The Future of Business or Competing Devotions

The Future of Business: The Essentials

Author: Lawrence J Gitman

THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS: THE ESSENTIALS, 3e prepares students for a successful career in business by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and competencies they need to prepare for tomorrow's competitive workplace. Each chapter offers a thorough presentation of business principles and also highlights emerging business trends in fields such as management, leadership, production, marketing and finance. Trends include shifts in economic policies in Europe, the global marketplace, the boom in the service sector, managing workforce diversity, new technology, and more. The text also helps students envision themselves in a business career, revealing possibilities that exist when they select business as a major through new "Exploring Business Careers" opening vignettes and videos. Advanced learning tools such as online learning resources (ThomsonNOW) and the Integrated Learning System help build business competencies. To help students develop high-performance workplace skills, the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) recommends students develop five workplace competencies: using and allocating resources, working with others, acquiring and using information, understanding systems, and working with technology. The "Preparing for Tomorrow's Workplace" activities are designed to develop these workplace skills in students. SCANS competencies and workplace skill-building are key features included in the homework section of each chapter.

Table of Contents:

PART One: THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT. 1. Understanding Economic Systems and Business. 2. Making Ethical Decisions and Managing a Socially Responsible Business. Appendix: Understanding the Legal and Tax Environment. 3. Competing in the Global Marketplace. PART Two: BUSINESS OWNERSHIP. 4. Forms of Business Ownership. 5. Entrepreneurship: Starting and Managing Your Own Business. PART Three: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT. 6. Management and Leadership in Today's Organizations. 7. Designing Organizational Structures. 8. Managing Human Resources and Labor-Management Issues. 9. Motivating Employees and Creating Self-Managed Teams. 10. Achieving World-class Operations Management. PART Four: MARKETING MANAGEMENT. 11. Creating Products and Developing Pricing Strategies. 12. Distributing and Promoting New Products and Services. PART Five: TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION. 13. Using Technology to Manage Information. 14. Using Financial Information and Accounting. PART Six: FINANCE. 15. Understanding Money and Financial Institutions. 16. Financial Management and Securities Markets. Appendix: Managing Risk and Insurance. Enrichment Chapter: Managing Your Personal Finances. Enrichment Chapter: Using the Internet for Business Success.

Interesting book: The Prince or Hackers

Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Women Executives

Author: Mary Blair Loy

The wrenching decision facing successful women choosing between demanding careers and intensive family lives has been the subject of many articles and books, most of which propose strategies for resolving the dilemma. Competing Devotions focuses on broader social and cultural forces that create women's identities and shape their understanding of what makes life worth living.

Mary Blair-Loy examines the career paths of women financial executives who have tried various approaches to balancing career and family. The professional level these women have attained requires a huge commitment of time, energy, and emotion that seems natural to employers and clients, who assume that a career deserves single-minded allegiance. Meanwhile, these women must confront the cultural model of family that defines marriage and motherhood as a woman's primary vocation. This ideal promises women creativity, intimacy, and financial stability in caring for a family. It defines children as fragile and assumes that men lack the selflessness and patience that children's primary caregivers need. This ideal is taken for granted in much of contemporary society.

The power of these assumptions is enormous but not absolute. Competing Devotions identifies women executives who try to reshape these ideas. These mavericks, who face great resistance but are aided by new ideological and material resources that come with historical change, may eventually redefine both the nuclear family and the capitalist firm in ways that reduce work-family conflict.