Management Science & Operations books

'What is CMS for and what might its future be- both inside the domain of academia and outside it? It's a question that has beguiled and frustrated academics within and outside its community. At the hear of CMS is an enduring skepticism concerning the social and ecological sustainability of prevailing ideas and forms of management and organization. Using ideas from feminist and queer theory, authors of this volume aim to generate some thinking and possibly a nascent agenda. It focuses on the future of CMS but also intertwines it with ideas as to how scholarly communities can engage in working lives differently.

Faced with dwindling resources and the challenge of climate change, companies are seeking to enhance production while consuming fewer resources. At the same time, consumers are altering their behaviors by seeking local production or bulk buying products. Retailers, as boundary spanners between consumers and producers, have a major role in initiating change and sustainable development.  Part one of this book analyzes the sustainable development practices of retailers within and between different European countries and presents case studies that consider best practices on this topic. Retailer include: Carrefour, Casino, Auchan, Leclerc, Intermarché and System U in France; Inditex, Cortefiel and MANGO in Spain; Edeka, Rewe, Schwarz-Group (with Lidl and Kaufland) and Aldi in Germany; and Tesco and Marks & Spencer in UK. International retailers in Poland are considered to better understand cross country activities.  Part two underlines the challenges faced by European retailers in the wake of societal and technological changes. The consumers’ role and their sustainable development practices are analyzed to understand the impact on retailing and the main risks for retailers.  This book will appeal to academics, students and professional educators alike, providing a crucial understanding of retailers’ practices in different countries and their impact on consumers.

Integration has been a key theme across the general management, organizational behaviour, supply chain management, strategy, information systems and the environmental management literature for decades. Sustainability continues to be, at the “top of the agenda” in the C-suite. Despite this, specialists in academia and organizations lack the peripheral vision to understand the power of a more integrated approach that will empower functional groups to become best-in-class without forcing trade-offs that pull down other groups connected to overall operations. Integrated Management is the key driver of innovation and profitability in progressive companies. It reduces risks while pursuing new opportunities, and the checks and balances for prudent management are baked in the strategy for modern go-to-market synergy and growth.  What can be done, then, by individuals, functions, organizations, value chains, and even whole cities to integrate and align sustainability? To answer this and other questions, the information in this book finds enterprises already on the path toward integrated management and strategic sustainable development. It considers the opportunity we have to enable an enterprise value proposition that includes environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Integrated management applies a proven strategic planning approach to uncover the tools and actions available for change management and performance measured with an Integrated Bottom Line (IBL). Using evidence based examples from best-in-practice enterprises, proven management tenets, models and tools alongside emerging technologies, we can develop integrated solutions aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  It’s easy to say sustainability is important, yet not so easy to understand how it is part of the decisions that are made every day and how it cuts across business functions, systems, and supply chains. The information within this book, the application of systems thinking to complex problems, development of a vision and action plan, your own research, and action learning activities are all designed to accelerate management action, value creation, and the goal of a sustainable future.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) experienced ‘golden days’ during the 1990s and 2000s, they expanded globally and were major players in globalization. Today they have become powerful actors in the global economy. CEOs of international businesses are welcomed by heads of state as their counterparts, they are invited by governments to help solve global issues such as climate change and poverty, and they are facing dilemmas comparable to those of other international actors.  However, MNEs are facing global legitimacy challenges. They are suspected of tax avoidance, using low wage countries for corporate benefits only, disrespecting privacy regulations, abusing consumer data, violating local community rights, exploiting natural resources, ignoring basic human rights, and employing too many lobbyists targeting national and international political decision-making processes for their own corporate interests.  Although many of these challenges are not new, they have resurfaced and become more apparent during the past couple of years, partly due to the economic recession that many developed economies have faced and to the broader awareness of increasing global inequality and the importance of sustainability.  How can international business respond? Strategic business diplomacy may be the answer. Business diplomacy involves developing strategies for long-term, positive relationship building with governments, local communities, and interest groups, aiming to establish and sustain legitimacy and to mitigate the risks arising from all non-commercial or exogenous factors in the global business environment.   Business diplomacy is different from lobbying or strategic political activity; it implies an (strategic / holistic) approach of an international business to look at itself as an actor in the international diplomatic arena. Representation, communication and negotiation are key in such an approach. One of the consequences is that MNEs are able to operate in and show respect for an international business environment that consists of multiple stakeholders. This demands a strategic perspective and vision on the sector and the business environments in which the company wants to operate, and requires a specific set of instruments, skills and competences.

Latin American business schools have grown in scale and quality in recent decades, yet they have received a relatively low level of attention globally when compared to schools from other parts of the world. This book seeks to address this dearth of attention and provide an in-depth examination of management education in the region. The book examines the main historical, cultural, social, political, and economic aspects of the Latin American continent and describes the evolutionary path of business education in the region until its current state. It analyzes and interprets the major events, key issues, impact of different actors, main changes, and "blind spots" in the evolution of management education in Latin America over the last 10 years. It then identifies the biggest on-going challenges confronting business education on the continent and discusses whether a Latin American model for management education is a realistic proposition. Finally, the book explores how the competitive environment of business education in the region will evolve over the next 10 years, and how these changes will influence the critical issues facing Latin American management education.

The late Boas Shamir made a significant contribution to the development of novel theories and frameworks in the leadership field. He became one of the most influential figures in leadership research, and left behind him an outstanding body of work.   Leadership Now: Reflections on the Legacy of Boas Shamir incorporates some of Boas Shamir's most classic and significant works, and includes contributions from a group that represent the most influential leaders in the field, up and coming scholars, as well as students of Boas Shamir. The first part of the book focuses on Shamir’s most influential work on the motivational effects of charismatic leaders. The second part follows with work on the charismatic relationship; reflecting the shift of Boas Shamir's work in the later parts of his career from a leader-centric focus to a closer examination of the relational aspects of leadership and the major effects followers have on the leadership process. The third part includes samples of this work on the role of the contextual factors in leadership.   This volume aims to preserve Boas Shamir's legacy and inspire further generations of leadership scholars.

This volume presents an epistemological argument for the essential function of mid-range theory in advancing management concepts that can be usefully applied by managers. Authors analyse two examples - modularity and dynamic capabilities.

The mining industry faces distinct challenges. Mines have long lives, companies have little control over the prices at which they sell, prices are volatile, and the environmental impacts of mining are often not well managed. Despite this, the mining industry has received relatively little attention from neither economists nor the wider business community. There is a need to address the unique management challenges raised by this globally important industry.  Modern Management in the Global Mining Industry addresses the economics of mining industries and the management of global mining companies in a manner which is both practical and guided by economic and management theory. Leading with the assertion that mining generates substantial benefits for all its stakeholders provided it is well-managed, and that this includes management of environmental impacts, the book argues that mining companies should move to seeing environmental preservation and sustenance of local communities as an objective rather than a constraint.   The book will be an important reference for practitioners working in mining and related industries and to researchers of economic and management theory, mining operations, mining engineering and commodities.

This volume explores and presents challenges that "traditional" organisations experience once they take off towards self-managing organisations (or Teal Organisations). The concept of Teal Organisations is not surprising nowadays, but strangely enough it remains a dream concept: the majority of modern organisations represent hierarchical managerial constructions, with little to no evidence of self-management.   The main characteristics of self-management are well-known: whole tasks; organisational actors equipped with a certain skill portfolio that is required to accomplish these tasks; work organised in teams that have autonomy for decision-making and performance management. Self-management is often accompanied by greater flexibility, better use of employees' creative capacities, increased quality of work life, and decreased employee absenteeism and turnover, eventually resulting in increased job satisfaction and organizational commitment.   In this volume, we suggest that self-managing teams require a new way forward in modern organisations. Particularly, we offer a new roadmap for leaders who are responsible for the implementation of self-managing teams.

The current economic climate, characterized by growing international competition, is forcing companies to rethink their approach in terms of strategy, the customer and supplier relationship, processes and human resource management. In this context, 'quality management' - synonymous with efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness, becomes essential.  Quality Management: Tools, Methods and Standards fills a gap in the current literature by providing an updated overview of the discipline and its boundless fields of application from industry to public administration. Written by authors with both academic and practitioners backgrounds, the book serves as a culmination of the knowledge they have gained as managing directors and chairmen of leading companies. Starting from the history of quality, the authors provide the reader with a review of the main tools and approaches aimed at improving effectiveness and efficiency in organizations. Balanced scorecard, QFD, and FMEA are some of the solutions that are first introduced theoretically and then described in their application. International standards are also broadly discussed: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and SA8000 are described in their essential features and implementation patterns.   This book should be considered a must-read for students, academics, and practitioners who are interested in the theory and practice of quality management.