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Essentials of Management: by Harold Koontz and Heinz Weihrich. 10th ed.
Chennai: Tata McGraw Hill Education, 2015, 540 pp., Rs. 647, ISBN: 978-93392-2286-4
Article in Journal of Education For Business · February 2020
DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2020.1720572
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Essentials of Management
by Harold Koontz and Heinz Weihrich. 10th ed. Chennai: Tata McGraw Hill
Education, 2015, 540 pp., Rs. 647, ISBN: 978-9-3392-2286-4
Shakti Chaturvedi
To cite this article: Shakti Chaturvedi (2020): Essentials of Management, Journal of Education for
Business, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2020.1720572
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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS
BOOK REVIEW
Essentials of management, by Harold Koontz and Heinz Weihrich. 10th ed. Chennai: Tata McGraw Hill
Education, 2015, 540 pp., Rs. 647, ISBN: 978-9-3392-2286-4
Given the relevance of the word “managing” since time
immemorial, this book acts as a comprehensive guide for
understanding the basic five principles of management.
The book actively covers the subject in a smart progression from the function of planning to controlling in
organizations. In outline, this book edition covers a wide
scope of themes that will be of intrigue not just to post
graduate students of contemporary management but also
to practitioners interested in international and innovation perspective of management. There is an assortment
of marginal notes talking about key points in the chapter
and further referring to relevant websites for the reader
to explore more.
This book is crafted together by late Harold Koontz
and Heinz Weihrich. The author Harold Koontz served
as a business and government executive, university professor, management consultant, to some of the best companies across the world. On similar lines, Heinz
Weihrich is serving as a Professor and Emeritus of
Behavioral Sciences at San Francisco University. Their
book “Essentials of Management” acts as a comprehensive guide for understanding the basic five principles of
management i.e. planning, organizing, staffing, directing
and controlling. The book actively covers the subject in a
smart progression from the function of planning to control in organizations. Nevertheless, it does so in a more
updated trend.
The chapters of the book talk about the new perspectives for management. While the previous editions of
this book glanced management solely from a global point
of view, all the chapters in this edition are updated to
reflect the international, innovation as well as leadership
perspective in order to understand the management
principles better. The international perspective is continued in this edition so that students can anticipate, understand, and confront the international challenges of work
and careers today. In order to understand the international milieu of the corporate world, this feature
presents a situation or issue from an actual case wherein
a student is required to reflect on international issues
and implications. Examples include “Restructuring at
Koreas Daewoo,” “Recruiting talents at Infosys,” and
“career paths of CEOs at Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, and
GM.” Talking about the innovation perspective, new
cases have been added to each chapter, in order to better
understand the innovation foundations of management.
Each case either highlights the story of a famous company or the growth of a respected entrepreneur. Sample
cases include “the most innovative companies in the
world,” “Tata’s $2500 peoples’ car is here,” “profiles of
two visionaries: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.” Speaking
about the leadership perspective, this feature offers cases
of real leaders and their experiences to remind students
that there are many positive leadership role models from
alternative organizational contexts. Examples include
“challenges and opportunities for chairman Azim H.
Premji at Wipro,” “Manmohan Singh,” “Reed Hastings,
CEO of Netflix-from peace corps to Netflix.”
As in previous editions, the knowledge of management here also is categorized according to the five principles of management. There is a system model which is
developed in Chapter 1 and depicted at the beginning of
part 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, integrating the organization with
the external environment. This system model has gained
momentum as compared to earlier days, because the
external milieu through the globalization, has become
truly demanding. Going further, there is a mind map at
the beginning of part 1 to 6 which make possible to
fathom the important management topics.
Part 1 includes the basis of management theory and
practice. It also brings forward the system model which
acts as the basic ground for this book. For a holistic
view, Part 1 consists of chapters of management and its
relationship with the external environment, social
responsibility, and ethics. Going further, part 2 to part 6
explores the basic functions of planning, organizing,
staffing, leading and controlling.
The authors Harold Koontz and Heinz Weihrich for
always have tried to build a textbook that attracts the
students with solid substance. Through statistical surveying studies and focus groups with students and educators, the authors kept on gaining what highlights worked
best from past versions, what can be improved, and what
can be added to achieve this objective both adequately
and effectively. All the twenty chapters open with a
learning objectives section which outlines the major
coverage of the chapter and concludes what it will
inform the student at the end of the chapter. Inside the
chapter, there are an assortment of marginal notes and
relevant websites talking about key points in the chapter.
At the end of each chapter, a compact list of the contents for further expansion of the topic is given which
will help the readers in learning further on the topic.
The fundamental human problem is managing time for
almost everything in life right from the workplace to personal space. In this regard, John Weihrich hearkens back to
the works of some great researchers and interviews of famous people like Michael Porter, who are his forebear in
finding out what is really missing in the contemporary
world. Weihrich comments “one should try to master these
2
BOOK REVIEW
five pillars of management from planning to controlling in
order to manage things better.” After reading this book,
one should also try to read the other classic books such as
Management: A global perspective (2005) and Management:
A systems and contingency analysis of managerial functions
(1976) coauthored by Harold Koontz and O’Donnell
(1976). These books are nationwide bestselling book.
It can be said with confidence and without inquiry
that the author of this book is well-read in theory-based
writings, which his book so obviously illustrated; and, he
has the surprising capacity to condense the wide area of
studies in his field. However, as with any review, there
are few limitations. Firstly, there is an absence of teaching notes at the end of every case discussed in all the
chapters. Without these cases, it’s a tad difficult to take
up these cases in class. Secondly, there are not even a
single experimental exercise or self-assessment inventories which can be given for students to assess themselves.
For example, leadership inventory or personality type
scale, etc. Thirdly it would be great if next edition can
include more of a cultural, psychological and
spiritual perspective of management. And lastly, it will
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be intriguing if the next edition can be inclusive of the
new concept of smart management wherein the book
can throw more light on “How power and politics have
changed the scenario of management in organizations.”
References
Koontz, H., & O’Donnell, C. (1976). Management: A systems and
contingency analysis of managerial functions. USA: Book World
Promotions.
Weihrich, H., & Koontz, H. (2005). Management: A global perspective. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Shakti Chaturvedi
Reva University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
shaktichaturvedi16@gmail.com
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5680-4727
# 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2020.1720572