Amazon.com
Most of us know the Salvation Army from its fundraising efforts and philanthropic programs, but the $2 billion-a-year transcontinental institution, now serving more than 30 million people with a vastly underpaid and overworked staff, is also a model business structure. Under a title taken from the description applied to it by management guru Peter Drucker, The Most Effective Organization in the U.S. outlines the fundamental tenets that the group has prospered under since its founding in the mid- to late 1800s. Written by former National Commander Robert A. Watson and freelancer Ben Brown, the book details eight principles that allow the Army to do so much with so little: focus on "a purpose that transcends quarterly earnings"; make "what you do serve human needs"; stay publicly accountable to visible standards; encourage feedback and act upon it; "invest real power and real responsibility" in top personnel; "accept the inevitability of change"; take calculated risks; and motivate employees by ensuring their jobs are both valuable and enjoyable. Some readers may not be comfortable with the organization's overt ties to Christian teachings, but few can argue with the success it consistently enjoys. --Howard RothmanBook Description
The book about not just business but the meaning of life ... a guide for being the best at what you do and doing it with a sense of purpose that connects with something larger than yourself ...

For many people, The Salvation Army is most visible between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's when its officers, soldiers and volunteers, in the ubiquitous Kettle Campaign, make music and collect money for good works.Few realize, however, that the Army is much, much more than this one effort and is in fact a powerhouse of an organization. None other than Peter Drucker called it"the most effective organization in the U.S."Not the most effective nonprofit, but "the most effective organization."Quite a compliment from the world's most preeminent management thinker, especially when you consider that he is comparing The Salvation Army to world-class corporations like General Electric, IBM and Johnson &Johnson.

Now, Robert Watson, the Army's recently retired national commander, is ready to share the Army's secrets about organization, strategy, and acting with a sense of mission. With its 9,500 centers of operation, $2 billion in annual revenues, and 32 million clients served in every zip code in America, The Salvation Army is the model for doing business with a purpose. As Peter Drucker says, "no one even comes close to it with respect to clarity of mission, ability to innovate, measurable results, dedication and putting money to maximum use":
* Clarity of mission: What you can learn from the Army's laser-like focus of evaluating everything it does in terms of its mission of preaching the gospel and meeting human needs without discrimination.
* Ability to innovate: How The Salvation Army's investment in people gets incredible returns and why it as much venture capitalist as charity.
* Measurable results: Learn The Army's unique ways of setting, monitoring and celebrating the achievement of measurable goals so you, too, can say, "look, we promised we would do this and we delivered."
* Dedication: How the Army accomplishes so much with such a small cadre of officers.
* Putting Money to Maximum Use: What you can learn from The Army's bare skeleton of a national organization in terms of making the most of your resources and making all of your operations self-sufficient.

By demonstrating the power of a sense of purpose combined with organizational effectiveness, this remarkable book has something essential to say to all executives, entrepreneurs, managers, and anyone with the ambition to bring people together to reach a goal.

Free subscription to the Crown Business E-Newsletter just for signing up, email CrownBusiness@Randomhouse.com ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Leadership
This is actually an interesting book. It tells the reader how the Salvation Army is an effective orgainzation. I bought this book for a college management class assignment on leadership and found the book to be very helpful.

Food for thought, not a how-to guide
Disclaimer: I was a civilian employee of The Salvation Army (i.e., I am not an officer or a Salvationist) for five-and-a-half years, and I am an academic sociologist by training.

This book is not a cookbook for effective leadership. You can't read this book, apply a couple of techniques, and expect to be as effective as The Salvation Army is at raising funds, running programs, and improving communities.

If you are interested in effective leadership and you're willing to reflect on your practices and, more importantly, the principles underlying your business and/or management style, this is a book you should consider reading. If you're looking for some sort of quick-fix to improve your own management, look elsewhere.

Instead, this book provides several general guidelines with supporting commentary drawn largely from Watson's experience as an officer with (and ultimately the National Commander, or Commissioner, of) The Salvation Army. According to Watson, the central tenet of The Salvation Army's leadership effectiveness is to, "engage the spirit."

The remainder of the book elaborates on this point with other related ideas (i.e., put people in your purpose; embody the brand; lead by listening; spread the responsibility, share the profits; organize to improvise; act with audacity; and make joy count). Watson and Brown don't tell you specifically *how* to do these things, but provide examples of how The Salvation Army and, in some cases, other companies and executives accomplish these things.

To be clear, the book isn't about The Salvation Army itself or its operations. You can gain insight into some of The Army's programs, but they vary too much from one community to the next to get a sense of the massive scope of what they do.

Engaging the Spirit, Mind, Body, Family, and Community!
The Salvation Army's role and effectiveness may be the best-kept secret that is out in the open for all to see.

Reading this book is a deeply moving spiritual experience." . . . [T]he real secret of our success is getting them [those the Salvation Army serves] to accept responsibility for integrating their hearts, their minds, their souls with transcendent purpose."

In grading this book, I was most heavily influenced by how much it added to my knowledge of the Salvation Army (clearly a five star operation) as an organization, and its key leadership and management principles.Like most people, I mainly know about the Salvation Army through tiny glimpses of its work as seen in good neighborhoods (while most of the work takes place in more challenging environments) . . . rather than as a case history in organizational effectiveness.Now, as a result of reading this book, I can see the whole a little and see it as being much more than the sum of the pieces.

Compared to the potential to tell the Salvation Army's story, however, you may find that this book could be improved upon.I certainly did.The examples from businesses, sports, and music as well as the many references to famous management books usually just stole space, in my judgment, from telling more about the Salvation Army.A more useful counterpoint in the book would have been to explain how for-profit organizations fare in performing many of the same tasks that the Salvation Army does.

I'm also not sure that the book totally captured the full lesson of the power of the Salvation Army's mission:Potential and actual volunteers and donors, those who need the Salvation Army's services, the families of those who need the Salvation Army's services, and the communities in which the Salvation Army operates (regardless of religious faith and personal beliefs) find the Salvation Army's purposes of principles to be inspiring and worthy of both active and moral support.In this dimension, the closest I can think of another organization for its mission's powerful appeal is Habitat for Humanity.

As a student of leadership and management, I came away totally awed by thinking about how you provide services over 30 million people with around 5500 executives and managers (about a third of whom are "retired") in so many different, difficult activities:alcohol and drug rehabilitation; rehabilitating prisoners; helping homeless people get back to normal living; community recreation; disaster relief; rebuilding communities after disasters; and providing for the poor.The Salvation Army takes justifiable interest in measuring how effectively it performs these tasks compared to other organizations.The comparisons are usually very favorable.To put this in perspective, did you know that the Salvation Army had its first portable canteen on the scene within 20 minutes after the Oklahoma City bombing?Within minutes, three canteens were there.

Then, I was totally flattened to realize that those who run all of these activities must raise the funds for them locally.Beyond a little start-up money (which must be repaid), each effort must be financially self-sustaining.So when a need arises, the leaders must be serving the need and raising the money at the same time.Somehow, it all comes together.

Commissioner (retired U.S. national commander) Robert Watson describes these successes to the way the Salvation Army's mission engages the spirit of people."We must always be mission driven.""If a proposal doesn't advance our twofold mission, we're not interested in it."

The mission is:

"The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church."

"Its message is based on the Bible.Its ministry is motivated by the love of God."

"Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination."

This mission is based on the injunction to teach in Matthew 28:19 and to serve in Matthew 25:40.These are two inseparable obligations.Yet the book is full of examples of those who are not observers of the Christian religion who support the work of the Salvation Army.

In pursuing the mission, the Salvation Army looks for holistic solutions.As William Booth, the Salvation Army's founder, said, "Take the slums out of people."For homeless people, this may mean providing them a place to sleep, helping them overcome any drinking or drug problems, making clean clothes available, helping them polish up skills to apply for jobs, assist with learning to read better, and rekindling the spirit of wanting to take charge of their lives again.At the same time, their spiritual needs and self-worth need to be nurtured just as much.

The holistic solutions carry over to building its staff.Many are sons and daughters of staff members or families that received aid in the past, as was true of Commissioner Watson.Both the wife and husband share a job.They both wear the uniform, and follow the rules.Assignments are made in ways to be best for the family and the Salvation Army.The children are often enrolled in the same youth programs that serve the poor in the same community.

"God, please make us worthy of such trust!"

My favorite quote from the book is that "you can be forgiven a great deal for honest mistakes committed in the act of trying to save the world."

Does your work reflect your spiritual values?If not, have you considered taking on volunteer work that would?Who knows where it could lead?

As the book's final point reminds us, be sure you are having "the fun of work."

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Handy Resource
Best known to most for their bands, thrift stores and red kettles at Christmas, the Salvation Army is both a charity and a Christian church.As a charity, it is committed to education, relief of poverty, help for the homeless and refugees, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation.As a church, it is unabashedly committed to the advancement of the Christian religion as defined by eleven key doctrines which are conservative and evangelical in tone (pp. 675-676).
Especially interesting and authoritative articles in the dictionary include many biographical entries on past and present leadership.Naturally, much space is devoted to William and Catherine Booth, who founded the movement in the year 1865 in London's East End.Both of the Booths were excellent preachers and chose to focus their efforts on the poor.Their organization grew in large part due to their charisma, and many of their descendants have also played prominent roles in the organization.
Other articles detail the expansion of the Salvation Army's work into more than 100 countries.Work is currently conducted in 175 languages and the Salvation Army operates its charitable work on a budget in excess of 2.5 billion dollars annually.Expectations of true members (officers and soldiers) are high, including the expectation that they contribute to the ministry as large a proportion of their income as possible.However, much of the work of the Salvation Army is done by "adherents," people who have not taken the oath to become soldiers but otherwise embrace the teachings of the church, and by several thousand employees who serve in various capacities.
This book is a handy compendium of information on Salvation Army personnel and activities, and would be of interest to both scholars and lay readers.It does not give sources or bibliographic references at the end of each article, making further research difficult.It does, however, have an extensive bibliographic section near the end of the book. ... Read more

Book Description
People need inspiration like never before-stories of legendary, faith- filled heroes who met amazing obstacles with courage, perseverance, and even joy. ..stories of godly men and women who changed the world. Barbour's retooled Heroes ofthe Faith series is back with additional titles-compelling, easy-to-read biographies ofmissionaries, evangelists, and others who made their mark for Christ beyond the walls ofthe church. Adults and adolescents alike will be inspired by the commitment, sacrifice,and wisdom of these great Christian leaders. Heroes of the Faith-the name says it all! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Wow. This is a great book.
I was pleased at the way this book chronicles the lives of William and Catherine Booth. What a pair! I mean this man had a very hard life and basically was an indentured servant during his apprenticeship.They both new the meaning of self sacrifice and being our brother's keeper. What an awesome couple. Definitely read this one. It will give you a new perspective on your own life.

Heroes of the Faith Series
This book is a must have for anyone in the Salvation Army.You will enjoy the great story of the beginnig of the Salvation Army as you learn about the lives of the William and Catherine Booth. This book touched my heart and I'm sure it will touch yours. I give this book 5/5 stars. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Even-handed, gentle tempered critique
The Salvation Army in the United States has galvanized into an incredibly successful fund-raising and social work organization. Murdoch's work explores the historic origins of its social justice mission. His portrayal of the Booths, the husband and wife team who founded the Army, is largely sympathetic if sometimes critical. His thesis throughout this book, convincingly demonstrated, is that the Salvation Army's social work among the urban poor was not an outgrowth of successful evangelical work among these folks, but instead a substitute in light of a ministry that consistently succeeded among suburban English Methodists rather than those in the most impoverished parts of London. Murdoch creditably seeks to distance himself from the Salvation Army apologist biographers, yet a few of his own images--Ms. Booth preaching in the West End while Mr. Booth toils in the East End, seem a bit too literary (albeit sometimes the literary is also the true). Murdoch's treatment of the autocratic, nepotic nature of the early Salvation Army is not heavy-handed, and his appreciation of the Booths' desire to make a difference rather than merely form a denomination is well-portrayed. Throughout this work, the Salvation Army seems an interesting experiment in pure Wesleyanism, leading to unpredicted failures and unlooked for success. This book is a consistently interesting read about a people from a time which, though relatively recent, seems remote now. ... Read more

Book Description
Those people in uniforms who ring bells and raise money for the poor during the holiday season belong to a religious movement that in 1865 combined early feminism, street preaching, holiness theology, and intentionally outrageous singing into what soon became the Salvation Army. In Pulling the Devil's Kingdom Down, Pamela Walker emphasizes how thoroughly the Army entered into nineteenth-century urban life. She follows the movement from its Methodist roots and East London origins through its struggles with the established denominations of England, problems with the law and the media, and public manifestations that included street brawls with working-class toughs.
The Salvation Army was a neighborhood religion, with a "battle plan" especially suited to urban working-class geography and cultural life. The ability to use popular leisure activities as inspiration was a major factor in the Army's success, since pubs, music halls, sports, and betting were regarded as its principal rivals. Salvationist women claimed the "right to preach" and enjoyed spiritual authority and public visibility more extensively than in virtually any other religious or secular organization. Opposition to the new movement was equally energetic and took many forms, but even as contemporary music hall performers ridiculed the "Hallelujah Lasses," the Salvation Army was spreading across Great Britain and the Continent, and on to North America. The Army offered a distinctive response to the dilemmas facing Victorian Christians, in particular the relationship between what Salvationists believed and the work they did. Walker fills in the social, cultural, and religious contexts that make that relationship come to life. ... Read more

Book Description
Grace Livingston Hill (1865-1947) was an early 20th Century "Christian Romance" novelist. She was immensely popular in the time that she wrote, contributing hundreds of novels and short stories during her lifetime. Her characters were most often young female ingénues, frequently strong Christian women or those who become so within the confines of the story. Grace's messages are quite simplistic in nature: good versus evil. As Grace believed the Bible was very clear about what was good and what was evil in life, she reflected that cut-and-dried design in her own works. She touched on subjects such as infidelity, defiance, hard-heartedness towards God, and deception, to name just a few. Grace wrote about them all and could manage a happy, or at least satisfactory, ending to any situation. Jesus, the ever-present (though unseen) reoccurring character, manages to heal or mend any situation Grace imagined. It was no wonder that in her days she was known as the "Queen of Christian Romance. " Her works include: The Girl from Montana (1908), The Mystery of Mary (1911) and Lo, Michael! (1913).Download Description
He went on. He dozed, only to be sharply awakened by a truck which almost ran him down. He must be more careful, he thought to himself, feeling utterly alone and miserable. But in spite of his resolution his eyes soon closed again. He was awakened, this time by his horse stumbling over some unseen obstacle. He could see nothing in any direction. The blackness and rain shut him in like a fog. He turned at right angles to find the trees which lined the road, but there were no trees. He swung his horse around and went in the other direction, but he found no trees--only an impenetrable darkness which pressed in upon him with a heaviness which might almost have been weighed. He was lost--utterly lost. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful collection ofwar time kindness
This book was commissioned by the Salvation Army to declare the deeds of the brave women who went to help those who did not have the comforts of home.While at times this book was campy in nature and clearly of a directleaning towards the Salvation Army it also contained many accounts of hardwork and perserverance in the face of great physical and mental hardship. The women did everything they could to encourage the young soldiers to actas true heroes.They did things from making donuts to creating a placewhere soldiers could come as a refuge from the ravages of war.This bookhelped me to feel more supportive towards those who serve in the armedforces. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics edition is a facsimile reprint of a 1891 edition by the Salvation Army, London. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The General Next to God
Excellent Book! The Salvation Army was on the cutting edge of women's rights, social justice, awareness and action regarding human trafficing/slavery at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. Their positive work is continued and felt all over the world today. ... Read more

Book Description
So strongly associated is the Salvation Army with its modern mission of service that its colorful history as a religious movement is often overlooked. In telling the story of the organization in America, Lillian Taiz traces its evolution from a working-class, evangelical religion to a movement that emphasized service as the path to salvation.

When the Salvation Army crossed the Atlantic from Britain in 1879, it immediately began to adapt its religious culture to its new American setting. The group found its constituency among young, working-class men and women who were attracted to its intensely experiential religious culture, which combined a frontier-camp-meeting style with working-class forms of popular culture modeled on the saloon and theater. In the hands of these new recruits, the Salvation Army developed a remarkably democratic internal culture. By the turn of the century, though, as the Army increasingly attempted to attract souls by addressing the physical needs of the masses, the group began to turn away from boisterous religious expression toward a more "refined" religious culture and a more centrally controlled bureaucratic structure.

Placing her focus on the membership of the Salvation Army and its transformation as an organization within the broader context of literature on class, labor, and women's history, Taiz sheds new light on the character of American working-class culture and religion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The first Salvation Army kettle, complete with attendant bell-ringer, appeared on the streets of San Francisco in 1891. The slogan, "Fill the Pot for the Poor--Free Dinner on Christmas Day," has changed, but the practice hasn't. Starting with the Army's arrival in the United States in 1880 and describing its activities through World War II,Diane Winston's Red-Hot and Righteous follows the Army's missions, methods, and spectacular growth.

William Booth, who founded the Army in Britain in 1878, believed he needed to take religion to the people and urged his followers to imagine a "cathedral of the open air." Salvation Army preachers became a common sight in the streets of New York. Conservative Christians were upset by the public spectacle; the Army, however, happily banged cymbals, beat drums, and sang--their goal was to attract attention. Using contemporary advertising techniques, pageants, and parades, the Salvation Army made a vibrant mark on the urban scene and the American consciousness. Over time the Army's focus shifted from proselytizing to practical religion: gaining converts through religiously motivated social programs. Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, coal in winter--the Army offered relief to all, regardless of race, religion, or creed. Its greatest success, however, came when it sent 250 workers, including a few dozen women, to Europe to provide a little bit of home to the boys fighting in the Great War. With their trays of doughnuts and pitchers of coffee, the "Sallies" boosted morale and earned the Salvation Army a tremendous amount of respect. Winston's book reveals that she, too, respects both the Army's mission and its theology, and she tells its story with graceful prose. Red-Hot and Righteous will interest scholars of religious movements and 19th-century urban life alike. --C.B. DelaneyBook Description

In this engrossing study of religion, urban life, and commercial culture, Diane Winston shows how a (self-styled "red-hot") militant Protestant mission established a beachhead in the modern city. When The Salvation Army, a British evangelical movement, landed in New York in 1880, local citizens called its eye-catching advertisements "vulgar" and dubbed its brass bands, female preachers, and overheated services "sensationalist." Yet a little more than a century later, this ragtag missionary movement had evolved into the nation's largest charitable fund-raiser--the very exemplar of America's most cherished values of social service and religious commitment.

Winston illustrates how the Army borrowed the forms and idioms of popular entertainments, commercial emporiums, and master marketers to deliver its message. In contrast to histories that relegate religion to the sidelines of urban society, her book shows that Salvationists were at the center of debates about social services for the urban poor, the changing position of women, and the evolution of a consumer culture. She also describes Salvationist influence on contemporary life--from the public's post-World War I (and ongoing) love affair with the doughnut to the Salvationist young woman's career as a Hollywood icon to the institutionalization of religious ideals into nonsectarian social programs.

Winston's vivid account of a street savvy religious mission transformed over the decades makes adroit use of performance theory and material culture studies to create an evocative portrait of a beloved yet little understood religious movement. Her book provides striking evidence that, counter to conventional wisdom, religion was among the seminal social forces that shaped modern, urban America--and, in the process, found new expression for its own ideals.

Customer Reviews (2)

Gracefully written, but lacking in focus.
Is this book an organizational history of the Salvation Army?Is it about the Army as an urban religious phenomenon?Is it about the Army's use of the methods of popular entertainment in order to draw attention, converts, and public support?Is it about the power of women within the Salvation Army?Is it a discussion of how the public perception of the Army (and the women in it)changed between 1880 and 1940?

"Red Hot and Righteous" tries to be all of these and more, but unfortunately it doesn't work.As a popular history, this is pleasant enough reading, but as a scholarly work it is maddeningly diffuse.Winston's thesis is ill-defined, she fails to address the existing literature on the Salvation Army, and she has no evident theoretical approach.While she addresses the power women had within the Salvation Army, as a feminist history "Red Hot and Righteous" lacks teeth because Winston turns her focus elsewhere rather than fully developing her discussion of women's roles.

Winston also uses a very limited range of sources.When presenting the Army's side of the story she leans very heavily on the 'American War Cry'--the Army's own paper.The 'AWC' was sold to the general public to raise funds, and it was thus intended to present the Army and its activities in the best possible light.For an outsider's view of the Salvation Army she relies overwhelmingly on one newspaper--the 'New York Times.'What about ethnic newspapers?What about papers that found their audience primarily among the poor and working class?What did the people the Army aimed its evangelical and charitable activities at think of these predominantly middle-class do-gooders?

Winston writes very well, and she gives the Salvation Army the respectful treatment it deserves.But as an academic work, "Red Hot and Righteous" fails to gel.By narrowing her argument and focusing on a specific issue--women's roles and leadership within the Army, the use of popular culture as an evangelical tool, changing depictions of Salvation Army women in books and popular entertainment--and expanding the types of sources used, Winston could have broken new ground.Unfortunately, she keeps stabbing her spade with too little force in too many different places, and as a result she only raises a bit of dust.While I would still recommend this book for a general readership, as a scholar I found it unfocused and ultimately unsatisfying.

Where do I sign up?
I thought this back was very interesting. It presents the history of the Salvation Army from its inception in England in the nineteenth century through a good part of the twentieth century.Its focus is on the female leadership. It is interesting to note that though men are mentioned in the text, they are only briefly so. You learn a lot about the Booth women and their role in the Army but little about what their husbands where doing.It is a positive perspective of the movement and the ways in which it has helped Americans both here and abroad during the World Wars. ... Read more

Book Description
1912. The story of General William Booth, the Founder of the worldwide religious and humanitarian organization, the Salvation Army. Together with his missionary family he was a key player in the Revivalist Reform Movement of the 19th century. Believing religion should alleviate the sufferings of the poor and convert sinners into ministers of salvation, Booth organized a new church based on fiery sermons, military-styled ministry, and a grass roots campaign throughout the slums of the world. ... Read more

Book Description
The Salvation Army provides a case study of the way in which renewal movements in the church institutionalize. Their leadership roles, initially merely functional and based on the principle of the priesthood of all believers, begin to assume greater status. The Army continues to exhibit a tension between its theology, which supports equality of status, and its military structure, which works against equality, and both schools of thought flourish within its ranks. ... Read more