Gianluigi Mangia

There are several reasons for this book. The very first reason is that management practice, in the last decade has been rife with numerous examples of corruption and scandal. Many modern organizations, with their instances of management misconduct, have eroded public faith (such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, Arthur Andersen, Parmalat). It made us realize that there is a highly active dark side to organizations that is quite unknown in management studies. However, the majority of the research and scientific publications on business and education management have been focusing on the positive, even romantic aspects of the organizations focusing on leaders’ behavior, the analysis of the positive influence of these behaviours on the members of a given organization and organizations as a whole. The second reason has to do with the fact that research on the ""dark side "" is emerging in the area of Business and Higher Education Management and should be communicated. The third reason for the book is one can observe a significant gap in the market of scientific publications, both non-serial publications and periodicals in the above discussed topics. Based on our personal experience, it could be the first book (and for sure it is one of he few books) on this subject in the world. The fourth reason is it is virtually impossible to carry all the works and research on the development of positive, bright sides of business and higher education without a thorough knowledge and understanding of the destructive, dark sides of organizations that have led and still lead to the collapse of many organizations and a decline in public confidence in the corporations and their leaders.

Contemporary management studies usually focus on positive and desirable solutions that increase the organizational effectiveness and performance. As a result, graduates of higher business schools are totally unaware of the risk associated with management misconduct that often results in corrupt scandals, erosion of public trust to their organizations, or even the collapse of profitable corporations. The last decade, in fact, has been abundant in numerous examples of corruption scandals in modern organizations and instances of management misconduct that have eroded public faith (such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, Arthur Andersen, and Parmalat). Due to repeated misconducts and a highly active dark side, scholars started paying more attention to the so-called dark side of organizations, as something no longer exceptional to organizational life. This book attempts to shed light on the reality of challenges for business practices and higher education management that stem from misconduct occurring in various aspects of business and educational environment.