Throughout the chapters, the authors maintain a consistent approach to defining management as the infinitely complex process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals. Within this framework, they cite the functions of management as encompassing planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. "The best managers maintain a clear focus on both effectiveness and efficiency" (Bateman & Snell, 1996, 6).
The authors treat planning both as an art and a science. The "art" side includes the manager specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate action that will be taken to achieve those goals. The "science" side involves many levels of organizing. This act of organizing included but is not limited to assembling and coordinating the resources (people, finances, equipment, information, etc.) necessary to achieve goals. When the art and science combine, planning becomes a conscious, systematic process during which decisions are made about the goals and activities that an individual, group, work unit, or organization will pursue in the future. This means that the manager must be skilled in: A) "situational analysis" (the gathering, interpreting, and summarizing all information relevant to the planning issue in question; B) Envisioning Scenarios (the creation of alternative combinations of different factors into a total picture of the environment and the firm; and C) Contingency Plans (alternative courses of action which are used if the planning situation changes during the planning process.
A method of learning management skills by reading and studying actual scenarios of managers who have had various problems to solve. The student ideally is then led to ask how he or she would have acted differently. Many textbooks use case studies that are so dated as to be laughable, however, these two authors have attempted to update the cases and use contemporary cases that approach rel...