Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice

Leadership and planning is everything to businesses. Now in a newly updated and expanded second edition, "Managing & Organization: An Introduction to Theory and Practice" is a scholarly, educational text for business leaders looking to gain a comprehensive understanding of this core concept of business. The newly revised second edition carries six additional chapters on ethics, teamwork, and responsibility, as well as additional information in the older chapters. Enhanced with a companion website and teacher's manual, "Managing & Organization: An Introduction to Theory and Practice" is a must for any classroom teaching the subject, and for college library business collections.

So as to respond to the exigencies of globalization, the world of managing, managers and management has substantially changed in the last two decades or so. While some say that management discourse is to be viewed from the post-modernist perspective; others argue that we are reverting back to basics of management. Market, competition, competencies, capacity building, culture, diversity, empowerment, teams, lean organizations are some of the buzz words in general management literature today. Managers' commitment in the new era is being tested not on the touchstone of loyalty to the owner or the organization, but on performance and sensitivity to the needs of the organization and other stakeholders. In the era of globalization, the general topics in the discipline of management are also changing. But not all general management textbooks have shifted their focus adequately from traditional functions to the contemporary ones. The book under review meets this demand of the subject quite well. Some of the salient features of this interesting text are as follows: The coverage of topics is quite comprehensive and updated, including issues like organizational politics, cultures, knowledge and learning, innovation and change, managing strategy and managing globalization. Each chapter provides overview of theories involved in succinct and lucid manner including the contemporary developments in the subject concerned. The theories involved have been traced in terms of their historical development. Each chapter prescribes suggested additional readings, most of which are path-breaking works. A good bit of additional material is also available in the form of maps, images, charts, and boxes as tools for learning and examining the material. Above all, this text meets requirements of a well-written text. The reader finds the narration in a tremendous flow. The text is also supported by an instructor's manual and an interactive website that provides additional material for teachers and students, including more cases, quick quizzes, short movies from experts introducing students to main themes, as well as a free online reader of important journal articles that relate to the topics discussed. Writing inspiring textbook is an art. Throughout the book the authors are aware of what is happening in various areas of management today. The authors rightly call it "a realist guide to management". They have also succeeded well at several places questioning the supposedly unquestionable; quite a postmodernist venture. Coherence is remarkable; rarely does the reader encounter patches of disinterest in the concepts being elaborated. Debi S. Saini MDI, Gurgaon, India