Management Science & Operations books

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.

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.

Grafton Whyte introduces and explores a new academic theory for customer service delivery for Africa, aimed at addressing issues of poor customer service and poor service delivery. The V-Model of Service Quality (VMSQ) offers a powerful tool for measuring service quality, augmented by a service exchange model to provide a general framework for services, describe core components and provide contexts within which the VMSQ can operate. The VMSQ provides an indication of where problems may lie in a service operation, and an additional African Management Matrix identifies some of the historical and contextual barriers that need to be overcome by African managers to achieve effective customer service delivery. This book grounds the theoretical interventions in data drawn from case studies in the Sub-Saharan African context to make the models applicable to both researchers and working managers. It looks at the complex question of customer service delivery in Africa, and embraces both concepts of customer service and service delivery.

It is beyond a doubt that the business landscape is constantly changing with every small business looking for the next competitive advantage. In Understanding the New Business Paradigm in Eastern Europe, Kozielski presents a universal model for building a successful business in these hectic times. His four-tiered model is based on lessons learned from both developed and emerging markets across Eastern Europe, and is neither limited to one type of organization or a market, nor has any geographical borders. Called the "four-leaf clover," Kozielski's model features the experiences of such companies as mBank (part of Commerzbank), Aflofarm, Atlas, Redan, Sphinx and more. This work will be of interest to academics and professional who are looking for a holistic and systematic approach to successful small business management.