Management of the Absurd

ISBN: 9780684800806

出版年: 1996-3

页数: 176

定价: 42.00

内容简介

From Publishers Weekly Psychologist， management consultant， former CEO and college dean， and currently head of the International Design Conference in Aspen， Farson has put together a challenging， irritating， galvanizing manual designed to help managers cope with the paradoxes， organizational logjams and interpersonal dynamics of corporate， business and institutional life. In 33 short， conversational chapters， he delivers a series of Zen-like injunctions to jolt readers out of well-worn grooves of thought and action. Some of these prescriptions have a counterintuitive appeal ("Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for." "Once you find a management technique that works， give it up"). Others exude Confucian wisdom ("Every great strength is a great weakness")， and still others sound potentially dangerous if misapplied ("Praising people does not motivate them"). This pithy guide is an armchair workshop in participative management. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information， Inc. From Library Journal Like Alice on the far side of the Looking Glass， the reader of psychologist and educator Farson's book is at first confused and disconcerted. With chapters like "Once You Find a Management Technique That Works， Give It Up" and "Organizations That Need Help Most Will Benefit from It the Least，" it reverses logic， reason， and the basic building blocks of common sense. Yet Farson's topsy-turvy world of management tenets strangely rings true at times. Farson presents paradoxes to make us pause in our relative certainty and consider the complete opposite. The paradox of rising expectations， for example， demonstrates that the more things improve， the more people demand improvement. We think we want creativity， but， argues Farson， what we really want is controlled creativity. These are but a few of the truths Farson conjures from the flip side of the coin. For public library management collections.?Randy L. Abbott， Univ. of Evansville Libs.， Ind. Hammond， Joshua & James Morrison.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews