The Effective Manager: Perspectives and Illustrations(Published in Association with The Open University)

About the Book

An up-to-date compendium of key articles, this reader should be a useful introduction to management and organizational behaviour. It brings together pieces written on the art and science of management, deliberately counterposing them to highlight alternative perspectives. The focus of the book is on the ideas and theories which a manager can use to become more effective. Six sections explore important aspects of the manager's job: management, leadership and conflict; motivation and stress at work; organizational culture; decision-making and teams; staff development; and diversity in organizations. In each section the reader should find articles which reflect major ideas or debates within the area, including those that challenge traditional views and ways of doing things. Does money motivate? Are teams useful? Does organizational culture exist? What role does sexuality play in the workplace? These are some of the questions asked. Throughout, the book underlines the need for managers to take into account the different contexts of time and culture in which they act. This book should be a useful resource for both students and professionals in general management, organizational behaviour, work psychology and human resource management.

Table of Contents:
There′s Nothing so Practical as a Good Theory - Jon Billsberry How Can Theory Help Managers Become More Effective? PART ONE: MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP AND CONFLICT Men and Women in Transition - Nigel Nicholson and Michael West Chocolate Eggs and Chester Barnard - Iain Mangham The Chinese Contract - Charles Handy Can Leaders Change Their Styles? - Andrzej Huczynski and David Buchanan How Can I Win if You Don′t Lose? - Judith Knelman Games Where the Winner Doesn′t Take All The [pound]5 Auction - Charles Handy PART TWO: MOTIVATION AND STRESS AT WORK Profit-Related Pay - Greg Clark A Retrospective Does Money Motivate? - Adrian Furnham Job Features and Excessive Stress - Peter Warr Prevention and Management of Work Stress - Lawrence R Murphy Stressed? - Kevin Daniels PART THREE: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL ENTRY Corporate Tribes - Terrence Deal and Allen Kennedy Identifying the Cultures Gender Cultures - Su Maddock and Di Parkin Women′s Choices and Strategies at Work Managing Organizational Culture - Emmanuel Ogbonna Fantasy or Reality? Phases and Levels of Organizational Change - Nicholas S Rashford and David Coghlan The Short List, or Principles of Selection - C Northcote Parkinson Hiring for the Organization, Not the Job - David E Bowen, Gerald E Ledford Jr and Barry R Nathan When Does the Recruitment and Selection Process End? The Organizational Entry Cycle and a Horticultural Metaphor - Jon Billsberry PART FOUR: DECISION MAKING AND TEAMS Satisficing - Irving L Janis and Leon Mann Limited Rationality - James March Groupthink - Irving L Janis Reaping the Benefits of Teamwork - Adrian Furnham Team Roles and a Self-Perception Inventory - R Meredith Belbin Teams - Peter Herriot and Carole Pemberton Old Myths and a New Model The Trouble with Teams - The Economist PART FIVE: DEVELOPING STAFF The Peter Principle - Laurence J Peter and Raymond Hull How Managers Can Become Developers - Alan Mumford Managing Individual Behaviour - Stephen L Fink Bringing Out the Best in People Special Needs, Different Solutions - Alan Mumford Appraisal - Clive Fletcher An Idea Whose Time Has Gone? Managing Individual Behavior - Stephen L Fink Bringing Out the Best in People PART SIX: DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATIONS The Cultural Relativity of Organizational Practices and Theories - Geert Hofstede Communicating across Cultural Barriers - Nancy Adler Actions Speak Louder than Words - Rosemary Thomson Diversity - Rajvinder Kandola and Johanna Fullerton More than Just an Empty Slogan Sex - David Sims, Stephen Fineman and Yiannis Gabriel Professional and Openly Gay - David Shallenberger A Narrative Study of the Experience Taking Action on Harassment - Kerry Hawkins PART SEVEN: POSTSCRIPT A New Deal for Middle Managers - Peter Herriot and Carole Pemberton

About the Author :
Jon Billsberry is a Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour and a member of the Centre for Human Resource and Change Management at the Open University Business School.

Review :
`There are many...excellent papers, and really too many to list or describe here. Interestingly, the papers are all short; ranging from two to about a dozen pages in length and yet one is not left with the impression that either quality nor the messge has been either diluted or lost through brevity....It is likely that the book will appeal to and be most appropriate for students new to the study of management, who wish to be introduced to what it is that the management theorist can offer the practitioner. In this respect this book works very well and I have no hesitation in recommending it for inclusion on the reading list of first or second level management development programmes′ - International Journal of Training and Development

`This text does an efficient job of introducing theory into a practical setting at the outset of the book.... Overall the book gives worthwhile synopses of many of the important issues in management. It is probably not for the in-depth study of management but gives an overall picture of the issues facing management today. This would be useful as an introductory text for management or as a refresher text to review more current management issues. The scenarios and exercises in various sections also add an experiential component to the text to enhance the reader′s knowledge. The variety of approaches to management issues that are explained give a good picture of the multitude of complications facing today′s managers′ - Management Learning

`In the first chapter, the author sets out clearly and simply to explain how theory can help managers and gives several helpful, relevant examples which should tap any manager or management student′s interest.... This book will provide a very good introduction to what management theory is about as well as an overview of key issues relating to managing people and would be most useful as an introductory text for students of management′ - Journal of Managerial Psychology