The Art of Managing People

What must be acknowledged by anyone who opens The Art of Managing People is what it does not do, which is present a densely argued, theory-driven historiography of American management methods. From first to last, the text is action oriented, not oblivious of theory but not overly concerned to analyze theory for its own sake. The assertion of a dynamic approach (p. xi) to management sets the stage for a concept of management that will be open, as far as possible, to new information, in an "ever changing and evolving" workplace. The book is aimed at the new manager or at a manager who might be looking for ways to reinvigorate a possibly demoralized staff. There are very few footnotes and parenthetical references. Instead, the text is very much in the vein of a how-to book or magazine that provides background information and prescriptive to-dos, crediting experts from whom prescriptions have been derived in chapter-by-chapter reference lists. The authors' task appears to have been to make a straightforward commercial success out of a business book. The content of that effort is a text tha

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the authors provide a strategy for understanding one's own behavior level and that of others, with a view toward reaching adult-adult transactions and toward diminishing trust-destroying psychological "games" involving social-role assertion, manipulation, and acquiescence, as victim, persecutor, or rescuer (p. 85), on the part of subordinates or managers. The benefit of the TA chapter is that it exposes the negative potential of psychological gamesmanship, and also offers "interventions" designed to break the pattern and reconstitute relationships on an adult-to-adult level. Unlike the chapters on decision and behavior styles, the authors suggest that a manager need not become a TA expert; however, awareness of psychological game playing and of ways that people fit into social/psychological roles can be useful. In an eight-chapter section on developing strong interactive communications skills, The Art of Managing People focuses on highly specific techniques for getting results consistent with the objective of interactive management. The chapter dealing with the "art of questioning" tacitly sends the message that declaring and explicating may be less effective methods for enabling employees to open up and provide sufficient infor
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Approximate Word count = 2847
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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