Skillful management is essential to the functioning of any organization. But what are the fundamental elements of a manager’s work? What tools and techniques can managers employ to achieve their goals? At a time when organizations must work across sectors, between farther physical distances, and while interweaving sustainability and equity, what do managers need to know about the changing nature of work and leadership?
Management Fundamentals is a succinct handbook of the essentials of management for current and future practitioners. Leadership experts Steven Cohen and William Eimicke concisely explain management best practices, aiming to equip managers with the tools of the trade and prepare them to tackle decision making. The book delves into the leadership role of managers, financial management skills, performance management essentials, organizational structure and human resources management, strategic planning, sustainability, contract management, private-public partnerships, public engagement and advertisement, organizational ethics, and the future of technology for management professionals. Designed for new managers as a roadmap and for experienced managers as a reference, this book offers an indispensable guide to the fundamental components of management across public, private, and social-sector organizations.
Dr. Cohen is Senior Vice Dean of SPS, professor in the practice of public affairs at SIPA, and the director of the Earth Institute’s Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management as well as two other masters’ programs at Columbia University. His books include The Sustainable City (Columbia, 2017) and Sustainability Management (Columbia, 2011).
Dr. Eimicke is a professor of practice and the founding director of the Picker Center for Executive Education at SIPA. He previously served as New York City’s Deputy Fire Commissioner for Strategic Planning and Policy, as the housing “czar” of New York State, and as a housing policy and management consultant to vice president Al Gore’s National Performance Review. He has co-authored four books on topics including effective public management, contracting, sustainability, and management innovation.
Management Fundamentals builds on our decades of experience as managers and management professors, combining what we have learned both in practice and in the literature… for organizations and managers in all three sectors: public, private, and nonprofit.
—Steven Cohen and William Eimicke; Introduction, "Management Fundamentals"
Management Fundamentals has garnered praise from leaders across these three sectors:
Donna Shalala, U.S. Representative for Florida's 27th congressional district and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, says, "For years, I have been managing large, complex institutions. Yet I learned more about management from Management Fundamentals than from any book I have read in a decade."
Sarah Bloom Raskin, former U.S. deputy secretary of the Treasury, says, "At a time when plenty of focus has been on a hierarchical narrative that sees only C-suite leaders at the top and employees at the bottom, Steven Cohen and William Eimicke shine a light on the surpassing importance of what excellent managers in the middle know and do about institutional success. Management Fundamentals is a must-read."
“Management Fundamentals is an essential read for managers across all sectors," says Steven Fulop, Mayor of Jersey City.
Ganapathy Krishnan, Director of the Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation and Apollo Tele Health Services India, says, “Management Fundamentals shares the worldly wisdom of its authors as invaluable lessons. This book makes it clear that getting work done is an art and a science, as is becoming an excellent manager and a leader.”
“Cohen and Eimicke combine their broad experience as academics and practitioners to chart a highly relevant overview of public and nonprofit management. Definitely a book to be read and taught by those who care about public value," says Stephen Goldsmith, author of A New City O/S: The Power of Open, Collaborative, and Distributed Governance.
David Osborne, author of Reinventing America’s Schools and Reinventing Government, says, “A wonderful introduction to the field of management. Dealing with for-profit, nonprofit, and public-sector management issues in practical fashion, it underlines how important it has become to engage all three sectors in addressing society’s challenges.”
Visit Columbia University Press to purchase a copy of Management Fundamentals.
