Book review article: management lexicons and dictionaries

• Author: David Hussey
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1697(199908)8:5<303::AID-JSC440>3.0.CO;2-0
• Published date: 01 August 1999
• Date: 01 August 1999

Book review article:

management lexicons

and dictionaries

David Hussey

Three management dictionary books were

published in 1998, each very different, but all

covering strategic management to a greater or

lesser extent. In addition, the glossary of tech-

niques for strategic analysis, which appeared

in this journal (6.2, 1996), was included in one

of the books of collected articles from the

journal (Hussey, 1998). In 1997 the compre-

hensive, but in my opinion somewhat ¯awed,

encyclopedic dictionary of strategic manage-

ment was published (Channon, 1997), which I

reviewed for the journal (7.1, 1998). All this

activity suggests that the authors and publish-

ers see a market in this type of publication.

Although these publications are new, they

are by no means the pioneers in this ®eld.

My bookshelf holds a range of dictionaries,

published either by Penguin or Macmillan,

covering such subjects as geography, psy-

chology, economics, information technology,

and accounting. The ®rst attempt I personally

came across to produce something in the

strategy ®eld was by a small group in the

Strategic Planning Society, London, shortly

after its information (under a different name)

in the 1960s. The idea was to produce a list of

de®nitions of strategic planning terms such as

`objectives', `goals', and `strategy'. It was never

published, because the only people who

agreed with the de®nitions were the two or

three who had written them. If it had been

issued, it would have been on perhaps three

pages of foolscap, which is far below the size of

the current lexicons.

Over the years I have acquired or used

several lexicons which were particularly

relevant to strategic management. They

included an early book on techniques

(Argenti, 1969), a guide to concepts and

models, (KarloÈf, 1989), and a more general

management dictionary/encyclopaedia

(Kempner, 1987). Of these, the Kempner

book has been a constant source of reference

over the years (I had originally purchased the

1976 edition) and it sets the standard which

allows me to judge the usefulness of this type

of publication. In fact I have used it more for

topics not normally seen as the mainstream of

strategy, than for strategy itself, such as ¯exible

manufacturing systems, and various account-

ing and marketing concepts. Inevitably the

book suffered the problem inherent in all types

of dictionary, that new topics were not

covered. It was with some disappointment

that I learned from the publishers in 1997 that

no further editions had been published, the

book was out of print, and there were no plans

to republish.

The ®rst of the new books is closest in scope

to the Kempner, or more accurately this is true

of the ®rst part of the book.

Nohria, N. (ed.) (1998). The Portable

MBA Desk Reference 2nd edition, hard-

back, 679 pages, John Wiley, New York,

US$35/£22.95, ISBN 0-471-24530-5. Pro-

fessor Nohria is described as editorial director,

and the list of acknowledgements implies an

editorial team. The book has three parts, an

A±Z reference of essential business topics, a

directory of sources of business information,

Copyright #1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Strategic Change, August 1999

Strategic Change

Strat. Change,8, 303±306 (1999)