Competitiveness Strategies for Negative Organizations: Challenging the Status Quo

Beatriz Graça was born and raised in Aveiro, Portugal. She started her bachelor's in office management and business communication. After her bachelor's and while working at a law firm, Beatriz realized she wanted a more active role in managing an organization, and having decided to pursue a Master's, she settled on a master's degree in management from the University of Aveiro. Her thesis, which focused on negative organizations, and strategies on how to improve them, or prevent their emergence, showed her eagerness to make an active change in the corporate sector, having served as the basis for the current book (though quite a lot of more material was added to the narrative, in order to better establish the concept of what a negative organisation is and the solutions to the problem). While looking for a role more suited to her capabilities, and all the while finishing her master's thesis she was also invited to start working in Luxembourg at an European Institution.

Dr Manuel Au-Yong Oliveira is an Associate Professor with Habilitation at the University of Aveiro, having lectured previously at the University of Porto (FEUP) as well as at other universities and polytechnics in Portugal. He has a career of two decades in industry, having performed in a number of different firms, including with three multinationals (Accenture, Worthington Cylinders, Waterco). Manuel uses his unique past experience to bring real-life practical contributions to the classroom and to his research in Portugal, including about a certain negativity felt in some organisations in Portugal - which may explain our economic lag and systematic underperformance. Manuel finished his PhD in 2012, at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) - a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management. The PhD thesis (awarded a distinction) focused on innovation (management), as Manuel during his career realised its importance to sales and to the well-being of the enterprise. Manuel became a full-time academic in 2014. Manuel was immediately invited to become a member of the Executive Committee of his department DEGEIT (Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism), a post which he maintained for eight years. Manuel was also the Director of the BSc in management (2015-2016) as well as of the Master's in Management (2016-2022), all at the University of Aveiro. Manuel has embraced three roles as Principal Investigator for internationally funded academic European projects (including a CoVE project in the tourism sector, as Manuel did his post-doctoral studies in this area), as well as serving as consultant researcher to a number of other projects at the University of Aveiro. In 2023 Manuel was awarded an honourable mention in the UA Annual Researcher Awards, for the Social Sciences. Manuel has published two authored books, both on negative organizations, while providing ample solutions to the problem.

Beatriz Graça 出生並成長於葡萄牙的阿維羅。她開始攻讀辦公室管理和商業溝通的學士學位。在完成學士學位後，Beatriz 在一家律師事務所工作時意識到自己希望在組織管理中扮演更積極的角色，因此決定攻讀碩士學位，最終選擇了阿維羅大學的管理碩士學位。她的論文專注於負面組織及改善或防止其出現的策略，顯示出她希望在企業界積極改變的熱忱，這也成為本書的基礎（雖然在敘述中添加了相當多的材料，以更好地確立負面組織的概念及其解決方案）。在尋找更適合自己能力的角色的同時，她也在完成碩士論文，並受邀在盧森堡的一個歐洲機構工作。

Manuel Au-Yong Oliveira 博士是阿維羅大學的副教授，並擁有資格認證，曾在波爾圖大學（FEUP）及葡萄牙其他大學和理工學院任教。他在業界擁有二十年的職業生涯，曾在多家不同的公司工作，包括三家跨國公司（Accenture、Worthington Cylinders、Waterco）。Manuel 利用他獨特的過去經驗，為課堂和在葡萄牙的研究帶來實際的貢獻，包括對某些葡萄牙組織中感受到的負面情緒的研究——這可能解釋了我們的經濟滯後和系統性表現不佳。Manuel 於 2012 年在波爾圖大學工程學院（FEUP）獲得工業工程與管理的博士學位，並且他的博士論文（獲得優異獎）專注於創新（管理），因為在他的職業生涯中，他意識到創新對銷售和企業福祉的重要性。Manuel 於 2014 年成為全職學者，並立即被邀請成為其所屬系所 DEGEIT（經濟、管理、工業工程與旅遊系）的執行委員會成員，該職位他維持了八年。Manuel 也曾擔任管理學士學位（2015-2016）及管理碩士學位（2016-2022）的主任，均在阿維羅大學。Manuel 擔任過三個國際資助的學術歐洲項目的首席研究員（包括一個旅遊領域的 CoVE 項目，因為 Manuel 在該領域進行了博士後研究），並擔任阿維羅大學其他多個項目的顧問研究員。2023 年，Manuel 在 UA 年度研究者獎中獲得社會科學類的榮譽提名。Manuel 已出版兩本著作，均關於負面組織，並提供了豐富的解決方案。