Business Management Contemporary Management

When first introduced to the market in 1998, Contemporary Management, by Jones and George made a large impact on the areas of modern management. Their unique combination of talents combined an easy to understand voice, thorough content, and pedagological approach to teaching, together with a uniquely designed package. Authors Gareth Jones, his wife Jennifer George and Professor Hill are dedicated to the challenge of making supplied managerial science concrete and applicable for students. As a team, they are uniquely qualified to write about both the strategic imperative for managers and organizational challenges that real managers face.

Gareth Jones specializes in both strategic management and organizational theory and is well-known for his research that applies transaction cost analysis to explain many forms of strategic behavior. He is currently focusing his study on strategy process and issues concerning the development of trust, and the role of which trust plays in the strategic decision making process. Jennifer George specializes in organizational behavior and is well-known for her research on affect and mood, their determinants, and their effects on various individual and group level work outcomes. Professor Hill teaches in the undergraduate M.B.A. And executive M.B.A. programs and has received awards for teaching excellence in these programs. Together these three authors approach the subject of contemporary management with authority, clarity and completeness.

Contemporary Management is a comprehensive text that surveys the theoretical underpinnings of modern management thought and research and through a variety of real world examples from small, medium, and large companies shows the reader how those ideas are used by practicing managers. The organization of this text follows the mainstream...

The themes of diversity, ethics, and information technology have been greatly expanded in the most recent edition, through in-text examples, photographs, and the end-of-chapter material. Overall, all areas of importance that truly serve to bring to life workplace realities are included in this text.
From a leadership perspective, the book both informs and motivates the learner to adapt their own personal leadership style to the practices which have demonstrated themselves to be the most effective in the marketplace. Ultimately management is the process of achieving organizational goals through other people, and in the science of human behavior, research over the last 20 years has identified trends which effectively motivate others, and habits which do not. For example, in today's diverse workplace, organizations are discovering that an attempt to create a strict organizational culture which does not allow staff members to utilize their own strengths and weaknesses ultimately hinders the organization.

The diversity of the workforce is no longer considered a disruptive departure from the organizational goals and policies, but allowing diverse staff to exercise their unique talents is a strength for the organization. This is a function of the postmodern perspective. Modernity dissected life into it individual parts, through a scientific method, in order to identify the common denominators. Post modern thought recognizes that while commonalties exist, the differences between individuals can combine to create a synergistic strength for the organization.

The book breaks down the idea of the organizational culture in discussions of managing the different paradigms of significantly different organizations. For example, managing an…