Novarum Pharmaceuticals by Robert Pernick, Johns Hopkins University, and Floyd Kemske

The Varieties of Leadership at Novarum Pharmaceuticals is a novel, but it is sold in the textbook market. Storytelling is a time-honored way of educating. Case studies attempt to engage students, but are limited because they do not develop characters or settings. What is needed is a full-length novel with complex, sympathetic characters and a story grounded in leadership and organizational behavior theories. Novarum Pharmaceuticals is such a book. Set in a large U.S. firm, it follows the struggles of an executive vice president trying to launch an innovative joint venture with a Middle Eastern company. The story proceeds from Nia Stevens’ first strategic proposal, through various triumphs and setbacks, to a final crisis in which she must choose between what she views as her career and her principles. The main characters reveal a mix of motives and perceptions about each other and doing business in the Middle East. They converge and clash and their actions change as the story unfolds. Neither a tragedy nor a comedy, the book is a plausible depiction of life within a modern corporation. Novarum Pharmaceuticals embodies all the elements of a novel, but unlike novels this one contains an index that professors and students alike can use to tie characters’ actions to theory. The companion instructor’s resource manual provides an extensive discussion framework for the professor, with background material on the pharmaceutical industry, resumes of the principle characters, questions and suggested answers for every chapter, descriptions of theory and concepts, learning goals for each chapter and a bibliography of organization-related fiction.

Table of Contents Preface Introduction Résumés of Principal Characters Prologue: “Do You Need a Ride?” 1 Doing Business with Terrorists 2 Strategic Planning and Affliction 3 Feels So Good 4 Suspenders with a Belt 5 Dancing with the Team 6 Chant of the Chorus 7 Who Said Anything About Reprisal? 8 Damaged Goods Epilogue: Steadfast or Stubborn? Pharmaceutical Industry: Background Pharmaceutical Industry: StrategicBibliography—Corporate Fiction ISBN’s: Paperback: 978-1-60752-223-2 Hardcover: 978-1-60752-224-9 Price: Paperback: $45.99 Hardcover: $85.99 Publisher: Information Age Publishing

For more information, see the publisher's web page.
Thirdlion home page