Editor and Advisors

ABOUT THE EDITOR AND ADVISORY BOARD

At the heart of the Encyclopedia of Management's editorial process was the Advisory Board. The Board team included a management professor, business reference librarians, and a freelance business writer and entrepreneur. This team of scholars and specialists, in addition to their teaching, research, writing and service work, found time to devote their expertise to the EoM. Their work began in developing and defining the list of management topics essential for inclusion. In addition to authoring a number of essays, they also assisted in selecting other qualified writers to contribute in their areas of management expertise. A brief biography of the editor and advisory board members is presented below.

DR. MARILYN M. HELMS is the Sesquicentennial Endowed Chair and a Professor of Management at Dalton State College (DSC), Dalton, Georgia. She works closely with the area business community on research projects, seminars, and training programs. Helms teaches production and operations management classes as well as classes in quality management and entrepreneurship. She held the UC Foundation and George Lester Nation Professor of Management at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from 1987 to 2000 where she also directed the Institute for Women as Entrepreneurs.

Helms holds a Doctorate of Business Administration Degree from the University of Memphis (TN). She is a Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Management (CFPIM) and a Certified Integrated Resources Manager (CIRM) of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). She also teaches certification review courses for APICS and serves as Educational Director for the local Tri-State Chapter of APICS. Dr. Helms is a Certified Quality Manager certified by the American Society for Quality.

She has published over 200 articles in periodicals including the Production and Inventory Management Journal; Transportation Quarterly; European Business Review; Journal of Information Systems Education; International Journal of Benchmarking for Quality Management and Technology; The TQM Magazine; Industrial Management; Quality Progress; Industrial Management; and the Operations Management Review.

Dr. Helms is a frequent manuscript and book reviewer, writes business cases and authors ancillaries and study guides for production and operations management textbooks. She also writes a business column for the Sunday Dalton Daily Citizen newspaper. She has received grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Coleman Foundation, and the Southern Regional Education Board to develop new curricula and outreach programs. She serves on the editorial board of several academic peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Helms has also directed and taught study abroad programs in Tokyo, Japan; Manchester Business School and at Kings College-Kensington (London); Cairns and Sydney, Australia; Monterrey, Mexico; Dublin and Galway, Ireland; and Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. She was awarded the Fulbright Teaching and Research Award and taught at the University of Coimbra, Portugal from April to June 2000.

She is a member of numerous professional organizations including the Academy of Management, the Academy of Entrepreneurship, the Decision Sciences Institute, the American Society for Competitiveness, and the American Production and Inventory Control Society. Her current research interests include entrepreneurship by women, manufacturing strategy, and supply chain management.

Helms has local and regional consulting experience and has spoken to international and national groups including the Decision Sciences Institute, the American Production and Inventory Control Society, and the Academy of Management. Her current research interests include women entrepreneurs, international competitiveness issues, corporate boards and leadership.

Dr. Helms comments on the EoM:

Even though the computer is always on and I can search the Internet for any topic, the most efficient way to find business management information is to start with the EoM. If a colleague mentions a business management term I need to be more familiar with, I consult the EoM and encourage my students to do the same. Even in the Internet age, I use a number of encyclopedias for their ease of use and comprehensive nature. You can be up-to-date on a subject in just a few minutes. It's the most effective way to start a research project. The essays in the EoM are also helpful to managers studying for certification and credentialing examinations. They offer a quick review. I am especially proud of the readings guide by subject area. I'd encourage all readers to read the Emerging Topics in Management selection of essays.

DR. R. ANTHONY (TONY) INMAN holds a Doctorate in Business Administration in Management from the University of Memphis (1988), an M.B.A. from the University of North Alabama (1983), and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Mississippi (1973).

Dr. Inman is the Ruston Building and Loan Professor of Management at Louisiana Tech University. Before assuming this professorship in 1997 he was an Associate Professor of Management at Louisiana Tech. Dr. Inman has taught courses in graduate and undergraduate Production/Operations Management, undergraduate Total Quality Management and undergraduate Purchasing. He has been a member of graduate faculty since 1990.

Dr. Inman has business experience as a former Materials Supervisor for Intex Plastics, as a Production Control Supervisor for Spun Steel, and as an Inventory Analyst for ITT Telecommunications.

Widely published in his field, his articles have appeared in journals such as Production & Inventory Management Journal, Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and Production Planning and Control. He has served on the editorial boards of Production & Inventory Management Journal, Production Planning and Control, and Southern Business and Economic Journal.

Dr. Inman is a Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Management (CFPIM) through the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). He is also an Academic Jonah as recognized by the Goldratt Institute. He was ranked 17th nationally in the article "POM Research Productivity in U.S. Business Schools," by S.T. Young, B.C. Baird, and M.E. Pullman, as published in the Journal of Operations Management volume 14 no.1, March 1996. He is a recipient of the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing: Shingo Prize Research Award for 1993, for "Determining the Critical Elements of Just-In-Time Implementation," in Decision Sciences volume 23 no.1, January/February 1992. He was recently given the Louisiana Tech University Foundation Professor Award for 2005.

Dr. Inman comments on the EOM:

Even as one of the authors, I continually find the Encyclopedia of Management to be a helpful tool for those times when I need to quickly "brush up" on a topic. It should be even more useful for students and practitioners. I frequently recommend it to students who need an understandable overview of a difficult subject. My biggest problem in using the book is in finding it (I'm not sure where it is at this moment), as it is constantly on loan.

The addition of current topics and the deletion of obsolete ones required a thorough analysis by a number of management experts. New entries plus the updating of the retained topics challenged us to find not only those most knowledgeable in their fields but those with the ability to convey their knowledge in a brief but thorough and understandable manner. I think we have succeeded quite well!

JUDITH (JUDY) NIXON is a librarian at the Krannert Library of Management and Economics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Judith has a B.S. degree from Valparaiso University in Indiana and a M.L.S. from the University of Iowa. Prior to working at the Krannert Library she worked at the University of Arizona as a business librarian, and a librarian at the Consumer and Family Sciences Library at Purdue. Nixon is a frequent advisor on business reference sources. Her published articles have appeared in periodicals such as the Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship. As a librarian, Judith is both the head of the free-standing business library and leads a team of three business reference librarians as well as six support staff. She assists undergraduates through Ph.D.-level graduate students with their research projects as well as answers a broad range of business questions from data source needs to beginning search strategies and techniques. She works closely with a number of business faculty members including the tax law area. She instructs upper level accounting students in the use of the online tax service. She teaches classes on library use for a number of business groups. In addition, her library assists with business research needs for the entire Purdue University, and technology students in particular. Her research interests include: using data to evaluate collection needs, team building, and economic collection. She also manages the Krannert Special Collection of historic economic books.

Judith shares her thoughts about the EOM, 5th edition:

The Encyclopedia of Management is a valuable first stop for research on the broad range of topics in the field of management. The essays are concise, accurate and readable. In addition, each essay has a very concise list of the most useful books, articles and websites so the reader can get a quick start on the research process. This new edition, the first since 2000, will be welcomed by librarians and researchers. We keep it at the reference desk and use it frequently.

LAURIE COLLIER HILLSTROM is a noted freelance writer with the Northern Lights Writers Group. Laurie received an MBA from the University of Michigan and is co-founder of Northern Lights Writers Group, an editorial services firm based in Michigan. She has authored or edited award-winning reference books on a wide range of subjects, including business and industry, biography, American history, and international environmental issues. Publications include Encyclopedia of Small Business (2001), The World's Environments (2003), War in the Persian Gulf Reference Library (2004), and The Industrial Revolution in America (2005).

Laurie comments on the EOM:

This completely updated edition of the Encyclopedia of Management features new entries on topics that managers must understand to succeed in business today. From the latest developments in Affirmative Action legislation to the intricacies of Flexible Spending Accounts, and from the emerging technology of Radio-Frequency Identification to the time-saving potential of Handheld Computers and Instant Messaging, EoM provides managers with up-to-date information on a wide variety of current business issues.

The editor would also like to thank Julie Gough, editorial coordinator of the EoM at Thomson Gale for her effort in coordinating this project and offering her expertise and guidance.