Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
Summary
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
– From Through The Looking Glass,
Lewis Carroll
Managers in today's corporation are under fire. Throughout the world, their ability to manage the affairs of the corporation is being called into question. The emergence of a multitude of government regulations, corporate critics, media attacks, and most importantly, substantial competition from Far Eastern and European firms have put the modern manager in a pressure cooker. He or she finds an increase in the external demands placed on the corporation and a decrease in the internal flexibility of the corporation to respond. Criteria for Performance are no longer clear and the notion of “effective management” is increasingly becoming a contradiction in terms.
Meanwhile, the “solutions” to the dilemma of the modern manager dominate the best-seller lists. Lessons from Japanese, U.S. and European companies are drawn; the latest techniques from psychology are touted to solve the “people problem”; ringing cries are issued for less government, givebacks by labor and a new industrial policy; and managers are urged to work harder and longer, take more courses, learn the latest techniques and to focus on rebuilding their companies to be more competitive in global markets.
I believe that these current analyses of the managerial dilemma are only partially correct. And, I believe that the underlying issue is that managers must have new concepts that enable them to see their Jobs realistically.
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- Strategic ManagementA Stakeholder Approach, pp. vii - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010