G. Jones – Contemporary Management (10th edition, 2018)

Автор: G. Jones
Название книги: Contemporary Management (2018)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Экономика
Страницы: 673
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

In this revision, the focus is on making Principles of Management relevant and interesting to today's students – something that we know from instructor and student feedback engages them and encourages them to make the effort necessary to assimilate the text material. This product mirrors the changes taking place in management practices by incorporating recent developments in management theory, research, and by providing vivid, current examples of how managers of companies large and small have responded to the changes taking place.

Since the ninth edition of Contemporary Management
was published, our book has strengthened its position as
a leader in the management market. This tells us that we
continue to meet the expectations of our existing users and
attract many new users to our book. It is clear that most
management instructors share with us a concern for the
need to continuously introduce new and emerging issues
into the text and its examples to ensure that cutting-edge
issues and new developments in the field of contemporary
management are addressed.
In the new tenth edition of Contemporary Management,
we continue with our mission to provide students
the most current and up-to-date account of the changes
taking place in the world of business management. The
fast-changing domestic and global environment continues
to pressure organizations and their managers to find
new and improved ways to respond to changing events in
order to maintain and increase their performance. More
than ever, events around the globe, rapid changes in technology,
and economic pressures and challenges show
how fast the success and even survival of companies can
change. For example, the increasing complexity of the
exchanges between global companies has profoundly
affected the management of both large and small organizations.
Today there is increased pressure on managers
to find new management practices that can increase
their companies’ efficiency and effectiveness and ability
to survive and prosper in an increasingly competitive
global environment.
In revising our book, we continue our focus on making
our text relevant and interesting to today’s students—
something that we know from instructor and student feedback
engages them and encourages them to make the effort
necessary to assimilate the text material. We continue to
mirror the changes taking place in management practices
by incorporating recent developments in management
theory and research into our text and by providing vivid,
current examples of how managers of companies large and
small have responded to the changes taking place. Indeed,
we have incorporated many new and contemporary examples
in the new edition illustrating how founders, managers,
and employees in a variety of types of organizations
respond to the opportunities and challenges they face.
These examples drive home to students how essential it is
for them to develop a rich understanding of management
theory and research and the ability to apply what they have
learned in organizational settings.
The number and complexity of the strategic, organizational,
and human resource challenges facing managers
and all employees have continued to increase throughout the 2010s. In most companies, managers at all levels are
playing catch-up as they work toward meeting these challenges
by implementing new and improved management
techniques and practices. Today relatively small differences
in performance between companies, such as in the
speed at which they can bring new products or services
to market or in how they motivate their employees to
find ways to improve performance or reduce costs, can
combine to give one company a significant competitive
advantage over another. Managers and companies that
use proven management techniques and practices in their
decision making and actions increase their effectiveness
over time. Companies and managers that are slower to
implement new management techniques and practices
find themselves at a growing competitive disadvantage
that makes it even more difficult to catch up. Thus many
industries have widening gaps between weaker competitors
and the most successful companies, whose performance
reaches new heights because their managers have
made better decisions about how to use a company’s
resources in the most efficient and effective ways. In the
rapidly changing and dynamic environment facing organizations
today, effective managers recognize the vital
role that creativity and innovation play in successfully
anticipating and responding to these challenges as well as
seizing the potential opportunities that they bring while
mitigating the threats.
The issues facing managers continue to mount as
changes in the global environment, such as increasing
global outsourcing and rising commodity prices, impact
organizations large and small. In the tenth edition, we discuss
recent developments in global outsourcing and examine
the many managerial issues that must be addressed
when millions of functional jobs in information technology,
customer service, and manufacturing are sent to countries
overseas. Similarly, increasing globalization means
managers must respond to major differences in the legal
rules and regulations and ethical values and norms that
prevail in countries around the globe. Many companies and
their managers, for example, have been accused of ignoring
“sweatshop” working conditions under which the products
they sell are manufactured abroad.
Moreover, the revolution in information technology
(IT) continues to transform how managers make decisions
across all levels of a company’s hierarchy and across all
its functions and global divisions. The tenth edition of
our book continues to address these ongoing challenges
as IT continues to evolve rapidly, especially in the area of
mobile digital devices such as smartphones and tablets that
can access ever more sophisticated software applications
that increase their functionality. Other major challenges
we continue to expand on in the new edition include the
impact of the steadily increasing diversity of the workforce
on companies, and how this increasing diversity makes
it imperative for managers to understand how and why
people differ so they can effectively manage and reap the
many benefits of a diverse workforce. Similarly, across all
functions and levels, managers and employees must continuously
search out ways to “work smarter” and increase
performance. Using new IT to improve all aspects of an
organization’s operations to boost efficiency and customer
responsiveness is a vital part of this process. So too is
the continuing need to innovate and improve the quality
of goods and services, and the ways they are produced,
to allow an organization to compete effectively. We have
significantly revised the tenth edition of Contemporary
Management to address these challenges to managers and
their organizations.