1st Edition

Management Practice and Mispractice

By Samuel Eilon Copyright 1992
    230 Pages
    by Routledge

    230 Pages
    by Routledge

    Originally published in 1992. The task of management has become increasingly complex in recent years. Chief executives and senior management are confronted with the task of making sense of the multiple factors affecting business systems, and identifying causal relationships in seemingly unstructured problems. In the field of management, a wide gulf exists between theory and practice. Pronouncements from theorists have become increasingly unintelligible to practitioners. Practical propositions from management consultants - often in the form of recipes derived from experience and case studies - are often based on limited hard evidence. This has given rise to many fashions in management. The danger of fashionable doctrine is that they can lead to the adoption of what may be regarded as "management mispractices", namely practices that are based on questionable beliefs and premises. The topics and problems discussed in Management Practice and Mispractice aim to provoke the reader to think about the many issues involved and to question established doctrines and beliefs. This book should be of interest to managers, management consultants and students of management.

    Preface;  1. Structuring the Unstructured  2. Mission  3. Determinants of Corporate Performance  4. Board Size and Corporate Failure  5. OR at the Top?  6. A Simple Formula  7. The Bottom-liners  8. A Misleading Performance Measure  9. Prominent Performance Ratios  10. Use and Misuse of Productivity Ratios  11. A Cake Can Be Cut in Many Ways  12. A Transfer Pricing Saga  13. Divide and Rule  14. Management Performance Appraisal  15. What Makes Sammy Run?  16. Don't Spit in the Soup, We All Have to Eat  17. The Role of Business Schools  18. Business Policy for Beginners;  Index

    Biography

    Samuel Eilon