Understanding Management

Prepare students for management success with this engaging survey of modern management practice. UNDERSTANDING MANAGEMENT, 8E seamlessly integrates classic management principles with today's latest management ideas to create a responsive market leading text that captivates today's readers. Acclaimed authors Richard Daft and Dorothy Marcic cover management and entrepreneurial issues within small- to mid-size companies where most students will begin their careers, as well as within larger global enterprises. Many examples focus on the constantly-evolving entertainment industry. Students gain valuable insights into real contemporary business as they examine today's best management practices. This edition helps students establish and build upon practical skills with engaging examples and numerous skill-building and application exercises in every chapter. Using a streamlined format, this edition takes a close look at how change demands innovation and how innovation requires forward-thinking, flexible leaders and organizations. With the book's complete ancillary package, UNDERSTANDING MANAGEMENT, 8E provides everything needed to prepare future managers to seize business opportunities and lead change. Be sure to also investigate the menu of high impact digital options available with this edition, including Aplia and CengageNOW.

Richard L. Daft, Ph.D., is the Brownlee O. Currey, Jr. Professor of Management and Principal Senior Lecturer in the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, where he specializes in the study of leadership and organization theory. Dr. Daft is a fellow of the Academy of Management and has served on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Journal of Management Education. He was associate editor-in-chief of Organization Science and associate editor of Administrative Science Quarterly. Dr. Daft has authored or co-authored 13 books, including The Executive and the Elephant, Organization Theory and Design, and Management. He also has authored dozens of scholarly articles, papers, and chapters, and he has published in the Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management; Accounting, Organizations and Society, Management Science, MIS Quarterly, and Organizational Behavior Teaching Review. Dr. Daft has received several government research grants in organization design, organizational innovation and change, strategy implementation, and organizational information processing. An active teacher and respected consultant, Dr. Daft has served as associate dean and helped manage a start-up enterprise. He has been involved in management development and consulting for numerous organizations, including the American Banking Association, AutoZone, Bridgestone, Vulcan Materials, TVA, Pratt & Whitney, Allstate Insurance, State Farm Insurance, the United States Air Force, the U.S. Army, Central Parking System, USAA, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dorothy Marcic, EdD, MPH, is a professor at Columbia University and a former faculty member at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Marcic is also a former Fulbright Scholar at the University of Economics in Prague and the Czech Management Center, where she taught courses and did research in leadership, organizational behavior, and cross-cultural management. She teaches courses at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies and at the University of Economics in Prague, and she has taught courses and given presentations at the Helsinki School of Economics, Slovenia Management Center, College of Trade in Bulgaria, City University of Slovakia, Landegg Institute in Switzerland, the Swedish Management Association, Technion University in Israel, and the London School of Economics. She has served on the boards of the Organizational Teaching Society, the Health Administration Section of the American Public Health Association, and the Journal of Applied Business Research. Dr. Marcic has authored 12 books, including Organizational Behavior: Experiences and Cases, (South-Western Publishing, 6th Edition, 2001), Management International (West Publishing, 1984), Women and Men in Organizations (George Washington University, 1984), and Managing with the Wisdom of Love: Uncovering the Virtue in People and Organizations (Jossey-Bass, 1997), which was rated one of the top 10 business books of 1997 by Management General. In addition, she has had dozens of articles printed in publications such as Journal of Management Development, International Quarterly of Community Health Education, Psychological Reports, and Executive Development. Professor Marcic has conducted hundreds of seminars on various business topics and consulted for executives at various companies.