Book Review: Organisations and Management

Reviewer: Garry Clayton, Eastern Institute of Technology

Adjectives which come immediately to mind to describe Gill and Pio’s edited ‘Organisation and Management’ are relevant, readable and reliable. The editors have carefully crafted an introductory text which canvasses the science and art of managing organisations. More importantly for the local market, this work is focussed on meeting the needs of the students enrolled in the New Zealand Diploma in Business ‘Organisation and Management’ 130 courses. The success of the editors is a remarkable achievement with a stable of 11 authors contributing in total 15 distinct but nonetheless integrated chapters. Indeed, one of the strengths of the work becomes its diversity of contributors who are all experienced lecturers in the tertiary sector. Structure, as is often the case with management itself, is the key to the successful merger of what could easily have been disparate pieces of writing. Each chapter is, in essence, choreographed to ensure that the reader is carefully guided through concepts and theory through to reflective application.

Each chapter is written to enable the learning to be student-centric. They commence with clear, concise and coherent background expositions which provide sufficient depth and breadth for understanding. To enhance learning opportunities conclusions drawn by the author are followed by mini case studies and exercises designed to challenge thinking and practice. For lecturers who decide to use this text, there is an invaluable accompanying CD which provides a well-prepared set of power point shows, summaries and extra exercises for each chapter.

While a valuable contribution the book persists in the tradition of simply assuming a knowledge and understanding of the business environment. A short introductory chapter on this would have been a valuable addition to the work. An even more minor weakness is that some of the graphics, which are all well drawn, are poorly conceived. The flaws which do exist do not distract from the works overall strength which will be evident to all those who decide to use this as their standard text for introducing students to the foundations of managing in the contemporary world.