Building Efficient Management and Leadership Practices : The Contemporary Relevance of Chester I. Barnard's Thought in the Context of the Knowledge-based Economy

This book examines the relationships among leadership, the quality of the management process and business results. Drawing from the pioneering contributions of Chester I. Barnard, this book defines the role and characteristics of an effective and efficient manager in the new knowledge economy. This book also examines the relevance of Barnard’s work on modern studies in economics and business administration.

Chester I. Barnard considered the company to be a complex socio-economic system, oriented towards general aims. A company’s behavior is rational if its constituent elements and management models are planned, organized, guided and regulated in order to create and maintain a cooperative system that combines efficiency and effectiveness. In this book, the conceptual construction of Barnard’s management theory is represented by a synthetic scheme in which the various components of the business process (including leadership) and their influences on the outcome variables of the company are linked as a system. This approach makes this book appealing to academics, scholars and professionals in business, management, administration and knowledge management.

Stefania Zanda is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, School of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome.

After graduating in Economics, she was Co-ordinator for Masters in Entertainment Management and, Management Development for LUISS Management School of Rome, participating in various research projects on Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources and then Company Organization, Work Organization and Production Cycles. She then worked in teaching and training for various courses at Sapienza University including the Quality Management postgraduate course and for companies in the private and public sectors.
 
She has also been a consultant and teacher for several public and private organizations: IFAP- IRI, IAFE, PhD teacher in Management, Banking and Commodities Sciences for Quality Management in the Sapienza University Department of Management.

She was responsible for the project Quality in Public Television (Qualità e Sicurezza nell’Audiovisivo), School of Economics Research, Sapienza University – RAI convention.

She is a member of the Quality Monitoring Committee Team of MANIMP (Management delle Imprese) for the Business Management postgraduate course in the Department of Management, School of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome. She is a reviewer for the International Journal of Environment and Health (IJEnvH) (Inderscience Enterprises Ltd & UNESCO). She is also a member of SIM (Società Italiana di Merceologia).

For the last ten years, her main interest has been Total Quality Management and Leadership, involving collaboration with important companies and the completion of various research projects.