Navigating the gauntlet of leader responsibilities can be a daunting task for new and experienced leaders alike. Dr. Tomko provides a detailed map for navigating labor issues while also employing strong relationship-building and communication skills. This is difficult work and is often compartmentalized, narrowing the vision for robust decision making. Dr. Tomko's publication creates a clearly articulated path for how to blend the leadership spaces of the manager and the team builder to assist in building a healthy organization.

Kimberley Harrington Markus, Former New Jersey Commissioner of Education, Chief Education Officer of the Education Research and Development Institute

Tomko has squarely hit the mark in Navigating the Workplace: What School Executives Should Know About Labor Relations and comes at a time when unprecedented challenges in public and private education, at all levels, require leaders to possess, or quickly acquire, skills that set the tone in establishing an organizational culture that leads to institutional success or failure. This book is an outstanding tool for both seasoned and new educational leaders searching for ways to positively address evolving dynamics between themselves and their teams. I am also impressed by the way Tomko presents to the reader a balance between theory, while also offering a “real world” perspective based on his extensive experience as a school superintendent and educational researcher and provides the reader with a best practices approach towards confronting labor relations issues as an educational executive in our nation’s schools, colleges and universities.

William J. Bisset, PhD, University Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs