Jack Walters and his wife, Sirje Kiin, both have recently published books.
Walters, a Dakota State University faculty member has published his first book entitled Positive Management, Increasing Employee Productivity. The book is part of the Strategic Management Series edited by Mason Carpenter.
His wife, Kiin, has published her ninth book. Written in Estonian, Kiin's latest book is entitled, European Travels of Marie Under.
Walters said his book is referred to as an airplane book, because its size is ideal for reading on an airplane. The target audience is mid- to upper-level managers.
Walters said he was approached about writing the book in early 2009. He spent the next nine months writing the book that was published this past June.
"Given the situation, and the global economy, and us being a first-world country, the best productive method is to create a partnership or a collective effort," Walters said.
The idea of positive management started circulating about 10 years ago, Walters said, and definitely merits more study. It's an idea similar to what is presented in the television series Undercover Boss, where the company CEO goes undercover and works in a variety of positions within the company. The CEO typically completes the week with some insight on the company and changes that could be made to improve efficiency.
Walters said the idea of Undercover Boss is based on the idea that the CEO gets isolated from the rest of the company.
Walters said he plans to continue exploring the idea of Positive Management through the publication of papers.
"It's a relatively new idea," he said. "It needs more study."
Kiin's latest book on Under, follows her 900-page publication on the author last year. That publication was completed as part of her dissertation and looked at the history and impact of the Estonian poet.
This publication is much smaller and focuses on postcards that were sent by Under and her husband to her children while they were traveling in the 1920s.
Written on the postcards, Kiin said, are a variety of comments and observations by Under that deal with fashion or a recent exhibition.
"When I saw the postcards I was very impressed visually," Kiin said. The postcards often depicted local architecture.
Both Under and her husband, Arthur Adson, were writers. During the 1920s, writers would often get free or reduced travel accommodations. Their trips weren't brief, however. Kiin said Under and her husband would travel to a country and live there for months.
"It was nothing like today's travels," she said.
While Under and her husband traveled, both her daughters were at boarding school.
A total of 61 postcards are featured in the book. Published last month, the release of the book took place on a steam train that traveled about 100 km from Itallinn to Rapla in Estonia.
Kiin said the next publication she is working on is a book that features letters from Kiin in South Dakota to her friends in Estonia. Kiin said publication is anticipated in early 2011. The book will be entitled: Letters from South Dakota.
The Professional Management publication is Walter's first professional publication. Walters previously authored a fiction story called Toyland. It is only available electronically on Amazon for devices like the Kindle.
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