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Dear All,

I will be teaching final year (400 level) undergraduate students a comparative management module next year. The module aims to provide the students with an understanding of the comparative approach to management and administration, elements of management and administration, the skill of management in private and public sectors as well as the military administrator, the civil servant, the manager, as interchangeable experts.

I am reaching out to you regarding a textbook recommendation and possible activities and cases. If anyone has any suggestions on a good textbook on comparative management as well as activities, exercises and cases it would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Emem.

Emen,

It looks like you are planning on a broad coverage of the comparative management! For the global comparison my recommendations are Ferrara and Briody's "The Cultural Dimensions of Global Business" (which could be a part of some other textbooks); Scheider and Barsoux' "Managing Across Cultures," and Adler with Gundersen's "International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior."

For the in-country comparative management, I assume that most of it would be between public and private management. For countries like ours, I believe that the main issues are  that public managers are subject to and impacted by democratic principles. Meaning that they are required to consult with different constituencies in case of major projects or major decisions, etc.  The business manager does not obey to the democratic principles because there is no democracy in the world of business. For the most part, a manager would have an advisory group, if she wants to! But the manager does not have to follow others' advice! The business manager could act as an emperor if he wants to!

Thanks, Ivan