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RR 2010/214 A Dictionary of Business and Management (5th edition) Edited by Jonathan Law Oxford University Press Oxford 2009 vii + 599 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 923489 9 £10.99/$19.99
Oxford Paperback Reference
Companion web site: www.oup.co.uk/academic/reference/resources/businessandmanagement
Keywords Business enterprise, Dictionaries, Management science
Review DOI 10.1108/09504121011057725
Jonathan Law also edited the previous edition of this established Oxford dictionary, which first appeared in 1990 as A Concise Dictionary of Business. Subsequent editions, under the title A Dictionary of Business, appeared in 1996 and 2002, and the fourth edition published in 2006 (the contents of which are also available for free at www.encyclopedia.com) was accompanied by a further name change emphasising expanded coverage of the broader management discipline.
The fourth edition boasted coverage of 6,750 terms; the fifth edition claims 7,000. Additions include entries based on humour; for example the Dilbert Principle ("large corporations knowingly promote their most incompetent staff to higher management, in the hope that this will prevent them from doing too much harm"), and the Peter Principle ("in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence"). Parkinson's Laws ("work expands to fill the time available in which to do it") were already in. These do help to give the Dictionary a lighter feel than more straight-faced subject dictionaries manage.
Aimed at students, those working in business and management and professionals, the Dictionary follows the usual format...