Outstanding Academic Titles 2025: Business and Labor

Enjoy this week's Outstanding Academic Titles list snippet: Five titles pertaining to Business and Labor

Posted on February 26, 2026 in Outstanding Academic Titles

Enjoy these five selections from the Choice Reviews 2025 Outstanding Academic Titles list. This week, we highlight Outstanding Academic Titles about Business and Labor. A hearty congratulations to the winning authors, editors, and publishers!

1. Canaries in the code mine: precarity and the future of tech work
Papadantonakis, Max. Temple, 2025

While most explorations of tech work focus primarily on unskilled work and the gig economy, the challenges in this field extend to more skilled roles as well. In the latest in a recent string of monographs examining the precarity of labor in the technology sector, Papadantonakis (sociology, California State Univ.) delves into the insecurity of software development roles, particularly for Black and female workers. Drawing from 120 interviews conducted both pre- and post-pandemic, the book explores how privilege and vulnerability can coexist in a role that is often perceived as stable within the tech industry. Software development roles are increasingly moving toward freelance or contract workers, particularly for Black, female, or senior developers. While the book is relatively short, Papadantonakis makes a strong argument, demonstrating why it is critical for researchers to understand what these workers are experiencing, as these challenges are indicative of larger economic issues both within the tech sector and in the larger US labor market. An extensive methodological appendix and notes complete the volume. An excellent overview of the broad challenges in the technological labor market. Good for academic libraries, particularly those with strong labor and economic collections. View on Amazon.

2. The broken rung: when the career ladder breaks for women—and how they can succeed in spite of it
by Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and Maria del Mar Martinez Harvard Business Review Press, 2025

Men and women start in the workplace with equal educational qualifications, but as promotions come along, only 81 women are promoted for every 100 men. The numbers get worse at each step up the career ladder—hence the “broken rung,” a phenomenon that prevents many women from getting anywhere near the much-talked-about “glass ceiling.” The authors, senior partners at McKinsey and Company, analyzed extensive data based on millions of job postings, years of career trajectories, and interviews with women across the globe. They concluded that women “are not amassing the specific skills and experiences … they need to be promoted at equal rates and to maximize their earning potential” (p. 5). The bulk of the book provides guidance on how to avoid this deficit in “experience capital” by choosing carefully what organizations to work for, what roles to take on, when to make lateral job moves to reposition oneself, and how to build important skills. The thorough analyses (a hallmark of McKinsey’s work), enlivened by stories from a range of organizations, differentiate The Broken Rung from many self-help books and articles for women in the workplace, but it is also a good read: well written, digestible, and full of interesting stories to enliven the data.  View on Amazon.

3. Negotiation: the game has changed
Bazerman, Max H. Princeton, 2025

This is one of the most readable, entertaining, and thoughtful texts on negotiations in a long time. Bazerman (Harvard Business School) presents fundamental negotiation concepts in a way that creates real interest in the reader and negotiations practitioner, whether an academic or professional. Bazerman’s integration of practical, real-world negotiation stories from the worlds of sports, business, and politics and in the context of culture, economics, communications, and relationships establishes a strong perspective on how people really think in negotiations and how this can be used for mutual success. This perspective offers a solid foundation not only academically but also practically in day-to-day negotiations. Bazerman also does a good job bringing in and critiquing ideas and works by other authors; this is done in a very constructive manner to present the reader with multiple situational perspectives. Two standout chapters focus on ethics and negotiations with multiple parties. View on Amazon.

4. Culture analytics: an evidence-based approach to company culture
Nabeel, Hani. Kogan Page, 2024

Culture Analytics is a veritable must read for anyone studying organizational culture. Nabeel (Chief Behavioural Scientist at iPsychTec in London, UK) has opened the door for a critical understanding of organizational culture and values. Written in plain language, which makes even difficult analysis and measurement of the topic seem elementary, the book also gives readers the tools to predict and interpret the results of organizational culture evaluations. Nabeel takes a challenging and often befuddling topic and, through clear explanations, numerous figures, and tables, provides readers with practical guidance on what organizational culture is and how to document and evaluate it. Anyone who believes that creating a resilient, thriving culture within an organization is too difficult or impossible should reconsider and use this book, based on years of research, as a diagnostic tool and road map to determine what works for leaders and employees and how to focus efforts to make the desired changes within the organization. Culture Analytics is the book for anyone trying to understand culture and workplace environments and make informed decisions or create feedback loops to boost organizational outcomes based on informative, adaptable research. View on Amazon.

5. Banana capital: science, stories, and poison at the equator
Brisbois, Ben. University of Regina, 2025

Banana Capital examines environmental injustice in the contemporary Ecuadorian community of Machala, a global epicenter of nonunion banana production. Organized chronologically, the first three sections employ secondary sources and ethnographic vignettes to explain how Ecuador became the leading banana exporter since the 1950s and why workers face such toxic and unfair conditions. With refreshing transparency, the final section grapples with the often-frustrating limitations of academic research, proposing ways of translating insights from toxicology, epidemiology, and social science into meaningful benefits for banana workers. Whereas banana conglomerates, unencumbered by ethical commitments and accountability, deploy clever advertising to market bananas as a health food, researchers exposing chemically-induced cancer clusters must abide by professional conventions and institutional constraints. Brisbois (public health, Univ. of Montreal) seeks to level the playing field by mobilizing the power of good stories. Heart-wrenching narratives of worker illness elucidate how toxic agrochemical exposure, compounded by precarious employment and structurally-determined poverty, disproportionately impact already-marginalized communities. With implications far beyond the local, these stories help make emotional sense of the extreme injustice underwriting the modern banana industry, challenging the Disneyfied tropical fantasy pedaled by corporate giants and informing, at very least, more informed consumption, if not better policy. View on Amazon.

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