While there is a widespread belief that some people are born to lead, the existence of an 'ideal manager' is almost entirely a myth. Basic skills - the ones that most employees can learn - are often more important than personality traits. In Skills of an Effective Administrator, Robert L. Katz identifies the three fundamental abilities companies should seek to develop in their managers. Find out for yourself how these vital skills can be put to work today. Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practice. The Harvard Business Review Classics series now offers you the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world.

European politics has been reshaped in recent decades by a dual process of centralization and decentralization. This dual process is known as "multi-level governance". This text argues that its emergence in the second half of the 20th century is a watershed in the political development of Europe.

A Brookings Institution Press and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy publication Since the demise of urban renewal in the early 1970s, the politics of large-scale public investment in and around major American cities has received little scholarly attention. In Mega-Projects, Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff analyze the unprecedented wave of large-scale (mega-) public investments that occurred in American cities during the 1950s and 1960s; the social upheavals they triggered, which derailed large numbers of projects during the late 1960s and early 1970s; and the political impulses that have shaped a new generation of urban mega-projects in the decades since. They also appraise the most important consequences of policy shifts over this half-century and draw out common themes from the rich variety of programmatic and project developments that they chronicle. The authors integrate narratives of national as well as state and local policymaking, and of mobilization by (mainly local) project advocates, with a profound examination of how well leading theories of urban politics explain the observed realities. The specific cases they analyze include a wide mix of transportation and downtown revitalization projects, drawn from numerous regions—most notably Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Portland, and Seattle. While their original research focuses on highway, airport, and rail transit programs and projects, they draw as well on the work of others to analyze the politics of public investment in urban renewal, downtown retailing, convention centers, and professional sports facilities. In comparing their findings with leading theories of urban and American politics, Altshuler and Luberoff arrive at some surprising findings about which perform best and also reveal some important gaps in the literature as a whole. In a concluding chapter, they examine the potential effects of new fiscal pressures, business mobilization to relax environmental constraints, and security concerns in the wake of September 11. And they make clear their own views about how best to achieve a balance between developmental, environmental, and democratic values in public investment decisionmaking. Integrating fifty years of urban development history with leading theories of urban and American politics, Mega-Projects provides significant new insights into urban and intergovernmental politics.

This book presents an extensive study on the extant constructs of corruption in infrastructure-related projects and aims to contribute to the determination and elimination of its incidence and prevalence in infrastructure projects. The book conducts a comprehensive examination of the various determining factors of corruption that negatively affect the procurement process and, in the end, result in cost and time overruns. The authors present an in-depth understanding of how the identified determining factors of corruption can be addressed. Thus, it is intended to broaden the reader's knowledge of the causes, risk indicators, and different forms of corrupt practices in the procurement process of infrastructure works, before explaining how they affect its stages and activities A dynamic model is developed to demonstrate how to tackle the overall impact of corruption within the procurement process and, at the same time, increase the effectiveness of the extant anti-corruption measures. In short, this book demonstrates that the fight against corruption in the procurement process is strategically feasible and must continue. This book is essential reading for academics, researchers, professionals and stakeholders in the procurement of infrastructure projects and civil works, as well as those with an interest in corruption, construction management and construction project management.

Build cost-effective and robust cloud solutions with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using these simple and practical recipes Key FeaturesExplore the various service offerings of the GCPHost a Python application on Google Compute EngineSecurely maintain application states with Cloud Storage, Datastore, and BigtableBook Description GCP is a cloud computing platform with a wide range of products and services that enable you to build and deploy cloud-hosted applications. This Learning Path will guide you in using GCP and designing, deploying, and managing applications on Google Cloud. You will get started by learning how to use App Engine to access Google's scalable hosting and build software that runs on this framework. With the help of Google Compute Engine, you’ll be able to host your workload on virtual machine instances. The later chapters will help you to explore ways to implement authentication and security, Cloud APIs, and command-line and deployment management. As you hone your skills, you’ll understand how to integrate your new applications with various data solutions on GCP, including Cloud SQL, Bigtable, and Cloud Storage. Following this, the book will teach you how to streamline your workflow with tools, including Source Repositories, Container Builder, and Stackdriver. You'll also understand how to deploy and debug services with IntelliJ, implement continuous delivery pipelines, and configure robust monitoring and alerts for your production systems. By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be well versed with GCP’s development tools and be able to develop, deploy, and manage highly scalable and reliable applications. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: Google Cloud Platform for Developers Ted Hunter and Steven PorterGoogle Cloud Platform Cookbook by Legorie Rajan PSWhat you will learnHost an application using Google Cloud FunctionsMigrate a MySQL database to Cloud SpannerConfigure a network for a highly available application on GCPLearn simple image processing using Storage and Cloud FunctionsAutomate security checks using Policy ScannerDeploy and run services on App Engine and Container EngineMinimize downtime and mitigate issues with Stackdriver Monitoring and DebuggerIntegrate with big data solutions, including BigQuery, Dataflow, and Pub/SubWho this book is for This Learning Path is for IT professionals, engineers, and developers who want to implement Google Cloud in their organizations. Administrators and architects planning to make their organization more efficient with Google Cloud will also find this Learning Path useful. Basic understanding of GCP and its services is a must.