lanka in 1988. Also Available by Gordon Merrick: "The Great Urge Downward"TP 14.95, 1-55583-296-2 CUSA "Perfect Freedom"TP 14.95, 1-55583-297-0 CUSA

And description -- Versatility of summary -- Control of emotion and aesthetic distance -- Scene or summary -- Description -- Setting a story by scene.

Why do some men become convinced—despite what doctors tell them—that their penises have, simply, disappeared. Why do people across the world become convinced that they are cursed to die on a particular date—and then do? Why do people in Malaysia suddenly “run amok”? In The Geography of Madness, acclaimed magazine writer Frank Bures investigates these and other “culture-bound” syndromes, tracing each seemingly baffling phenomenon to its source. It’s a fascinating, and at times rollicking, adventure that takes the reader around the world and deep into the oddities of the human psyche. What Bures uncovers along the way is a poignant and stirring story of the persistence of belief, fear, and hope.

Mirrors of Madness depicts the social-psychological processes and institutional consequences of psychiatric staffs experience of ""closet insanity"" (private worries about theirown social and psychological competence) and ""reverse role modeling"" (identification with their labeled psychotic clients' public behavior).The book shows how, in attempting to ward off the threat involved in these processes, staffs tend to be more vigilant of their own behavior while redirecting their insecurities toward their clients in the form of derogatory humor in psychiatric evaluations. These and other activities are shown to be inhibiting factors in the rehabilitative function of social control agencies.

Madness plays a vital role in many ancient epics: not only do characters go mad, but madness also often occupies a central thematic position in the texts. In this book, Debra Hershkowitz examines from a variety of theoretical angles the representation and poetic function of madness in Greek and Latin epic from Homer through the Flavians, including individual chapters devoted to the Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Lucan's Bellum Civile, and Statius' Thebaid. The study also addresses the difficulty of defining madness, and discusses how each epic explores this problem in a different way, finding its own unique way of conceptualizing madness. Epic madness interacts with ancient models of madness, but also, even more importantly, with previous representations of madness in the literary tradition. Likewise, the reader's response to epic madness is influenced by both ancient and modern views of madness, as well as by an awareness of intertextuality.