Author Description

About the Author "Ronald J. Ebert" is Emeritus Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he lectures in the Management Department and serves as advisor to students and student organizations. Dr. Ebert draws upon more than 30 years of teaching experience at such schools as Sinclair College, University of Washington, University of Missouri, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Romania), and Consortium International University (Italy). His consulting alliances include such firms as Mobay Corporation, j Kraft Foods, Oscar Mayer, Atlas Powder, and John Deere. He has designed and conducted management development programs for such diverse clients as the American Public Power Association, the United States Savings and Loan League, and the Central Missouri Manufacturing Training Consortium. His experience as a practitioner has fostered an advocacy for integrating concepts f with best business practices in business education. The five business books he has written include translations in Spanish, Chinese, Malaysian, and Romanian languages. Dr. Ebert has served as the editor of the "Journal of Operations Management." He is a past-president and fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute. He has served as consultant and external evaluator for "Quantitative Reasoning for Business Studies" an introduction-to-business project sponsored by the National Science Foundation. "Ricky W. Griffin" is Distinguished Professor of Management and holds the Blocker Chair in Business in the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University. He also currently serves as executive associate dean. He previously served as Head of the Department of Management and as director of the Center for Human Resource Management atTexas A&M. His research interests include workplace aggression and violence, executive skills and decision making, and workplace culture. Dr. Griffin's research has been published in such journals as "Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, A