Product Description

Management models – love them or hate them, they're at the heart of management thinking and practice. They have two main purposes. The first is to provide a framework for improving business performance. The second is to help managers and management consultants get away with murder by intimidating the uninitiated with buzzwords and acronyms.

Key Management Models

takes the reader through each of these essential management tools in a clear, structured and practical way by answering the following key questions:

• What’s the big idea?
• When do I use it?
• In the final analysis, is it any good?

From essential management tools like kaizen, overhead value analysis and benchmarking, to models developed by Gods of management thinking like Belbin, Handy, Kotter and Mintzberg, you'll find dozens of new ways to improve your business and from now on you’ll never have to admit you don't know your way around risk reward analysis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21476 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Steven Ten Have is the Vice Chairman of the board of directors of Berenschot, a leading European management consultancy.

Customer Reviews

Meandering through Management
It’s a brave team that releases yet another text on management models in Britain in the midst of on-going heated debate about the UK’s preoccupation with management over leadership.

That said, if you do want an easy-to-read, ready-reference manual that does provide a clear, succinct overview of influential management models today, this book by ten Have et al definitely deserves shelf space. This text of just 200 pages manages to squeeze in some 56 models without leaving the reader feeling exhausted by sheer weight of content.

The book has a refreshingly practical orientation and avoids presentation of models as pure theory. The writers have helpfully defined their use of the term ‘model’ in the preface (p.ix) as: “a tool that can be employed to enable or enhance the daily functioning of both organisations and the managers within them, or to solve related problems.” The emphasis on tool, as an implement to create and change, is an implicit theme throughout this text.

Each model is approached from 3 perspectives, moving the reader gently from the “What?” to the “So what?” These perspectives are: The big idea (i.e. the basic concept), When to use it (i.e. the kind of circumstances under which use of the model might be appropriate) and The final analysis (i.e. summary comments and critique). Certain chapters also have short case examples to illustrate the points covered although, in general, I found the case study material a bit too sketchy to add value.

Design and layout are two of the book’s selling points, especially for managers who don’t have the time or inclination to work through erudite tomes of a more hefty nature. Its masterful use of text, symbols, diagrams and white space communicate a sense of clarity and confidence in the subject matter before the reader has even started to dig in. The language, too, is user-friendly and leaves the manager-practitioner feeling well informed and satisfied without any sense of bedazzlement or being patronised.

I enjoyed the amusing comment on the back cover that reflected this point: “Management models…have two main purposes. The first is to provide a framework for improving business performance. The second is to help managers and management consultants get away with murder by intimidating the uninitiated with buzzwords and acronyms.” This book works hard to restore confidence and credibility in this latter respect.

Overall, I was very impressed by the ability that ten Have et al have demonstrated in introducing and applying each model, especially for a book of this breadth and size. I will definitely recommend Key Management Models to fellow managers and consultants as one of those handy ‘flick-through’ books that help you maintain your bearings when getting your Maslows mixed up with your Mintzbergs. Marks out of 10? A good 8.

Great for MBA students
I recommend this to any business student. Most of the main theoretical models are covered in enough depth to aid understanding and justify/otherwise inclusion in assignments.

Well worth the money.

Great survey, but sometimes superficial
This 214 page book surveys 56 key management models (hence the title) in the fields of Strategy, Functional Processes, Organization, People and Behaviour and Primary Process. With that many models in those few pages, it's clear this is not going to be an in-depth treatment. The articles outline the key ideas and show the most important diagrams, as well as giving an assessment of the value of the model, under the headings of 'The Big Idea', 'When to use it' and 'The final analysis'.

Inevitably some of the concepts lend themselves better than others to this treatment. The article on the BCG matrix (question marks, cash cows, rising stars and dogs) encapsulates the idea and expresses it elegantly. The article on chaos theory is rather more sketchy.

This is a superb book for reminding you, in a handy volume, of the terminology and main ideas of management models that you already understand. It's also a good launching point for further reading, if you have the time to do this. Equally, if you are confronted with a model you are unfamiliar with in a meeting, you could quickly slip out (and break the tension, by saying "Excuse me, I just have to slip out for a -er- study break") and check out what the person is talking about.

On the other hand, this book is not a shortcut to understanding management theory. To be fair it is not marketed as such, but I suspect that a number of purchasers will be looking for that very thing.

Just a couple of final quibbles. 'Key Management Models' picks up on Mintzberg's Configurations and his Management Models, but not on his seminal 10 types of strategy, which seems an odd omission. Also, the spelling and general editing are not _quite_ up to the usual standards.

Worth having, though, if only as a quick reference to things you used to know.