It is an old cliche that leading and managing academics is like herding cats. This book challenges this myth and presents a way to deal with the many challenges of academic leadership, from managing departments, research groups and teams to managing tensions between research and teaching. The book is a practical and stimulating guide to different pathways to successful academic leadership, both in personal and organizational terms.

With a state-of-the-art perspective on corporate board decision-making that encourages thinking outside the box, this cutting-edge Research Handbook provides fresh insights on the meaning, value, contribution, quality and purpose of the decision-making of those charged with corporate governance. Expert contributors reflect on what boards decide, what they focus on when making these decisions, and how they endeavour to balance and satisfy diverse stakeholders, organisational, and societal interests. Chapters expand the research field of board decision-making, exploring related issues such as the impact of regulations and guidelines on decision-making quality; behavioural and cognitive factors in judgement formation; decision-making under extreme circumstances; fraud and bias; and independence, competence, ethics and diversity. Thought-provoking and perceptive, the book analyses board decision-making in practice, looking closely at corporate social responsibility, sustainability strategies, and governance best practice. With a broad and global range of case studies, this innovative Research Handbook will prove vital for students and scholars of corporate governance. Providing a comprehensive understanding of what motivates and influences the quality, purpose and rationale of board decision-making and the factors which interfere with good judgement, it will also be a key resource for board directors, policymakers and regulators working in corporate board governance and external audit.

Megaproject Leaders brings together 18 prominent academics who interviewed 16 great megaproject leaders originating from 10 different countries. Based on a reflective methodological approach, these chapters investigate the managing of megaprojects from a human perspective, identify new trends in the managing of megaprojects and identify lessons learned from the personal views of the interviewees. The novel ideas presented will appeal to academics, practitioners and university students.

Megaprojects for Megacities is a collection of 14 international case studies of transportation, urban development, and environmental megaprojects completed during the last ten years in North America, Asia and Europe. It goes beyond the previous megaproject literature to look at how and why each project was conceived, planned, engineered, financed, and delivered, and how particular planning and delivery practices shaped successful and unsuccessful outcomes. With individual chapters on high-speed rail, urban metro systems, bus rapid transit, roadway tunnels and bridges, new and improved airports, waterfront redevelopment projects, new towns, urban parks and renewable energy projects, this book is unparalleled in its coverage, depth and takeaways for practice. It incorporates current examples from across the world, including North America, Asia, the UK, and Europe. This collection of case studies is presented in an approachable way that will prove valuable to academics, researchers and students as well as practicing professionals, financiers and senior government officials interested in infrastructure planning, financing, project management and delivery.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the world's foremost expert on power and strategy comes a daily devotional designed to help you seize your destiny. Robert Greene, the #1 New York Times bestselling author, has been the consigliere to millions for more than two decades. Now, with entries that are drawn from his five books, plus never-before-published works, The Daily Laws offers a page of refined and concise wisdom for each day of the year, in an easy-to-digest lesson that will only take a few minutes to absorb. Each day features a Daily Law as well-a prescription that readers cannot afford to ignore in the battle of life. Each month centers around a major theme: power, seduction, persuasion, strategy, human nature, toxic people, self-control, mastery, psychology, leadership, adversity, or creativity. Who doesn't want to be more powerful? More in control? The best at what they do? The secret: Read this book every day. "Daily study," Leo Tolstoy wrote in 1884, is "necessary for all people." More than just an introduction for new fans, this book is a Rosetta stone for internalizing the many lessons that fill Greene's books and will reward a lifetime of reading and rereading.

LEAN is the most widespread management philosophy of our time and is currently present in every industry, yet the concept is still vaguely defined and widely misunderstood.

This is Lean - Resolving the efficiency paradox has been translated from Swedish to English, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, French and Chinese and has sold over 160.000 copies since its launch in 2012. By using clear, concise language and insightful examples, the book has brought greater clarification to the essence of lean and revolutionized top-executives and employees understanding of what lean actually is.

The book also introduces the idea of the efficiency paradox, which claims that organisations' understanding of "true efficiency" is incorrect. It suggests that when organisations focus too much on utilising resources efficiently - the traditional and most common form of efficiency - it tends to lead to an increase in the amount of work there is to do. Consequently, the more organisations try to be efficient (being busy), the more inefficient they will actually become (taking care of non-value adding but necessary work).

This is Lean addresses how to resolve this paradox.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This insightful Research Agenda provides reflections on the state of the international business and management discipline and also highlights important future topics for research. The book especially covers a range of thought-provoking ideas on key subjects, from externalisation theory to emerging market economies to societal crises and modern slavery. This Research Agenda also revisits the relevance of core theories; examines the changing roles of nation states and multinationals as well as power relations and ideologies; and discusses new phenomena in international business and management (IB/M). Authors emphasise the merits of and the need for incorporating insights from critical perspectives and, finally, a commentary is given on fulfilling the future agendas laid out in the chapters. This will be a useful read for postgraduate students and researchers of IB/M. Academics in neighbouring subfields including social geography, political science and economic sociology will also find beneficial insights.

Ethnography is at the heart of what researchers in management and organization studies do. This crucial book offers a robust and original overview of ''doing'' organizational ethnography, guiding readers through the essential qualitative methods for the study of organizations. Preparing students to enter the field with a confident outlook and a toolkit of skills, chapters present a series of action-learning projects to arm readers with practical exercises that will hone the abilities of the organizational ethnographer. Expert contributors offer crucial outlines into a variety of essential skills, including shadowing, autoethnography, interviews, media analysis and storytelling. The book concludes with a chapter by a doctoral student, providing unique insights into the development of the ethnographic understanding of organizational realities. Featuring useful exercises and an accessible style, this book is critical reading for PhD and Masters students in business administration and organizational theory, as well as social science students undertaking qualitative methodology programmes. It will also be useful for students on MBA courses in need of a humanistic approach to organizations.

This important book considers the ways in which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can thrive in the age of big data. To address this central issue from multiple viewpoints, the editors introduce a collection of experiences, insights, and guidelines from a variety of expert researchers, each of whom provides a piece to solve this puzzle. Contributions address the limitations faced by SMEs in their access to data and demonstrate that the key to overcoming this issue is to be aware of these limitations, to work within them, and to use them to think creatively about how to overcome obstacles in new ways. They discuss Artificial Intelligence, revenue blueprinting, GDPR compliance, and other key topics related to the relationships between SMEs and data. Offering ideas to inspire big data-driven success by SMEs making smaller investments, the book argues that there must be a place for "ordinary" data-driven journeys that are available to firms of any size. Stimulating further thought and action, Big Data in Small Business will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and practitioners in areas such as strategic management, organizational and innovation studies, marketing, and sales. The ideas and information in this book will help fill knowledge gaps related to important aspects of capabilities, functions, and transformations of big data that drive business growth.

Contracts form an integral part of strategic sourcing in modern supply chains. They bind people, customers, suppliers and organisations into a coherent working relationship whereby goods and services are exchanged in a mutually agreed framework. Contract management provides an introduction to the basic management principles of planning, organising, directing and control as an approach to managing contracts. Contract management explains the importance of managing the content of the contract as well as the contracting process so that unnecessary problems can be prevented and, as a result, important relationships can be maintained. The chapter on broad-based black economic empowerment has been removed from this edition as this is now well established, and new regulations in terms of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act have been introduced. South African and US case studies are included, which should give learners a broad insight into some practical problems that may occur in contracts. The late Gideon Nieman is was professor emeritus and former head of the Department of Business Management at the University of Pretoria. He worked for more than 20 years in senior positions in trade and industry before joining academia. He also presents presented short courses on contract management and procurement.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being rapidly introduced into the workplace, creating debate around what AI means for our work and organizations. This book gives grounded counterweight to provocative newspaper headlines by using in-depth case studies of eight organizations' experiences of implementing and using AI, providing readers with a solid understanding of what is actually happening in practice. Critical yet constructive, the authors address the challenges of implementing AI: organizing for data, testing and validating, algorithmic brokering, and changing work. Using a combination of existing literature and thorough practical examples, they provide answers to questions such as: What data do I need? When is a system good enough to actually take over tasks? And how can my employees be prepared for working with AI? The book presents four recommendations for WISE management of AI, requiring work-related insights, interdisciplinary knowledge, sociotechnical change processes, and ethical awareness. Offering insight into the unique characteristics of AI in organizations, this book will be essential reading for scholars of business and management, data analytics and information systems, technology and innovation, and computer science. With practical recommendations for managing the challenges of AI, it will also provide business managers with reflections to improve their own AI development and implementation processes.

The Lean Product Lifecycle is a playbook that provides frameworks, methods and tools to develop innovative new products and business models, while managing your core portfolio.

Follow the 6 key phases of a product’s life - idea, explore, validate, grow, sustain and retire – and discover how to develop products according to their life stage and ensure the right investment for each. For each stage there is a step-by-step guide of product development best practices using examples and case studies from several companies and start-ups.

Using the tools and templates in this book, you’ll be able to:

- Take a new product from idea to scale within a market.

- Understand the difference between executing on products that are already successful in the market and searching for profitable business models for new products.

- Use the right tools and methods for validating new products ideas and business models.

- Understand how to manage mature products and retire old products using lean innovation principles.

Discover how lessons from lean start-ups can transform your business.

Tackling the pressing challenges that business schools face as they deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this How To guide provides rich insights into how to create and sustain the business schools of the future. The SDGs are ubiquitous and this signals that business schools need to embark on an urgent paradigm shift to embed the SDGs into their research, education and operations. Taking an integrated approach to sustainability, this work provides rich insights into how business school leaders, academics, students and professional staff can create the business school of the future; one that has close collaborative relationships with its stakeholders, that is inclusive and advances responsible management education, and ultimately generates positive societal benefits. The authors consider the drivers for sustainability and the roles of accreditation and rankings' bodies, and how through their research, educational offerings and governance, business schools can develop new modus operandi to embed sustainability. Accessible yet rigorous, the combination of theory with real-life examples in this research-based book will prove invaluable to leaders and managers in business schools as well as all those with an interest in shaping their agenda and activities, including students, scholars and all stakeholders interested in creating more sustainable futures.

This comprehensive Handbook explores both traditional and contemporary interpretations of qualitative research in the workplace, examining a variety of foundational and innovative qualitative methodological approaches. Expert international contributors discuss how organisations have undergone substantial changes, prompting novel research agendas, which, in turn, required inventive applications of qualitative methodologies in a range of workplace contexts. The Handbook comprises three parts, which consider the foundational knowledge of qualitative methodologies; innovative additions to these methodologies; and their application in a range of workplace contexts and disciplines, including management, health and education policy. Chapters focus on context and the role of reflexivity as central issues for decision making about appropriate methodologies, highlighting how qualitative research has responded to contemporary developments in workplaces, such as the global dispersal of organisations, flexible work arrangements and changes to stakeholder relationships. Analysing the challenges and opportunities for conducting qualitative research in modern organisations, this Handbook will be critical reading for academics and students of organisation studies and qualitative research methods, particularly those with a focus on business and management.

With original contributions from leading experts in the field, this cutting-edge Research Handbook combines theoretical advancement and the newest empirical research to explore the sociology of organizations as mesa-level mediators of individual and societal outcomes. Covering the major theoretical foundations of the topic, this innovative Research Handbook analyses critical and contemporary sociological theory and examines the purposes and goals of a diverse range of organizations in a variety of contexts. Chapters detail original research that investigates labour relations, ethical and sustainable environmental practices, race, gender, class, sexuality, media, religion, politics, and alternative economic models. This Research Handbook will prove an engaging and informative read for students and scholars of organization studies, labour policy, sociology, political science, economics, management, philosophy, and social psychology. With its global, interdisciplinary scope, it will also be invaluable to practitioners and policymakers working within a vast range of organizations.

How and why does job stress manifest as negative emotions, disordered thoughts, deleterious behaviors, and physical illness? How can positive outcomes like growth and mastery be encouraged instead? Job stress theories provide insights that guide practical decision making on how to mitigate the negative effects, and promote the positive outcomes, of job demands for the organization and its constituents. This book provides a review of the empirical support for nearly 100 job stress frameworks, and presents guidance for theoretical applications, testing, refinement, and integrations. In addition to providing an overview of the theories, models, and hypotheses related to job stress, the authors present organizational and individual implications for both management and personal improvement. For scholars, gaps in the literature are identified to facilitate future research. Instructors and students will find this knowledge valuable for organizational psychology/behavior, occupational health psychology, or job stress classes, among others. Altogether, students, researchers, and practitioners will find this Introduction integral to their learning, and benefit from the actionable research ideas and suggestions for stress reduction.

Becoming an Organizational Scholar covers reflective, personal stories of prolific, top scholars under 45, with academic success gained across 17 different European and North and South American countries at 31 higher education institutions. The editors present the idea of a unique or authentic scholar, successfully Navigating the Academic Odyssey. Reflecting upon their career journeys through introspection and narrative essays, the contributors clarify the definition and description of academia, its activities, roles and different aspects related to academic work. They express their opinions on academic success factors and common career Though the content is primarily targeted for the rising cohort of doctoral candidates and early-career researchers, this publication also targets the institutional gatekeepers, the universities and business schools worldwide, as well as professional associations in the field of organization and management.