BA Management Studies Preparatory Reading List
Required reading
In advance of joining us at the School of Management, we ask that you read the following required texts:
Taylor, F. W. (1911) The Principles of Scientific Management
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Principles-Scientific-Management-Frederick-Winslow-Taylor/9780486299884
Frankl, V. E. (1946) Man's Search for Meaning
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Mans-Search-for-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/9780807014295
Machiavelli, N. (1532) The Prince
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Prince-Niccolo-Machiavelli/9780140449150
Between them, these three texts will introduce you to three foundational ideas that lie at the heart of management: control, motivation and leadership. There are many versions of these texts available from a range of publishers and sellers. Please feel free to select whichever version suits you. Above, we have included links to bookdepository.co.uk which you may find useful as this website offers a cheap and reliable service.
Further reading
In addition to these required texts, you are invited to explore the further readings listed below. Each of these texts has been proposed by a member of academic staff in the School of Management. They will help to develop the high-level thinking and critical awareness that you will need in your studies. Among these texts you will find both fiction and non-fiction texts, texts which will challenge you and texts which will entertain you. To help you select which you want to read, you will find a short introduction to the text from the academic who proposed it.
Fiction
Fitzgerald, F. S. The Great Gatsby
Perhaps the first and most detailed fiction book about conspicuous consumption practices and the motives behind the desire for excess, overconsumption, status and prestige. Also a very informative book to explain class consumption and upward social mobility via the display of status symbols. It can be read also from a feminist or psychoanalytic perspective related to distress, oppression and hostility amongst others. (Dr Georgios Patsiaouras)
Ginsberg, A. 'Howl'
In this controversial jazz poem, Ginsberg reflects on the state of the world for his friend who was, at the time, institutionalized. Stepping back from the day-to-day reality of life, Ginsberg invites us to look for hidden beauty as well as hidden horrors in a world of capitalism and commerce, art and sex, love and destruction. If you are coming to university to expand your mind, this poems offers you fantastic training. (Dr Robert Cluley)
Heller, J. Catch 22
Want to leave the army? Well, you can if you are insane. But if you want to leave the army then you must be sane - only a madman would want to fight a war! In Catch 22, Heller reflects on life stuck inside a mad organization. (Dr Robert Cluley)
Larkin, P. ‘Toads’ and ‘Toads Revisited’
These poems embody two contrasting perspectives on paid work and how important it is or should be to us as well as the social consequences of being unemployed. (Prof Jo Brewis)
Miller, A. The Death of a Salesman
The book describes the transformation of salesmanship from a method or art to science and the severe consequences of this change in the lives and psyche of the old salesmen. A critical reading on the American dream of business success and the price that someone has to pay for achieving his goals, presented via a modern tragedy. (Dr Georgios Patsiaouras)
Steinbeck, J. The Grapes of Wrath
As a summer read that informs us of the extremes of market failure and all that this entails at the personal and social levels – all students should have a look at The Grapes of Wrath. (Prof Peter Jackson)
Non-fiction
Aristotle The Nicomachean Ethics
What makes people happy? What sorts of people are happy? What, above all, is happiness? Aristotle insists that it is a life of contemplation, rather than a life of wealth, of science, of politics, or of technology, or of anything else at all, that will make us as happy as we can possibly be. Aristotle still teaches us how, today, we might best live our lives. His answers remain as challenging and provocative as ever. (Dr Stephen Dunne)
Aubenas, F. The Night Cleaner
Aubenas provides a vivid insight into precarious labour. She went undercover as a worker on the minimum wage including working as a cleaner on the cross channel ferries. Her account is honest, funny and hard hitting giving witness to those who have little and work so hard for it. (Dr Sarah Robinson)
Chernow, R. Titan: the Life of John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller grew as America's most famous and powerful businessman. The book seeks to find a balance between the psychological portrait of the man and, at the same time, to explain how the most enigmatic capitalist used several unethical business practices to build his empire. (Dr Georgios Patsiaouras)
Hyde, L. The Gift
Although we tend to think of economic relations in terms of monetary transactions or other forms of mutual exchange (something is exchanged for something else), in practice in our daily lives, within and between businesses and in and through all sorts of organizations many economic exchanges take the firm of the gift. Gift relations are much older than monetary ones and fundamental to the way in which any organization functions. Gift relations are extremely important because they create open transactions and different forms of social obligation to those of other transaction. Hyde's celebrated examination of the gift explores many different aspects of this. (Dr Angus Cameron)
Klein, N. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
An angry yet well-argued account of the sweeping political-economic changes that we have experienced across the planet over the past four decades, from Chile to the countries of the former Soviet Union, from China to the UK. (Dr David Harvie)
Korten, D. When Corporations Rule the World
Maybe a bit dated but still as relevant as ever to understand the outrageous (though perfectly legal) behaviour of corporations (Dr David Harvie)
Lewis, M. Moneyball
Now an award-winning movie with Brad Pitt, Lewis’ account of the management of an unfashionable baseball team shows us how even a sports team can be scientifically managed. He shows us how, with careful analysis, bravery and critical distance, it is possible to find success in the most unlikely places. (Dr Robert Cluley)
Lewis, M. Liar’s Poker
Before he wrote Moneyball, Lewis worked in the financial services sector at a now defunct bank. In this book he gives us a blow-by-blow account of life as a trader. We see how the simple act of selling stocks and bonds corrupts people, how traders search for fools they can take advantage of and how, simmering below the surface, there are intense personal rivalries that make very intelligent people do very stupid things. (Dr Robert Cluley)
MacKenzie, D. An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets
This book gives a very nice overview of the fundamental theory which lies behind much of modern finance. It is quite an advanced text but it is certainly worth trying to read some of it. (Prof Emmanual Haven)
Parkinson, C. N. Parkinson's Law
A good and slim read for those interested in management's little foibles. Parkinson’s Law shows the enduring nature of the critique of the warfare and welfare state by an aristocrat and it seems so relevant for understanding the policies of the present crop of Tory grandees half a century later. (Prof Gibson Burrell)
Patel, R. The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy
An insightful and greatly illustrated explanation of externalities and the socially-constructed nature of commodities and pricing. (Dr David Harvie)
P.M. Bolo’Bolo
A short and easy read, Bolo’Bolo is in two parts – which can be read independently of each other. The first part contains a concise analysis of the global economy (the ‘business environment’) of the 1960s and ’70s, of the various ‘deals’ that functioned to ensure economic and social stability and the subsequent breakdown of these deals which resulted in the multiple crises of the 1970s whose effects are still reverberating across our planet four decades later. The author lets his imagination run riot in the second part in which he sets out a detailed blueprint for an alternative society, the foundation of which is the bolo. Inspired and inspiring stuff! (Dr David Harvie)
Stiglitz, J. Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy
A measured analysis of the problems and prospects of the global economy in the wake of the 2007–8 financial meltdown by the Nobel prize-winning economist. (Dr David Harvie)
Weber, Max The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
We are quite accustomed to opposing economics to religion. Economics teaches materialism whereas religion teaches spiritualism. Economics teaches selfishness whereas Religion teaches kindness. Economics teaches calculation whereas Religion teaches divination. And yet, it is possible to demonstrate how the emergence of many economic activities relies upon the prevalence of religious systems of belief. Capitalism is, therefore, something essentially religious rather than something fundamentally opposed to religion. Economic rationality and religious faith are, for Weber, very much of a piece. (Dr Stephen Dunne)
