Integrative management: Creating unity from diversity

Integrative management: Creating unity from diversity

Book Reviews good read for those with a particular subject. interest in this important Managing the Global Corporation: Case Studies in Strategy an...

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Book Reviews good read for those with a particular subject.

interest

in this important

Managing the Global Corporation: Case Studies in Strategy and Management, WILLIAM H. DAVIDSON and JOSE DE LA TORRE, McGraw-Hill (1989), 678 pp., A15.95.

skills and how success.

to measure

their

acquisition,

application

127 and

The Management of Technological Learning: Lessons from a Biotechnology Company, MARK DOBSON, Walter de Gruyter (1991), 150 pp., $39.95.

Forty-three case studies designed to enrich the advanced student’s understanding of the global perspective of managing corporations and business issues. Split into 10 subject areas from; Defining a Global Strategy to Managing Political Risks at Home and Abroad. Excellent background material, but a pity there was no systematic attempt to end each chapter with a list of key questions for discussion. (In addition to the basic questions: What should happen next? What did happen? See, for example, case 19, Midland Bank’s acquisition of 57 per cent of Cracker National Corporation in 1980. Why did it go wrong?)

A valuable case study of the development of Celltech; and in particular how they accumulated technological know-how in order to establish a competitive position and grow. The company had its problems, but the author was impressed with what can be achieved with vision and energy. (Personified in the chief executive, Gerard Fairlough.) In view of the final two chapters: The Strategic Management of Learning and Lessons from the Learning Firm it might have been useful to have seen reference to some of the recent publications on The Learning Organization.

Integrative Management: Creating Unityfrom Diversity, GRAHAM, Basil Blackwell (1991), 197 pp., Ll8.95.

Venture Capital: (Ed.), Routledge

PAULINE

Drawing mainly on the undervalued work of Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933), the author questions the value of conventional theories of leadership and presents what she believes is an alternative model more appropriate for today’s increasingly complex international business environment. Her approach argues for the establishment of a mode of association in which joint activity can take place and collective responsibility can root and grow, and in which the ‘law of situation’ is allowed to direct the outcome of conflict. Important in developing cross boarder joint ventures, as well as in many other managerial situations. Surprising to find no mention of the work of Charles Handy, but he did not mention Follett either in his classic Understanding Organizations, first published in 1976, third edition 1985 Penguin Books 487 pp., A4.95, or his more recent Inside Organizations: 21 Ideas for Managers, BBC Books (1990), 224 pp., A6.99.

The Human Resource: Managing People and Work in the 199Os, ROLAND PEARSON, McGraw-Hill (1991), 261 pp., Al4.95. An excellent introduction to the problems and opportunities within the human resource management area over the next decade, primarly from a U.K. perspective. But surprising no mention of Change, Culture and the Learning Organization in the index, especially as it did run to over 10 pages. Hence a valuable supplement to that study is The Learning Company: A Strategy for Sustainable Development, MIKE PEDLER, JOHN BURGOYNE and TOM BOYDELL, McGraw-Hill (1991), 213 pp., ~25.00. As the authors rightly argue: ‘The Learning company is a company which creates learning opportunities for all its members and is able to transform itself as a whole.’ Needs integrating with mainstream HRM thinking. One aspect of HRM is covered in more detail in The Selection Maze, TONY BRAY, Mercury (1991), 127 pp., Q4.95. Another essential area is well presented in Measuring Management Performance: A Developmental Approach for Trainers and Consultants, TERENCE JACKSON, Kogan Page (1991), 208 pp., A28.00. Issues discussed include: What to measure and how to measure it; The relationship between theory and practice; How to measure organizational and individual perceptions of management performance and The importance of specific management

International Comparisons, MILFORD B. GREEN (1991), 291 pp., L45.00.

The genesis for this volume came from a meeting held at the Pheonix meetings of the American Association of Geographers in 1988; it is concerned with the regional and national impacts in the U.S., as well as providing an analysis of nonU.S. venture capital investment patterns. Chapters cover New Zealand, Canada, the Pacific Rim and the U.K. A different view point for those with a particular interest in the subject. Another collection of papers for the specialist is Regional Innovation and Decentralization: High Tech Industry and Government Policy, ULRICH HILPERT, Routledge (1991), 320 pp., L40.00.

Managing for Quality in the Service Sector, WILLEM MASTENBROEK (Ed.), Blackwell (1991), 260 pp., A35.00. Written by a group of management consultants of Holland Consulting Group. The field of quality improvement in the service sector is undergoing rapid change and the 20 chapters in this study are well presented and based on sound practical experience. A useful survey of important issues, but surprising no mention of the work of Deming.

Marketing 2000: Critical Challenges for Corporate Survival, LAURA MAZUR, The Economist Intelligence Unit (1991), 118 pp., Al20.00. Based partly on research that involved in-depth interviews with 42 senior marketing specialists, both within companies and in consultancies and in academia and partly on the authors experience as editor of Marketing. A useful and readable distillation of existing wisdom, but it contains few new ideas. The importance of developing customer relationships is emphasized in Total Quality Marketing: What has to come next in sales, marketing and advertising, JOHN FRASER-ROBINSON with PIP MOSSCROP, Kogan Page (1991), 256 pp., L25.00; but, again, no mention of Deming.