Preface

Given that principles of management is likely to be one of the first management or business courses that students take, our objective in developing this material was to provide students and instructors with a solid and comprehensive foundation on the fundamentals of management. Each of the 15 chapters is comprehensive, succinct, and action-oriented, but not busy (as in busy work). Moreover, the book and supplements have been written in a direct, active style that we hope students and instructors find both readily accessible and relevant.

So how are we delivering on these promises? 

First, this principles of management book is organized around the well-established planning, organizing, leading, and controlling framework (or, simply, P-O-L-C). The P-O-L-C structure provides a number of benefits. Each chapter opens with a brief discussion of how the chapter topic fits in P-O-L-C. For instructors, the use of P-O-L-C as an overarching framework helps with organizing class material, developing the class calendar, and making choices about adding or removing readings and real-life examples. It also provides instructors with an invaluable reference point at the beginning and conclusion of each class session to share with students “where we’ve been, and where we’re going next.” Pedagogically, this is a simple yet powerful tool to aid and promote student learning. For students, the P-O-L-C typology provides both instructors and students with an enduring framework for processing and organizing just about everything they will learn and experience, during and beyond their classroom-based education, related to the management of organizations.

Second, there are three underlying themes carried through all the chapters. These themes are strategic thinking, entrepreneurial thinking, and active management. Strategy, for instance, is explicitly concerned with the determinants of superior firm performance. We treat performance using the notion of the triple bottom line—the idea that economic performance allows individuals and organizations to perform positively in social and environmental ways as well. The triple bottom line is financial, social, and environmental performance. The entrepreneurial dimension reflects an underlying and growing trend showing that students and instructors see themselves as entrepreneurs and active change agents, not just as managers. By starting fresh with an entrepreneurial/change management orientation, we provide an exciting perspective on the principles of management. Starting with the opening chapter, we incorporate an active management perspective to show how leaders and leadership are essential to personal and organizational effectiveness and effective organizational change. Moreover, the concluding section of each chapter is focused on the assessment and development of particular management skills. Students and instructors are active as leaders at an increasingly early age and are sometimes painfully aware of the leadership failings they see in public and private organizations. It is the leader and leadership that bring principles of management together.

Third, your author team is bringing a truly interdisciplinary perspective to your principles of management course. The book that is the foundation for how you learn about, study, and teach the principles of management is titled Principles of Management: A Behavioral Approach. This book has very important implications for our emphasis on skills and decision making, coupled with the strategic, entrepreneurial, and leadership orientations. Your authors are award-winning teachers who harbor a deep knowledge and experience about the book’s conceptual underpinnings with a sincere appreciation for experiential teaching approaches.

Only with Flat World Knowledge’s learning platforms do you have the power to choose what your principles of management book looks like, when and how you access material, what you use and don’t use, when it will be changed, and what formats and potential study vehicles you leverage. These innovative study vehicles range from book podcasts and flash cards to peer discussion groups organized in social network formats. Nowhere else on the planet can this combination of user friendliness, user choice, and leading edge technologies be found for business education and learning. An extensive author-prepared instructors’ manual and excellent set of PowerPoint slides provide teaching support for instructors. A test item file developed using state-of-the-art assessment techniques supports faculty in evaluating student performance.