"Thinking Like a Manager: Reflections on Wildlife Management"
A new book titled "Thinking Like a Manager: Reflections on Wildlife Management" has been published by the Wildlife Management Institute. Thinking Like a Manager is a fictional novel that follows six wildlife managers—each a representative of a different perspective of the profession—succeeding an emergency survey mission in the aftermath of an oil spill in the Northwest. With the mission complete and with time on their hands due to inclement weather, they discuss the doctrines, theories and tribulations facing contemporary wildlife biologists. Some struggle with and some embrace the human element in wildlife management, yet all agree that the element is inescapable.
The target audience for the work is practicing wildlife managers (including extension wildlife specialists) and students of wildlife management, as well as managers looking for items for in-service training workshops. The format of the book -- a brief, fictional novel that follows six characters having a discussion about management concepts -- is effective as a centerpiece for small group discussions.
Thinking Like a Manager is an entertaining means of exploring the interrelationships of Aldo Leopold’s ecological tenets, the public trust doctrine and sociological practices that today’s wildlife management professionals must incorporate to be effective. For a profession that has changed drastically since its inception in the early 1900s, this novel offers a model for teamwork to achieve such an end.
Though examples are wildlife-related, the management considerations (e.g., human values, limits and capacity, scale, decision making, and integration) are generic, and just as relevant in a fisheries or forestry context.
The book publisher and distributor is the Wildlife Management Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the professional development needs of wildlife managers. The book is priced to recoup production costs only and is not a profit-making venture for the authors or the publisher. To purchase ($10.00 + $2.00 shipping) Thinking Like a Manager, contact Wildlife Management Institute, 1146 19th Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington DC 20036-3727 http://www.wildlifemanagementinstitute.org/pages/bookbros.html
