Material Detail

So how are we delivering on these promises? Let’s consider the top three ways cited by instructors and students. First, your Principles book is organized around the well-established planning, organizing,leading, and controlling framework (or, simply, P-O-L-C). The first three chapters introduce you to the managerial context, while the remaining 13 chapters are mapped to one of the four P-O-L-C sections. The P-O-L-C structure provides a number of benefits. Each chapter opens with a brief discussion of how the chapter topic fits in P-O-L-C. For instructors, the use of P-O-L-C as an overarching framework helps with the organization of class material, development of the class calendar, and making choices about adding or removing readings and real-life examples. It also provides them with an invaluable reference point at the beginning and conclusion of each class session to share with students “where we’ve been, and where we’re going next.” Pedagogically, this is a simple yet powerful tool to aid and promote student learning. For students, the P-O-L-C typology provides them with an enduring framework for processing and organizing just about everything they will learn and experience, during and beyond their classroom-based education, related to the management of organizations.

Second, there are three underlying themes carried through all the chapters. These themes arestrategic thinking, entrepreneurial thinking, and active management. Strategy, for instance, is explicitly concerned with the determinants of high performance. Importantly, you will find that we treat performance using the notion of the triple bottom line—the idea that economic performance allows individuals and organizations to perform positively in social and environmental ways as well. The triple bottom line is financial, social, and environmental performance.