Providing in-depth analysis, this book enables readers to understand the theoretical aspects of personal selling and explores the difficulties of selling services which are sensitive to cultural, age and gender differences, and to customers originating from diverse cultural zones. Agents and personal sellers must be aware of these differences and be familiar with the expectations of customers. Cross-cultural Personal Selling provides extensive empirical research results with special emphasis on competences, skills and qualifications of personal sellers which are necessary for successful, effective and efficient promotion campaigns aimed at customers from different cultures. Academics of international marketing and promotion will find this study extremely useful, as well as practitioners looking to expand their knowledge on personal selling.

This edited volume analyzes African knowledge production and alternative development paths of the region. The contributors demonstrate ways in which African-centered knowledge refutes stereotypes depicted by Euro-centric scholars and, overall, examine indigenous African contributions in global knowledge production and development. The project provides historical and contemporary evidences that challenge the dominance of Euro-centric knowledge, particularly, about Africa, across various disciplines. Each chapter engages with existing scholarship and extends it by emphasizing on Indigenous knowledge systems in addition to future indicators of African knowledge production.

Although an integral part of the corporate world, the development and execution of a successful Environmental Safety and Health (ES&H) program in today's profit-driven business climate is challenging and complex. Add to that the scarcity of resources available to assist managers in successfully designing and implementing these programs and you've got a perfect storm of regulatory and contractual agreements imposed on businesses. Guide to Environment Safety and Health Management: Developing, Implementing, and Maintaining a Continuous Improvement Program guides you through the challenges of developing and maintaining an effective ES&H program for any organization. A strategic ES&H program that follows project management concepts can add to the bottom line in many ways; however, the exact financial gain cannot oftentimes be quantified in the near term and in hard dollars. Written by two experts with more than 50 years of combined experience, this book covers the primary areas of ES&H and key elements that should be considered in developing, managing, and implementing an effective, compliant, and cost-effective program. Presenting information from a practical experience view, the book covers: Organizational structure and succession planning Fundamental understanding of EH&S functional areas Training Approach and measurement of continuous organizational improvement Project management of EH&S Application of technology Culture and trust in the workplace Regulatory applicability depends on the type of business, product produced, and potential impacts to employees, the public, and the environment. Additionally, the perception exists with some business owners and executives that the "rules and regulations" imposed or enforced do not directly add to the bottom line. Giving you practical, from-the-trenches knowledge, the book outlines techniques and provides guidance for addressing the challenges involved in setting up EH&S programs. It shows you how your ES&H program can ensure regulatory compliance and contribute to the success of your company both monetarily as well as in shaping public perception.

How do managers and leaders know what to do when they are caught off guard or taken by surprise? How do they create when they do not know what to do next? These are challenges of an organizational world of existential uncertainty; one where the future does not conform to but challenges our expectations and assumptions. Steven Segal demonstrates that creating in a world of existential uncertainty requires a new understanding of the relationship between management inquiry and the lived experience of organizing. Using existential philosophy he demonstrates how moods of concern serve as a framework to integrate management theory and practice, thereby providing a framework for managers, management educators, and consultants to share a common framework. In a globalized free market characterized by unexpected disruptions management inquiry is not a science conducted from an objective distance. The book advocates an existentially reflexive and participant observer perspective to management inquiry. By participating in managing, a felt sense of being a manager develops. Through existential observation new ways of organizing are made possible. It is inquiry from within rather than from an objective distance. Such inquiry opens new doors and opportunities. Existential hermeneutic phenomenology and the free market phenomenon of creative destruction are linked to each other. The former provides a framework to work through the breakdown in conventions of organizing that occur in creative destruction.

This book explores the relevance of management accounting research and practice for a range of broader, societal phenomena related to corporate governance and regulation, the creation and maintenance of markets and their concomitant social and political implications. It also explores the theoretical and methodological implications of pursuing a research agenda exploring such phenomena in greater detail. Containing a number of theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions by leading management accounting scholars, The Societal Relevance of Management Accounting seeks to advance novel research approaches that go beyond the traditional intra-organisational focus that has long dominated management accounting research. As such, it seeks to enhance the relevance of management accounting research for a broader range of stakeholders and interest groups in and around individual organisations. This book was originally published as a special issue of Accounting and Business Research.

Multi-Domain Master Data Management delivers practical guidance and specific instruction to help guide planners and practitioners through the challenges of a multi-domain master data management (MDM) implementation. Authors Mark Allen and Dalton Cervo bring their expertise to you in the only reference you need to help your organization take master data management to the next level by incorporating it across multiple domains. Written in a business friendly style with sufficient program planning guidance, this book covers a comprehensive set of topics and advanced strategies centered on the key MDM disciplines of Data Governance, Data Stewardship, Data Quality Management, Metadata Management, and Data Integration.

This new four-volume collection brings together the vast body of literature on Management Information Systems, focusing, in particular, on seminal works in the field and notable new developments. As such, the collection will be welcomed as a useful guide for MIS researchers, including PhD students and academics trying to obtain a better grasp of the field.

How do you make change work? What skills and resources do you need? From understanding and planning, to implementing and assessing the impact, this book covers all aspects of managing change using simple, practical steps and strategies, each one of which has been developed, tested and proven to work. Brilliant Managing your Team through Change will expertly guide you step by step through the entire change process so you can deliver the required outcomes whilst keeping your team and other stakeholders on board throughout. * Understand the nature and complexities of the change process * Define and develop a customised change plan and schedule * Effectively communicate with, motivate and manage your team through the process Everything you need to think about, know and do to manage change effectively

Museum Store: The Manager's Guide is a practical guide for any store manager who needs guidance about visual merchandising, measuring performance, managing volunteers and much more. This eight-chapter volume includes a wealth of advice on best practices compiled by the national professional organization of museum stores. It includes a myriad of supportive worksheets to help the novice manager. It provides guidance from experienced store managers to assist the novice in evaluating a store's performance. The 4th edition includes updated information on social media and mobile shopping. A new chapter to this valuable resource highlights the legal implications of the business of nonprofit retail including copyright, unrelated business income tax, and staff relations. A great resource for every back office!

This book draws on financial, economic, and management theory in its exploration of the theory underlying risk and risk management at both micro- and macroeconomic levels. It has a particular reference to the public financial sector. Chapters investigate the elimination of currency risk in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as well as the changes that credit ratings undergo due to the influence of credit spreads. Featuring contributions on important topics such as public safety and the internet, intellectual capital, bank regulatory risk in the EU, the financial distress of public sector entities, and systemic risk in the insurance sector, it also explores innovative and emerging issues in the European tax gap in personal income taxes and VAT carousel fraud in selected European countries. Discussion of the complex nature of risk management in public administration will appeal to public officials, policy-makers, academics and researchers alike.

The last few decades have seen a growing body of literature and research on business models which draws upon a multitude of subject areas including entrepreneurship, strategy, organization, finance, sales and marketing, and operations management. This new four-volume collection from Routledge brings together the area's major works to address the nature, development, and evolution of business models.

Business intelligence initiatives have been dominating the technology priority list of many organisations. However, the lack of effective information quality and governance strategies and policies has been meeting these initiatives with some challenge. Information Quality and Governance for Business Intelligence presents the latest exchange of academic research on all aspects of practicing and managing information using a multidisciplinary approach that examines its quality for organisational growth. This book is an essential reference tool for researchers, practitioners, and university students specialising in business intelligence, information quality, and information systems.

Corporate networks, the links between companies and their leaders, reflect a country's economic organization - and more precisely its corporate governance system. Most research on corporate networks focuses on a single country and/or a brief time period, however, making fruitful comparisons difficult. This book provides a unique long-term analysis of the rise, consolidation, and decline of these networks in fourteen European and non-European countries in the 20th and early 21st centuries. It revisits important debates in corporate networks literature such as the interactions between the industrial and financial sectors or the role of state-owned enterprises, and integrates studies from East European, Asian and Latin American countries, moving beyond the Anglo-Saxon view which dominates the literature. The chapters in this volume bridge the literatures on corporate networks and corporate governance - which, despite their common issues, often fail to address one another. The editors bring together the most internationally well-known specialists of corporate networks who focus, through their network analysis, on corporate governance issues.Each chapter reveals distinct phases in the evolution of national networks and explains how and why changes have taken place over time.

Sometimes unanticipated threats or opportunities create a situation in which work is required unexpectedly. On these occasions, such urgent and unexpected work demands an instant start, in contrast to the often lengthy processes of investigation, evaluation, development, selection and planning normal in businesses and public services before the start of a project. Managing the Urgent and Unexpected explores what is different managerially if work is unexpected, its implementation is urgent and an immediate start it is required. The authors draw on twelve cases ranging from the launch of the Freeview television system in the United Kingdom to the sifting and removal of the New York World Trade Center pile of debris following the 9/11 terrorist attack. They summarise how the response to each of these events was managed, demonstrate that opportunities may sometimes be created in the face of adversity and suggest how normal organizations can prepare to manage abnormal demands. Urgent and unexpected projects have to be rare in business or government to be economically and socially tolerable. And yet organizations can and should be prepared for the unexpected. The lessons offered here will help private and public organizations plan how to authorize and support future urgent work to take advantage of immediate new business opportunities or to protect or restore systems and services.

"This is one of the most important Agile books since The Phoenix Project." Charles Betz, author, instructor, and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research Drive real change through actual business outcomes, not rigid practices and a handful of buzzwords. Being Agile isn't the goal; the true goal is successful outcomes. And successful outcomes come from embracing business principles that engender high-performing organizations, not from following a formula. The award-winning Sooner Safer Happier lays the foundation for achieving what truly matters: delivering better value sooner, safer, and happier. Every chapter of this practical guide to business success clearly articulates the typical ways of working that organizations get wrong (antipatterns) and quickly follows them with what to do right (patterns). Each pattern helps empower teams and leaders and allows the organization as a whole to break free of prescribed Agile practices to achieve true agility and success. Anyone looking to drive successful business outcomes needs this book on their desk to dip into over and over again. "This is a realistic approach to adopting (or not adopting) agile in your organization. The theory is sound; the practice is extensive. I strongly recommend this book." -Dave Snowden, Chief Scientific Officer, Cognitive Edge, Creator of Cynefin "Sooner Safer Happier is a must-read for any business leader looking to succeed in the digital age." -David Silverman, co-author of Team of Teams

Enterprise solutions have emerged as promising tools for integrating and extending business processes across business functions. Supplying a clear and comprehensive introduction to the field, this book provides a detailed description of enterprise information integration from the development of enterprise systems to extended enterprise information integration in supply chain environments.
Enterprise Integration and Information Architecture: A Systems Perspective on Industrial Information Integration explains how to improve industrial information integration through the application of a systems approach. Describing how systems science is impacting current research in industrial information integration, it covers enterprise architecture, information architecture for enterprises, business process/work flow modeling, and enterprise information integration.
Covering the emergence, growth, and extension of integrated enterprise systems, the book provides you with various perspectives of modern enterprise solutions. It introduces the critical concepts of ERP, industry-oriented enterprise resource planning, and entire resource planning. It also provides guidance on how to transition from extended enterprise integration in a supply chain environment to systems-based enterprise architecture, enterprise modeling, and enterprise modeling in a supply chain environment.
The book proposes a new information architecture for enterprise and supply chain management. It presents modeling and integration information flows for enterprise information integration, together with the Internet of Things (IoT). It also explores the theory and methods of industrial information integration including integration approaches and enterprise application integration.
Complete with numerous examples of extended enterprise integration in actual supply chain environments, the book illustrates the critical issues that arise in professional practice and also explores emerging trends in enterprise integration and its information architecture"

This book provides the necessary elements to determine exactly what information should be collected to make the collected information relevant for policy makers. It highlights the dissatisfaction of information users about the information they get and the reasons for this dissatisfaction. It also discusses general issues around the role and use of information in policy making. The text then describes the how to develop a full understanding of the policy makers' information needs and will describe how policy makers can be included in the process. Finally, the book describes how the results from this process are input for the information production process.

Logistics and Supply Chain Management has been a vital part of every economy and every business entity. Both sciences have become prestigious research fields focusing on best practices, concepts, and methods. Outsourcing Management for Supply Chain Operations and Logistics Services is concentrated on the key players of the outsourcing paradigm; the organizations that provide logistics services, the Third Party Logistics (3PL's), as well as their clients, presenting and promoting the lessons learned by their cooperation. Specifically, this publication presents studies which are relevant to practitioners, researchers, students, and clients of the application of the Outsourcing practice on the Logistics and Supply Chain Management services giving emphasis to 3PL's.

Struggling to motivate your staff?

Looking for ways to make your meetings more effective?

Battling to get a decision from colleagues?

Every manager, every day, at every level takes on challenges and problems that can be tricky to solve.

You're busy and you want quick answers that are guaranteed to work.

"The Top 50 Management Dilemmas "provides help on the most common hurdles that managers face. It will help you understand every situation better so you know exactly what to do, fast.

Whatever your challenge - an individual, your team, external clients, conflict, change or power - you'll discover how to: Get things done quicker, better and right - quickly understand what you need to do to get the best results Develop stronger relationships - get the best from others, manage your team better and transform your dealings with clients Build your problem-solving toolkit - avoid getting stuck and develop a powerful set of skills Boost your reputation - be known as an adaptable, flexible and forward-thinking manager who always delivers

This incredibly handy book has been specially written to ensure you can get to the best solution, in the quickest time, whatever the scenario.

Written for both scholars and practitioners, this volume focuses on the design, management, use and impacts of Virtual Communities (VCs) from technological, social and economic perspectives. It brings together peer-reviewed research articles that give an in-depth review of the state-of-the-art practices, and also shows opportunities for research and practice in and around VCs.

A pedagogical approach to the principles and architecture of knowledge management in organizations This textbook is based on a graduate course taught at Stevens Institute of Technology. It focuses on the design and management of today s complex K organizations. A K organization is any company that generates and applies knowledge. The text takes existing ideas from organizational design and knowledge management to enhance and elevate each through harmonization with concepts from other disciplines. The authors noted experts in the field concentrate on both micro- and macro design and their interrelationships at individual, group, work, and organizational levels. A key feature of the textbook is an incisive discussion of the cultural, practice, and social aspects of knowledge management. The text explores the processes, tools, and infrastructures by which an organization can continuously improve, maintain, and exploit all elements of its knowledge base that are most relevant to achieve its strategic goals. The book seamlessly intertwines the disciplines of organizational design and knowledge management and offers extensive discussions, illustrative examples, student exercises, and visualizations. The following major topics are addressed: Knowledge management, intellectual capital, and knowledge systems Organizational design, behavior, and architecture Organizational strategy, change, and development Leadership and innovation Organizational culture and learning Social networking, communications, and collaboration Strategic human resources; e.g., hiring K workers and performance reviews Knowledge science, thinking, and creativity Philosophy of knowledge and information Information, knowledge, social, strategy, and contract continuums Information management and intelligent systems; e.g., business intelligence, big data, and cognitive systems Designing Knowledge Organizations takes an interdisciplinary and original approach to assess and synthesize the disciplines of knowledge management and organizational design, drawing upon conceptual underpinnings and practical experiences in these and related areas.

Given the increased social and environmental problems in China, this book looks into the social and environmental disclosure practices of socially responsible Chinese listed firms by constructing a stakeholder-driven, three-dimensional, disclosure index. The book contains a three-part study: the first part explores the current status of social and environment disclosure practices. The second part empirically examines the relationship between corporate social and environmental disclosure and various influencing factors (i.e. stakeholders' power and corporate characteristics). The third part empirically examines the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting (i.e. publishing a CSR report and the quality of the CSR report) and socially responsible reputation. The book finds that the CSR report provided more stakeholder-relevant social and environmental disclosure than the annual report. It also finds that corporate characteristics such as firm size, profitability and industry classification are all statistically significant factors influencing the social and environmental disclosure of the Chinese firms studied. Shareholders significantly influenced firms' social and environmental disclosure, and creditors significantly influenced firms' disclosure related to their environmental performance. The final part of the study reports that publishing a CSR report and CSR reporting quality had a positive influence on firms' socially responsible reputations and that the CEO/chairman duality negatively influenced firms' socially responsible reputation. This book will be of interest to those who are keen to learn more about corporate social responsibilities in the context of Chinese firms.

Pinedo is a major figure in the scheduling area (well versed in both stochastics and combinatorics), and knows both the academic and practitioner side of the discipline.

This book includes the integration of case studies into the text.

It will appeal to engineering and business students interested in operations research.