Notes on Books
Introduction:
Welcome to my page everyone. So a quick overview of what this post is about and how this would transform into a series of posts containing explanations, summaries and opinions on the books I would read.
I want to read and understand books as much as possible but sometimes comprehending them can be a challenging task. I want to confess that I do overthink a lot which contributes to me getting confused and perplexed about anything in general, so when I read the problem gets compounded and I find myself rereading a certain passage of a book or sometimes pages to understand the message the author is trying to convey. The only way I deal with a problem like this is by taking notes on the topics/articles/books I read where I write my own explanations and summaries and try to elucidate an idea, a word or a passage diagrammatically. It helps me settle my nerves and in retaining information much better than I previously ever could. I have always pondered over turning those handwritten notes into digital ones and making them public for the purpose of exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge for the benefit of others. On the other hand the idea is to learn from people who are better than you, so when you get stuck or confused, they can help you and in this way we — the readers and I—would be able to create a reservoir of knowledge that everybody including me could tap into and avail themselves of.
I would begin with the book I recently purchased ‘100+ Management Models’ by Fons Trompenaars & Piet Hein Coebergh. Reading and understanding this book would equip its readers with the knowledge of various management theories and business tools which they could apply in becoming an effective business and management professional.
Book 1 — 100+ Management Models
Preface:
In the book’s preface the authors state the purpose of writing 100+ Management Models, give us an overview of its aims and objectives and provide us with the concept of how and why models are created and formed.
1) Trial and Error
Trial and error is not sufficiently a good way to learn about one’s profession as an aspiring manager especially when experiences don’t vary, and remain the same due to no changes in departments or the lack of job rotation opportunities.
But because there is a plethora of research studies from which various management theories have been formed, today’s students and professionals can avail themselves of these theories in order to become a well-rounded manager and leader. For this purpose alone the authors of this book have assembled and collected such theories and key models into one volume which cover the main areas of management.
2) A Model Doesn’t Represent the Entire System
The authors want us to know that a model doesn’t represent the entire system and are only formed and designed to explain certain aspects of a system.
An example of that could be a ‘scale model of a motor car’ designed to understand and explain how air flows over different body-shape designs in a wind tunnel. Physical models like these are called ‘iconic models’.
Taking that into consideration that is the reason why there are different models of leadership because one single model can’t be utilized for situations dissimilar than the one when that model was created.
3) The Importance of Reliability + Validity
The authors emphasize that for models to be considered comprehensive they need to pass the test of both reliability and validity so that they can work in a wide range of situations.
Reliability refers to as “how close repeated measurements are to each other. You can consider the reliability of a measurement, or of the entire experiment. A measurement is reliable if you repeat it and get the same or a similar answer over and over again, and an experiment is reliable if it gives the same result when you repeat the entire experiment.”[1]
The authors then go on to explain that the reliability of a model doesn’t necessarily guarantee its validity. An experiment can give you the same result if tested over and over again but does that mean the result obtained is accurate or valid? Or does it actually represent what it meant to represent?[2]
For this reason why formulating a model from a single research or case study and then applying it to different situations is not an accurate representation of a reliable and valid model. Therefore comprehensive models are the ones that work in a variety of situations.
4) From Generalizability to a Theory
The concept of generalizability is to make future predictions on the basis of past observations and studies. To generalize the findings of their research, scientists try to be as exhaustive as possible, conducting various studies/experiments to make sure that these studies/experiments yield the same results, only then the findings can be generalized for situations similar to the ones when the studies/experiments were conducted. However such a generalization is probabilistic in nature and cannot be regarded as conclusive or exhaustive.[3]
The authors then liken generalizability to a ‘theory’:
The concept of generalizability deals with moving from observations to scientific theories or hypotheses. This type of generalization amounts to taking time- and place-specific observations to create a universal hypothesis or theory. For instance, in the 1940s and 1950s, British researchers Richard Doll and Bradford Hill found that 647 out of 649 lung cancer patients in London hospitals were smokers. This led to many more research studies, with increasing sample sizes, with differing groups of people, with differing amounts of smoking and so on. When the results were found to be consistent across person, time and place, the observations were generalized into a theory: “cigarette smoking causes lung cancer.”[4]
[1] Validity vs Reliability vs Accuracy in Physics Experiments. https://www.matrix.edu.au/validity-reliability-accuracy/
[2] Understanding Assessment: Reliability and Validity. http://www.cal.org/flad/tutorial/reliability/3andvalidity.html
[3] Writing@CSU.
[4] Generalizability | Institute for Work & Health. https://www.iwh.on.ca/what-researchers-mean-by/generalizability
