Essentials of Contemporary Management

Jones and George are dedicated to the challenge of "Making It Real" for students. The authors present management in a way that makes its relevance obvious even to students who might lack exposure to a "real-life" management context. Their goal is to relate management theory to real life examples to drive home the message that management matters both because it determines how well organizations perform, and because managers and organizations affect the lives of people who work inside them and people outside the organization, such as customers, communities, and shareholders. Essentials of Management concisely surveys current management theories and research. Through a variety of real world examples from small, medium, and large companies the reader learns how those ideas are used by practicing managers. The organization of this text follows the mainstream functional approach of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling; but the content is flexible and encourages instructors to use the organization they are most comfortable with. One of the most popular features of the book has always been its focus on the "Manager as a Person," which discusses managers as real people with their own personalities, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and problems. In the 2nd Edition, the authors expand on this theme by discussing the importance of management competencies -the specific set of skills, abilities, and experiences that gives one manager the ability to perform at a higher level than another in a specific context. The themes of diversity, ethics, globalization, and information technology -all areas of importance that make up the workplace realities that today's student will encounter in the course of a career- have also been greatly expanded in the 2nd Edition in the text, photographs, "unboxed" stories, and the end-of-chapter material.Feature : The authors have thoroughly updated every chapter in the text to include many important new developments in management and the inclusion of scores of new and updated boxes focusing on the problems facing managers now. Highlights include: new coverage of the implications of global outsourcing; expanded coverage of information technology throughout the book including the use of enterprise resources planning and B2B systems; inclusion of scales for measuring personality; new treatment of emotions and emotional intelligence including a new scale that measures the latter; new treatment of organizational culture; new material on creativity; expanded focus on the sources of competitive advantage and global strategy; expanded discussion of human resource management challenges; expanded coverage of gender, emotional intelligence, and leadership; and, the use of new communication systems to improve decision making. Feature : Chapter 3, Managing Ethics and Diversity, has been substantially revised to provide additional material on ethics, ethics and the law, and the nature of ethical dilemmas, the effective management of diversity, and ways to eradicate sexual harassment. Feature : The Build Your Management Skills Student DVD makes it easy to use the latest in technology to help students hone their personal management skills. Packaged free with every new copy of the text, the Student DVD features ManagerĹźs Hot Seat exercises such as "Ethics: LetĹźs Make a Fourth Quarter Deal" and "Change: More Pain than Gain"; Test Your Knowledge exercises such as "FiedlerĹźs Contingency Model of Leadership" and "PorterĹźs Five Forces"; and Self-Assessments such as "Active Listening Skills Inventory" and "Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Leader?" An end-of-chapter section titled "Additional Activities on the Build Your Management Skills DVD" shows which exercises to use with a particular chapter. (Teaching notes and classroom activities that can be used with the Build Your Management Skills exercises and assessments are included in the Group and Video Resource Manual: An InstructorĹźs Guide to an Active Classroom.) Feature : Video cases for every chapter are included at the end of the book. Each video case illustrates application of the relevant chapter concepts and has a corresponding video in VHS or DVD format. These cases feature timely and thought-provoking topics affecting the business environmentĹźsuch as "Federal Government Investigation Into Enron Bankruptcy," "The Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster may Force a Hard Look at NASA"Ĺźas well as profiles of successful businesses and managersĹźsuch as "Cirque du Soleil: A Truly Global Workforce," "Pike Place Fish Market," and "Toying with Success: The McFarlane Companies." Feature : "Manager as a Person" feature focuses on how a real manager brought about change to their organization. These examples within the chapters give students the opportunity to reflect on how individual managers dealt with real-life on-the-job challenges related to various chapter concepts.Feature : Chapter 2, Values, Attitudes, Emotions, and Culture: The Manager as a Person, puts the student in the manager's shoes by focusing on managers as feeling, thinking human beings. This chapter explains how the personal characteristics of managers and entrepreneurs influence an organization's culture and the process of management. Feature : In addition to the updated Chapter 3 on ethics and diversity, ethical issues are explored throughout the book through in-text "Ethics in Action" examples and through the real-life Managing Ethically exercise at the end of every chapter. In all these ways the authors drive home to students the deep and significant ethical issues involved in management. Feature : A career appendix gives students guidance in choosing a career in management as well as in finding and landing the right job. Feature : A real life case (Management Snapshot) opens each chapter, posing a chapter related challenge and then discussing how managers in one or more organizations responded to that challenge. The Management Snapshot helps demonstrate the uncertainty and excitement surrounding the management process. Feature : The creative and flexible Management in Action end-of-chapter material that instructors and student alike enjoyed in previous editions has been retained. They are designed to be used in either large or small classes and each chapter includes: -Topics for Discussion and Action -Building Management Skills (more assessment-based in this edition) -Small Group Breakout: The authors recognize that today working effectively in small groups is a vital skill for future managers. This feature ensures that students learn the importance of collaboration and teamwork in solving business challenges. It can be used in small or large classes. -Be the Manager presents a realistic scenario in which a manager/organization faces some kind of challenge, problem, or opportunity and the student plays the role of a manager offering advice and recommending a course of action based on the chapter content. -Management Case in the News features BusinessWeek Cases (based on actual Business Week articles) with discussion questions that encourage students to read about and to analyze how real managers deal with real problems in the business world. -Integration of Key Themes is one of the principle strengths of this text. Unlike other texts, examples are blended seamlessly into the text rather than set off in isolated boxes. The authors seamlessly integrate stories and examples about key issues with integrated "un-boxes" highlighting key issues: Focus on Diversity, Ethics in Action, Manager as a Person, Management Insight, and Managing Globally, and IT Byte. Examples are carefully selected to be both interesting and relevant, including such topics as Pizza Teams at Amazon and NASAĹźs Flawed Culture.