From the Inside Flap
Preface
Managers are bombarded with advice from consultants, professors, business journalists, and assorted management "gurus" on how to manage their employees. A lot of this advice is well thought out and valuable. Much of it, however, is a gross generalization, ambiguous, inconsistent, or superficial. Some of it is even just downright wrong. Regardless of the quality, there doesn't seem to be any slowdown in the outpouring of this advice. Quite to the contrary. Books on business and management have replaced sex, self-help, and weight loss as topics on many nonfiction best-sellers lists.
I've been teaching and writing about managing people at work for 30 years. As part of my writing efforts, I have read upwards of 25,000 research studies on human behavior. While my practitioner friends are often quick to criticize research and theory-testing, this research has provided us with innumerable insights into human behavior. Unfortunately, to date there has been no short, concise summary of behavioral research that cuts through the jargon to give managers the truth about what works and doesn't work when it comes to managing people at work. Well, this is no longer true. This book has been written to fill that void.
I've organized this book around key, human-behavior-related problem areas that managers face: hiring, motivation, leadership, communication, team building, conflict management, job design, evaluating performance, and coping with change. Within each problem area, I've identified a select set of topics that are relevant to managers and where there is substantial research evidence to draw upon. In addition, I've included suggestions to help readers apply this information to improve their managerial effectiveness. And at the back of the book, I've listed references upon which the chapters are based.
Who was this book written for? Practicing managers and those aspiring to a management position—from CEOs to supervisor wannabes. I wrote it because I believe you shouldn't have to read through detailed textbooks in human resources or organizational behavior to learn the truth about managing people at work. Nor should you have to attend an executive development course at a prestigious university to get the straight facts. What you get from this book, of course, will depend on your current knowledge about organizational behavior. Recent MBAs, for instance, will find this book to be a concise summary of the evidence they spent many months studying. For individuals who haven't kept current with research in organizational behavior or for those with little formal academic training, this book should provide a wealth of new insights into managing people at work.
You'll find each of the 63 topics in this book is given its own short chapter. And each chapter is essentially independent from the others. You can read them in any order you desire. Best of all, you needn't tackle this book in one sitting. It's been designed for multiple "quick reads." Read a few chapters, put it down, then pick it up again at a later date. There's no continuous story line that has to be maintained.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
The Truth About Managing People ... and Nothing but the Truth rips away the hype, fads, and clichés that keep managers from seeing the world as it actually is. Stephen P. Robbins, the world's #1 selling management textbook author, has distilled the results of thousands of research studies on human behavior into over 60 proven "truths" that can transform how you manage people—and the results you achieve.
Drawing on the world's best research on the subject, Robbins delivers no-holds-barred advice and specific tactics for hiring, motivation, leadership, communication, team-building, coping with change, job design, performance evaluation, handling conflicts, and much more. From start to finish, The Truth About Managing People ... and Nothing but the Truth offers wisdom and techniques you'll be profiting from long after today's management fads are forgotten.
- Are happy employees better employees?
- Why satisfaction and effectiveness don't necessary correlate
- Are experienced leaders better leaders?
- When experience is relevant—and when it isn't
- Why "traits" don't predict employee success-and what does
- How you behave matters more than who you are
- Why teams often create negative synergy
- How to reduce the impact of "social loafing"—and build teams that really work
- Does participatory management really work?
- Who wants to participate—and who doesn't?
- Four job-design changes that can dramatically improve productivity
- Key improvements you can start making right now
Peel off the hype and see the management world as it actually is....
- The truth about hiring, motivating, and evaluating employees
- The truth about teamwork, participatory management, and communication
- The truth about coping with change, conflict, and layoffs
- The truth about leadership and human behavior
What do we know—really know—about management? What's proven to work? What conventional wisdom has proven to be utterly worthless? In a nutshell, what's the best way to manage people to get the results you're after? Now, Stephen P. Robbins—one of the world's leading management experts and the world's #1 selling management textbook author—distills today's most important management research into 64 principles you can use right now!
Along the way, you'll discover how to overcome the real obstacles to teamwork; why too much communication can be as dangerous as too little; how to improve your hiring and employee evaluations; how to heal "layoff survivor sickness"; even how to "learn charisma."
This isn't just "someone's opinion": It's the first, definitive, evidence-based guide to effective management. In The Truth About Managing People ... and Nothing but the Truth, Robbins delivers bedrock principles you can rely on, regardless of your organization, role, or title, throughout your entire management career.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
