Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell
Autor(a) de Our Separate Ways
About the Author
Obras de Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Sexo
- female
- Ocupação
- Associate Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
- Pequena biografia
- Professor Bell is an associate professor of business administration at Tuck and works in the field of organizational behavior. She has previously served on the faculties of Belk College of Business Administration, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale's School of Management, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
The research interests of Professor Bell focus on the career and life histories of professional African-American and European-American women. She is currently inquiring into issues of work/life balance. She has served as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies and to many public institutions. Her scholarly works have been reported in many top publications, and her book, Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity, has been widely acclaimed. http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ella.bell/
Membros
Resenhas
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 2
- Membros
- 52
- Popularidade
- #307,430
- Resenhas
- 1
- ISBNs
- 9
Career GPS definitely helps point women in the right direction to do so, although it turned out to be more a self-help guide to navigating the corporate landscape than anything else. Dr. Bell offers some great advice about what it truly takes to make it up the corporate ladder. The exercises she includes are designed to help readers determine their path up that ladder, which I personally find extremely helpful. Not everyone is cut out for the executive suite, and Dr. Bell makes sure to stress that point.
Dr. Bell's advice revolves around hard work, perserverence and sacrifice. She emphasizes the fact that women can succeed but have to understand just what it will take to achieve that success. As women, we can have it all, but to her point, we cannot have it all at the same time. There will be periods in our life where we have to put our career plans on hold to make family a priority. There will be other periods when the career becomes priority and when we can devote the extra hours, energy, and effort to achieving our goals. Personally, I found this a tough message to accept because it seemingly opposes everything towards which I have been working over the past five years. I will admit that the idea that I cannot have it all, at the same time, did cause me to pause and question why I have worked so hard for so long to earn my MBA, to become a CMA, and so forth. I have not yet considered the answer, and it will be a topic on which I will be reflecting for a long time to come.
Another area of focus is the idea of work/life balance. This remains an extremely popular area for employees and employers alike, and often, companies are rated on how they best provide their employees with opportunities for work/life balance. Dr. Bell's perspective on this phenomenon is a bit contradictory, my only major criticism in the book. On the one hand, Dr. Bell points out the fact that work is life and life is work. According to her, there is no such thing as work/life balance because technology and our 24/7 lifestyle have blurred the lines so much that we cannot separate the two. However, even though we are always on call and available, everyone must take care of themselves. Work/life balance is not so much about balancing time at work with time at home as it is about finding time to get the rest, nutrition, mental breaks, and exercise that every human needs to thrive. Again, it is an interesting viewpoint on a very popular topic.
While I found this an interesting and helpful book, I can see that some readers may be scared off by its message. According to Dr. Bell, hard work and relationships are the two main ways women will get ahead in the business world. For those of us with families requiring time and effort, the hard work we want to put forth may not be possible. Also, for those of us who are painfully shy and awkward in business social settings, building relationships with management at all levels requires stepping outside of our comfort zone. Ultimately, it is up to each reader to determine if it is worth it and what he or she truly wants to achieve. Thankfully, Dr. Bell does provide the exercises necessary to help each of us determine that.
In all, this was an interesting read. Unfortunately, much of the information presented was not new to me, but I have found that repetition is essential to learning business lessons and ways to manuever up the corporate ladder. For those who are not familiar with these lessons, Career GPS offers some great advice and avenues for further development.… (mais)