Principles of Management Essentials You Always Wanted To Know is a concise, practical guide tailored for aspiring and new managers, particularly for the COB300 course at James Madison University. It covers management functions, ethics, motivation, organizational culture, and international business. With clear explanations, real-world examples, charts, and quizzes, it fosters understanding and critical thinking. Its accessible design and comprehensive content make it an invaluable resource for management students and professionals.

The Special Edition of Principles of Management Essentials You Always Wanted to Know, part of the Self-Learning Management Series, is a great beginner’s guide to management in a changing world with an additional focus on ethics, motivation, and impact. It is laid out simply, starting with the foundation of explaining management (looking at types of managers and functions of managers). I particularly found the chapter explaining the difference in a manager and leader to be helpful. An entire chapter is devoted to business ethics as well as ethical decision making. Corporate social responsibility has a lengthy discussion and then a look at people management and organizational culture. The day-to-day topics such as planning, decision making, motivation, conflict management, change, and problem solving are also covered.
I enjoyed all the visuals, diagrams, and quick facts scattered throughout the chapters. I also like that the chapters conclude with a summary of the key points and then offer a quiz. Whether you are a new manager, you teacher managers or management content, or you’re an experienced manager looking for a consolidated source with fresh ideas and perspectives, this a good resource.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley, and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

The writing is generally easy to follow/understand, though it is a little clunky at times. Hopefully this comes down to some additional editing. Chapter summaries with bulleted main points offer a concise and helpful moment for review. There is also a quiz after the chapter summaries. Earlier chapters are short, and later chapters contain more in-depth information with graphics and examples. I also noticed the addition of discussion questions, which seems better suited to the more complicated topics of later chapters, and could be helpful for students learning to articulate these topics. Having information reiterated in different forms seems to be a solid tactic for retaining the main points from each chapter.