Business Essentials, 1st Edition © 2025

Ronald J. Ebert is Emeritus Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Professor Ebert’s work has been based on 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 have included such firms as Mobay Corporation, 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 US Savings and Loan League, and the Central Missouri Manufacturing Training Consortium.

His experience as a practitioner fostered an advocacy for integrating concepts with best business practices in business education. The 5 business books he has coauthored have been translated into Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Malaysian, Bahasa Indonesian, and Romanian languages. Professor 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.

Professor Ebert retired from his role as co-author of this book after the publication of its 11th edition, but his imprint and myriad contributions can still be found in many different places throughout the text.

Ricky Griffin joined the faculty at Texas A&M University in 1981. During his career at Texas A&M, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in management, organizational behavior, human resource management, and international business. Professor Griffin’s research interests include workplace aggression and violence, organizational security, workplace culture, and leadership. His work has been published in such journals as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Journal of Management. He served as Associate Editor and then as Editor of Journal of Management.

Professor Griffin has led executive development programs and/or consulted with such firms as Halliburton, Concho, KBR, Ascend, Shell Oil Company, Six Flags, and WinCo. He has also delivered invited presentations in England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Australia. He has also served as a consulting expert in numerous legal cases involving workplace violence and bullying and general human resource and talent management practices.

In addition, Professor Griffin has authored or coauthored several leading textbooks and coedited 3 scholarly books. His books have been used at more than 500 colleges and universities on 5 continents and have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Polish, and Chinese. He has served the Academy of Management as Chair of the Organizational Behavior Division and as Program Chair of the Research Methods Division. He also has served as President of the Southwest Division of the Academy of Management and on the Board of Directors of the Southern Management Association. Professor Griffin is a Fellow of both the Academy of Management and the Southern Management Association. He has also won several awards for research and has been supported by more than $1,500,000 in external research funding. Professor Griffin has served as Director of the Center for Human Resource Management and Head of the Department of Management at Texas A&M University. He has also served as Executive Associate Dean and Interim Dean at the Mays Business School.