Michael Earl – författare

The last five decades have seen a sea-change in business and in management studies. The world of business has been transformed by powerful forces: globalization, IT, outsourcing and all manner of organizational reshaping and flattening. At the same time Management Studies has seen a massive expansion in courses, students and teachers, driven in part by a quest for new and broader models. The ground covered by Management Studies, and the way Management Studies maps this, have changed.This book, written by specialist experts, analyses these developments in Management Studies, giving a concise guide to specific areas. Working from the broader global and technological context, it explores a range of sectors - private, public and professional - and conclude by examining specific functions involved in management, such as Corporate Strategy, Information Technology, Operations Management, and Marketing. The authors are all associated with Templeton College at the University of Oxford, a school known for its close work with managers, companies, and other types of organizations, through its executive education programmes and high-impact business research. This experience, and its specialist knowledge, leaves it uniquely positioned to chronicle and comment on the development of the discipline of management studies and point the way ahead.

Information technology has become a strategic resource, which has important implications for managers and management students who are faced with new opportunities and new threatsLeading academics and businessmen from around the world have contributed to this volume to describe the current state of the art in IT. Topics include the place of technology in corporate strategy, the use of IT to gain competitive advantage, the formulation of information systems strategies, competitive dynamics in the use of value added networks, strategies for end-user computing, leadership in information management, and the development of IT human resources. Case studies are presented from Ford in Europe, ICI, Volvo, and the UK Inland Revenue.