WOMEN IN
STEM CAREERS:
INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVES
ON INCREASING
WORKFORCE
PARTICIPATION,
ADVANCEMENT AND
LEADERSHIP
Diana Bilimoria and Linley Lord, eds.
Edward Elgar, 2014
While opportunities exist for
women in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics
(STEM), studies consistently
show few women in STEM careers.
A substantive collection of
research outlines why the proportion
of women in these professions
remains low and unchanging,
largely identifying factors such as
lack of role models; assessment,
recruitment and promotion systems
that favour men; hostile
work environments; and extreme
job pressures.
Talking point
Examining why women have
not flourished in STEM careers
is complex and is best
addressed through an analysis
of women’s career development
and the organizational context
of the workplace.
reviews
OFF THE SHELF
By Alyson Nyiri, CHRL
GRIT: THE NEW
SCIENCE OF WHAT IT
TAKES TO PERSEVERE,
FLOURISH, SUCCEED
Paul G. Stoltz
Climb Strong Press, 2014
GRIT builds on Stoltz’s earlier
research on adversity where
he developed the Adversity
Quotient® (AQ), which measures
how effectively we respond
to adversity. This score predicts
an individual and enterprise’s performance,
innovation, resilience,
agility, energy, problem solving
and health. If your AQ is about
how you respond to adversity,
GRIT is about what it takes to
go for it and to make your goals
happen, and is defined as our capacity
to dig deep, to do whatever
it takes – especially struggle, sacrifice,
even suffer – to achieve our
most worthy goals. GRIT drives
organizations, teams and individuals
to outlast, outperform and
succeed over their competition.
Talking point
Designed with punchy graphics,
visual cues and a pullout
map illustrating the full GRIT
model, GRIT offers an accessible
way to delve into finding
the inspiration to reach individual,
team or organizational
goals.
OUT OF THE MIST:
UNDERSTANDING
CANADIAN LABOUR
RELATIONS STRATEGY
Hugh Secord and Sue Mackintosh
Carswell, 2014
As the global economy continues
to influence the nature of
business, a more sophisticated
approach and greater focus
on managing industrial relations
for competitive advantage
is critical.
Developing an industrial relations
(IR) strategy is more than
merely cumulative. The IR
strategy involves paying attention
to all elements that build a
business culture, such as multistakeholder
culture engagement,
union-management culture alignment,
management rights and
flexibility, employee enablement,
wages and benefits to create a
force multiplier that goes beyond
driving improvements in single
areas.
Talking point
The study and practice of IR has
been obscured for some time by
the more dominant field of strategic
human resources. Despite
years of progress in HR, the authors
argue, the function has not
matured to include the fuller study
of all industrial relationships. Can
solutions be found? Yes, in a more
strategic view of industrial relationships
and their power.
13 THINGS MENTALLY
STRONG PEOPLE DON’T
DO
Amy Morin
Harper Collins, 2015
The fields of positive psychology
and neuroscience gave us
powerful new ways of thinking
and being, radically transforming
how we cope and thrive in
our lives. To reach our full
potential, however, it is equally
important to identify our
bad habits to root out those
thoughts, behaviours and feelings
holding us back. To do
this, argues Morin, we need to
be mentally strong.
We all possess mental
strength to a degree and Morin
shares 13 habits mentally strong
people avoid, and why this gives
them the edge to achieve their
goals. What is innovative in this
book is how mental strength is
described. Mental strength, for
example, is not synonymous
with mental health.
Talking point
How can mental strength
be used to bolster employee
engagement or support
return-to-work programs? n
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ MARCH/APRIL 2015 ❚ 47
