This open access book clarifies confusions of strategy that have existed for nearly 40 years through the core thoughts of three fundamental elements. Unlike the traditional definition of strategy as "a plan to achieve a long-term goal from overall considerations”in a linear view, this book defines strategy from non-linear viewpoint as it is in the real world. The art of a strategy lies not only in the determination of development goals, but also in the identification of development problems and putting forward overall guiding ideology of solving problems. Rich illustrations as well as numerous business and military cases are presented in helping readers to understand the fundamental elements of strategy.

The general scope of the book includes introductions to the three fundamental elements of strategy, three-sub decisions of a complete strategic decision, incomplete strategies, relationship between tactic and strategy, three elements of competitive and corporative strategies. There may be biases in company-level, real strategic decision-making which makes a complete strategy not necessarily a perfect one. The book introduces biases and reasons for the biases, helping industrial strategic decision-makers understand the importance of knowing the nature of the company, the industry and its environment. In addition, this book also presents principles and evaluation approaches of strategic decisions, explores the reasons for the excessive definitions of the strategy concept, and discusses directions of future’s research tasks.

The book will benefit business managers who are interested in knowing what a complete strategic decision is and how to avoid errors or biases in strategic decision-making. It also benefits students in business schools (especially in MBA/EMBA programs) who are (or will be) on executive positions. Academic researchers may find it is interesting to understand strategy from the view of the three elements. The new view provides a novel insight into strategy and promotes several research directions in the future. The three elements of strategy are also applicable to military strategies and readers who are interested in military and may find its value as well.

[Book Author: Xiu-bao Yu]

Principles of Management teaches management principles to tomorrow’s business leaders by weaving three threads through every chapter: strategy, entrepreneurship and active leadership. 

The book is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA) in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author do not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.

Summary of Contents Page:

Chapter 1: Introduction to Principles of Management

Chapter 2: Personality, Attitudes, and Work Behaviors

Chapter 3: History, Globalization, and Values-Based Leadership

Chapter 4: Developing Mission, Vision, and Values

Chapter 5: Strategizing

Chapter 6: Goals and Objectives

Chapter 7: Organizational Structure and Change

Chapter 8: Organizational Culture

Chapter 9: Social Networks

Chapter 10: Leading People and Organizations

Chapter 11: Decision Making

Chapter 12: Communication in Organizations

Chapter 13: Managing Groups and Teams

Chapter 14: Motivating Employees

Chapter 15: The Essentials of Control

Chapter 16: Strategic Human Resource Management

This open source textbook is derived from many sources, initially from the Principles of Management by Carpenter, Bauer, and Erdogan, but there is abundant new content as well. It is published under a Creative Commons license and as such there is no charge ever for this textbook.

The most important change from 1e is that static content was removed to make room for student-generated dynamic content. Throughout the book look for the names of contributing students in the red colored example boxes. As the term progresses, you will see new examples appear as fellow students research and summarize topics for current events, all are curated by the instructor. 

Summary of Contents Page:

Introduction

Unit 1. Strategic Management Overview [incl. definitions]

Unit 2. Corporate Governance

Unit 3. The External Environment

Unit 4. Internal Capability

Unit 5. Business-level Strategy

Unit 6. Formulating Strategy

Unit 7. Corporate-level Strategy

Unit 8. Analysis and Reporting

Index to Tools and Models Used in the Textbook

Strategic Management (2020) is a 343-page open educational resource designed as an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The open textbook is intended for a senior capstone course in an undergraduate business program and suitable for a wide range of undergraduate business students including those majoring in marketing, management, business administration, accounting, finance, real estate, business information technology, and hospitality and tourism. The text presents examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today’s firms and how they go about implementing those strategies. It includes case studies, end of section key takeaways, exercises, and links to external videos, and an end-of-book glossary. The text is ideal for courses which focus on how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful. Students will learn how to conduct case analyses, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Mastering Strategy: Art and Science

Chapter 2: Assessing Organizational Performance

Chapter 3: Evaluating the External Environment

Chapter 4: Evaluating the Internal Environment

Chapter 5: Synthesis of Strategic Issues and Analysis

Chapter 6: Selecting Business-Level Strategies

Chapter 7: Innovation Strategies

Chapter 8: Selecting Corporate-Level Strategies

Chapter 9: Competing in International Markets

Chapter 10: Executing Strategy through Organizational Design

Chapter 11: Leading an Ethical Organization: Corporate Governance, Corporate Ethics, and Social Responsibility

About the Author / Editorial and Production Teams

Version Notes

Glossary