Understanding Management

Paul Willman is a Professor of Management at LSE. He was head of the Employment Relations and Organisational Behaviour Group from 2008-11. He designed and launched the two year Masters' in Management degree, and launched a modular Executive version (Global MiM) in 2013. He was Professorial Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and the inaugural Ernest Butten Professor of Management Studies in the Said Business School, Oxford University, 2000-2006. He was Director of Executive Education at Oxford 2001-3 and founding Director of the Oxford EMBA. He was Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Industrial Relations at London Business School from 1991-2000, Director of the Sloan Msc Programme, 1989-92 and Head of the Organisational Behaviour Group 1998-2000.

• INTRODUCTION ; APPENDIX SOME CORE TEXTS

What do they teach in business schools, and where did these ideas come from? Paul Willman lays out the central concepts that animate the six core disciplines (accounting, operations, management, marketing, strategy, and finance) in a compact and enjoyable way. He also traces the often surprising origins of contemporary business ideas, from mass-production shipbuilding in 16th century Venice to heat diffusion equations from engineering. [A thinking persons guide to the theory behind management.]