Why did I write this book? There has never been a shortage of "how to" books to help managers get the most from their human resources. Managers have long been bombarded with advice from consultants, professors, business journalists, and assorted management “gurus” on how to manage their employees. Unfortunately, much of this advice is a gross generalization, based more on opinions rather than fact.
The Truth About Managing People was created to fill the need for a clearly written, practical guide to managing human resources, built on solid evidence rather than opinion.
Who is this book for? This book was written for both practicing managers and those aspiring to a management position—from CEOs to supervisor wannabes.
What should you expect to learn? What you get from this book 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. They won’t see elaborated theories or names of major researchers but they will find accurate translations of research findings. For individuals who haven’t kept current with research in organizational behavior or for those with little formal academic training, this book should provide new insights into managing people at work.
What's unique about this book? This book cuts through the jargon to give managers the truth about what works and doesn’t work when it comes to managing people at work. I’ve organized this book around key, human-behavior-related problem areas that managers confront. And within each problem area, I’ve identified a select set of topics that are relevant to managers and where there is substantive research evidence to draw upon. Importantly, I’ve also included suggestions to help readers apply this information to improve their managerial effectiveness.