It was certainly a surprise when I found a nail in my tire, but at least while the garage patched it up I was able to go on a run while admiring the frozen landscape and listening to talks and books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!
First was an excellent talk by Aswath Damodaran on the basics of valuation and why a company might be worth trillions of dollars. This is extremely important for folks moving up in management to understand, as well as for everyone to see how simplistic and brittle the models are that power the world of finance. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscEYvWELPk
Next was "Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement" by Traci Parker. This book impressively combines a history of the US department store industry, consumption trends, and civil rights into a single package. For me the operational details and racially stratified nature of the early department store industry was fascinating, as was the important social movement pressures in driving changes in hiring, promotions, pay, and presentation of products. Parker clearly demonstrates how management and work practices are fundamentally socially and historically situated, as well as how organizations can be sites that help foment social change. Highly recommend https://uncpress.org/9781469648675/department-stores-and-the-black-freedom-movement/
Last was "A Nation on the Line" by Jan Maghinay Padios. The first 3 of 5 chapters of this book are an amazing ethnographic study of call centers in the Philippines, capturing the nature of the work, its fraught colonial entanglements, and how these organizations function. What's interesting here is the frankly impressive front line team management methods in these firms, which is paired with oppressive expectations that are fundamentally at odds with the firms' espoused values. The sections where Padios goes through the hiring and onboarding process are also illuminating, demonstrating the transparent but cutthroat nature of this competitive environment. The final two chapters focus on sociological issues around call centers, which feel very out of place. The Marxist analysis that bleeds into earlier chapters is also mildly distracting and takes away from the important points of the book. Nevertheless, this is still a great book on an increasingly common mode of work. Highly recommend https://www.dukeupress.edu/a-nation-on-the-line
