A contrarian challenge to the status quo, this book vigorously champions healthy skepticism in management theory and practice. Several common management maxims — often taken for granted as truisms — are examined and debunked with evidence-based arguments. An introductory chapter provides a brief perspective of maxims in the English language, and presents a preview of the rest of the book. Each of the next eleven chapters contains in-depth, evidence-based rationale that disproves the certainty of a commonly believed maxim.
The cascading effects of globalization in the form of changing business environment, economic uncertainties and economic meltdown have brought about a plethora of unprecedented challenges for industry and organizations across the globe in recent years.
Management education, which prepares human capital for industry, is expected to address these challenges along with others such as intensifying competition, advancing technology, increasing workforce diversity and accelerating complexity. Yet, current management education is largely based on traditional capitalism where the focus tends toward profits and competitiveness rather than toward a balance among profitability, responsibility, social accountability and sustainability.
Consequently, management education in general, and MBA education in particular, need to adopt a paradigm shift in order to be more responsible and sustainable.
This book contains contributions on the core management topics covered in general management, organizational behavior, ethics and social responsibility, with a focus on responsible management. Its chapters come from many authors in PRME schools from eight countries. Hence, it is expected to be useful to all the B-schools, across geographies that are interested in embedding responsibility in their management curriculum and teaching methodology.
Contemporary public relations practice has developed over the last several decades from the weak third sister in marketing, advertising, and public relations mix to a full player. To help you keep up to speed with the exciting changes and developments of publications, this book will provide you with the necessary understanding of the problems and promises of public relations research, measurement, and evaluation. As a public relations professional, this book will act as guide to effective use of methods, measures, and evaluation in providing grounded evidence of the success (or failure) of public relations campaigns. This outstanding contribution takes a best practices approach—one that focuses on taking the appropriate method and rigorously applying that method to collect the data that best answers the objectives of the research. It also presents an approach to public relations that focuses on establishing the profession’s impact on the client’s return on investment in the public relations function, whether that function be aimed at internal or external audiences using standardized measures. By the end of the book, you will understand why and how research is conducted and be able to apply best practice standards to any research done by supply side vendors or internal research departments.
This text describes and focuses on the accounting profession, financial reporting, and the evolving business landscape. Specifically, the key theme and idea embedded throughout this text, and supported with academic and market examples, is the idea of a more strategic management accounting function. Integrated financial reporting represents a framework and platform through which accounting professionals achieve a more strategic and leadership-centric role.
The toy industry is one of the most consistently misunderstood sectors of American business. That’s no surprise because on many levels it resists easy definition. It’s a commodity business. No, it’s a fashion business. No, it’s a consumer products business. No, it’s an entertainment business. The fact is it’s all of these businesses, each of which addresses and responds to market forces differently. And often, especially with the larger, publicly traded companies—all of these businesses share a balance sheet. This book will provide a concise and in-depth introduction to the structure, practices and market forces that impact the toy industry. It will offer a short history of the industry, a description of the current market landscape, major and emerging industry competitors, contemporary trends, changes and expectations for the future. It will further cover aspects of retailing, consumer behavior, and financial markets as they relate to the industry. As noted, the book will focus primarily on the U.S. toy industry, but will provide guidelines for extrapolating the information to the global toy market and a highlight of those issues, such as manufacturing, that are relatively consistent worldwide. The book is intended to provide a foundation for understanding the diverse and changing nature of the toy industry and to help readers develop a context for appreciating it relevant to other, more predictable and definable industries. Many students—and professionals for that matter—come to the toy industry ill equipped for success because they are unable to understand the various disciplines and business practices it encompasses and therefore unable to apply those practices appropriately for the product or product category. A preschool toy will never behave like a toy from a hot movie. It’s something many successful people in the business know and have learned over time, but it remains a mystery to the uninitiated. Withal this book is intended as an initiation into a fascinating, fast-paced and fiercely competitive business that is very often more an art than a science.
This book, Entrepreneurial Selling addresses the unique challenges faced by entrepreneurs of all kinds in startup, small, medium, or large organizations in their quest to get buy-ins for novel ideas, products or services. In addition to describing typical sales hurdles, the book offers strategies and tactics for effectively overcoming them and growing their list of customers, collaborators, financiers, suppliers, board members, and other sympathizers. While most books on Entrepreneurship focus on the characteristics of Entrepreneurs, what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and how to get startup capital, Entrepreneurial Selling sheds light on how Entrepreneurs can excel at selling to build their team and obtain resources. The future of a novel idea hinges on reaching, engaging and convincing target audience about its merits. Basically, Entrepreneurial leadership without selling ability is unrealistic. Based on multiyear field studies and several consulting projects with Entrepreneurs of all kinds in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and North America, this book shows how Entrepreneurs can effectively reach out, enroll collaborators, prospect for businesses, handle typical objections, ask for buy-ins, reach agreement, and treat requests for discounts (in the case of commercial exchanges). The insight contained in this book should give Entrepreneurs early head start, prevent costly mistakes, and increase the odds of realizing new venture dreams. The goal is to preempt fantasies by facilitating early reality checks that will inform productive usage of Entrepreneurs’ limited resources.
The purpose of this book is to provide practicing and aspiring managers and students of management a practical and comprehensive reference source for communicating on the job with all people in all situations. This “how-to” book provides readers with the essential knowledge, attitudes, and skills to perform the communicating aspects of their routine and special duties. The information is presented in two volumes and each topic is divided into “Things to Know” and “Things to Do.”
Volume I topics are divided into six sections:
Overview of the Book
Fundamentals of Communicating
Communicating Competencies Required of Managers
Personal Qualities Managers Need to Communicate Effectively
Communicating Strategies for Safeguarding the Manager’s Job
The purpose of this book is to provide practicing and aspiring managers and students of management a practical and comprehensive reference source for communicating on the job with all people in all situations. This “how-to” book provides readers with the essential knowledge, attitudes, and skills to perform the communicating aspects of their routine and special duties. The information is presented in two volumes. Each topic is divided into “Things to Know” and “Things to Do.”
Volume II topics are divided into five sections:
‧ Sending Effective Messages
‧ The Four Methods of Communicating: Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading
‧ Planning and Conducting Productive Meetings
‧ Communicating Skills for Dealing with Special Situations
‧ Communicating Attitudes and Techniques for Coping Competently with Difficult Employees
Modern cities are increasingly involving citizens in decisions that affect them. This trend is a part of a movement toward a new standard of city management and planning—falling under the names public involvement, public engagement, collaborative governance, civic renewal, participatory democracy, and citizen-centered change. City administrators have long focused on attaining excellence in their technical domains; they are now expected to achieve an equal standard of excellence in public involvement.
Toward this end, Citizen-Centered Cities provides a body of experience about public involvement that would take years for municipal administrators to accumulate on the job. The opening chapter summarizes nine challenges for public involvement, together with over sixty aspirational recommendations. Subsequent chapters provide detailed case studies illustrating these challenges for a range of projects—a new bridge, a light rail line, a highway interchange, neighborhood street modi fications, urban streetscaping, bicycle routes, movement of freight, and a transportation master plan. The close government-academic cooperation required to carry out this project builds on an innovative partnership between the City of Edmonton and the University of Alberta called the Center for Public Involvement.
This book sets out new approaches, formulas, and software needed to enable HR function or organization to forecast trends and to use existing retrospective data to their organization’s advantage, which, in short, is to maximize efficiency and productivity.
The reader will encounter new formulas to use and new approaches that will add value. Readers will also learn that most of the existing 52 formulas available don’t work in today’s environment. There is new software that will enable you to do forecasts with certainty and you can use a new mathematical model to rightsize any organization.
Are you using an outdated organizational model? Do you have processes that don’t work any more? These are areas that are major inhibitors to productivity and can be significantly improved. Most important of all, this book will help you to create immense added value in any organization.
