Preface This book has been written to help experienced managers and those aspiring to a career in management understand and deal with the problems and opportunities they may face in managing people and organizations in contemporary contexts.It has grown first of all from material originally prepared for a distance learning course on the spe cialist masters programmes and MBA programme of Edinburgh Business School,Heriot Watt University.Second,it also draws heavily on my research,mostly with my good friends at the University of Glasgow,into management,HRM,organizational behaviour and change.Finally.I have incorporated insights from more than thirty years teaching,consulting and managing people in the UK and a num- ber of countries in Europe,North America and Asia. The aim of the book is to fill a gap between conventional postgrad uate and executive texts on organizational behaviour and human resource management.Arguably the former don't focus enough on management and what it is required of managers-indeed some are almost anti-management-while the latter are too specialist for the needs of people occupying more generalist roles.Moreover,the major- ity of these texts are a little light on dealing with the contemporary and changing contexts in which management is performed,often fail- ing to make the connections with major international economic social and technological developments,the rise of creative and knowl- edge-based industries,intangible assets as the basis of competition, and the strategic concerns of organizations in the private,public and voluntary sectors of modern economies.My hope is that readers will find this book relevant to their existing or potential work as managers, regardless of where they live,helping them understand and apply some key concepts in business and management to their everyday working lives and their longer-term thinking about the shape and health of their organizations.Preface This book has been written to help experienced managers and those aspiring to a career in management understand and deal with the problems and opportunities they may face in managing people and organizations in contemporary contexts. It has grown first of all from material originally prepared for a distance learning course on the spe￾cialist masters programmes and MBA programme of Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University. Second, it also draws heavily on my research, mostly with my good friends at the University of Glasgow, into management, HRM, organizational behaviour and change. Finally, I have incorporated insights from more than thirty years teaching, consulting and managing people in the UK and a num￾ber of countries in Europe, North America and Asia. The aim of the book is to fill a gap between conventional postgrad￾uate and executive texts on organizational behaviour and human resource management. Arguably the former don’t focus enough on management and what it is required of managers – indeed some are almost anti-management – while the latter are too specialist for the needs of people occupying more generalist roles. Moreover, the major￾ity of these texts are a little light on dealing with the contemporary and changing contexts in which management is performed, often fail￾ing to make the connections with major international economic, social and technological developments, the rise of creative and knowl￾edge-based industries, intangible assets as the basis of competition, and the strategic concerns of organizations in the private, public and voluntary sectors of modern economies. My hope is that readers will find this book relevant to their existing or potential work as managers, regardless of where they live, helping them understand and apply some key concepts in business and management to their everyday working lives and their longer-term thinking about the shape and health of their organizations. xi