Redefining Management

Book excerpt: This progressive -volume introduces the concept of smart power in management, bringing contemporary humanistic values to the power dynamics of organizations and businesses. The chapters review sociopolitical, economic, and technological conditions fueling the recent shift in ideas about power in management, from the globalization of business to young workers’ motivation regarding their jobs and careers. Contributors examine a range of models, processes, and frameworks for planning and implementing smart power across diverse organizations, with accompanying challenges and caveats. In its theory and examples, the book makes a cogent case for the shift from traditional hard power, with its winner takes all culture and potential for abuses, to a more creative and democratic model. Included in the coverage: · The power of change and the need to change power: changing perception of power in the organizational setting. · The dynamics of Information and Communication Technologies and smart power: implications for managerial practice. · Economic growth, management, and smart power. · New Ways of Working: from smart to shared power. · Positive psychological capital: from strengths to power. · Narcissistic leadership in organizations: a two-edged sword. Redefining management : Smart power perspectives is proactive reading for students in professional and business-related academic fields (e.g., organizational behavior, sociology, and business and management), and for managers at all organizational levels. The book is a harbinger of transformative possibilities shaping the management landscape to come.