These resources will help you to find high-quality, published information about a company's
Let's talk a bit about words. When you do searches, you need to think of more than one way to express the idea you're researching.
Side note: Remember that you can use the wild card (*) in the Library's databases to find multiple words with the same root. For example, commun* will retrieve records with the words community, communities, communitarian, but also commune, communes, and Communist. Communit* will be more useful when searching for information on the community as a company stakeholder!
Here are some suggested search words, but feel free to come up with some of your own :
Management : manag* or executiv* or director* or leader* or "balanced scorecard" or strateg* or "total quality management" or TQM or "feedback control" or "corporate social responsibility" or CSR or efficien* or "team development" or "cross-functional teams" or "self-managed teams" or behavior or agreeabl* or "5 big personality traits" or extravers* or extrovers* or openness or conscientious* or neurotic* or "organizational commitment" or loyalty or divers* or "glass ceiling" or differentiat* or "cost leader"
Leadership : leader* or motivat* or "leadership style" or "leadership theor*" or ethic* or "change management" or "organization development" or behavior or agreeabl* or "5 big personality traits" or extravers* or extrovers* or openness or conscientious* or neurotic* or divers* or "glass ceiling" or "emotional intelligence" or EQ or "team development" or "cross-functional teams" or "self-managed teams"
Corporate culture : "corporate culture" or "organizational culture" or "internal environment" or "flat organization" or "horizontal structure" or "vertical structure" or hierarch* or bureaucra* or participat* or democratic or inclusiv*
Corporate Social Responsibility : "Corporate Social Responsibility" or CSR or "ethical leadership" or philanthrop* or charit* or "triple bottom line" or 3BL
Commitment to innovation : innovat* or creativ* or invent* or "new product*" or "new service*" or "problem-solving" or resilien*
Relationships with stakeholders : stakeholder* or "supply chain" or suppl* or "business to business" or customer* or consumer* or buyer* or quality or service* or employee* or personnel or human resource* or training or benefits or morale or communit* or "Corporate Social Responsibility" or CSR or shareholder* or "stock price" or dividend*
BEST BOOKS TO USE:
Some sources are better than others. When you find a book on a company that was written by a current or former executive, approach it with caution. Many of these books are adventures in egotism. They very often paint rosy pictures of the company during their leadership. Not always, but often.
On the other hand, books written by outsiders (journalists or academics) who have access to insider information can be very helpful. As outsiders, they can be objective and analytical, while presenting the view of insiders. You can get a very in-depth view of the company that way.
The main downside with using books is that, given the lengthy time required to write and publish a book, the information can be a bit dated.
And before you freak out about having to read an entire book (or, worse, more than one book), make a point to look in the Table of Contents or the Index in the back of the book to find the pages that contain the most relevant information you're seeking. Reading a pertinent chapter or part of a chapter still counts as having used a book for research!
HOW TO FIND BOOKS:
To find books on a company, we’re going to use the database WorldCat, instead of SuperSearch. The reason for that is that it searches deeper into most titles than SuperSearch. It also contains records for books at libraries across the United States, so you’re not limited to using books in our library. They take a little while to get here, so start your search early, and you’ll have access to LOTS of books.