The Truth about Managing People-- and Nothing But the Truth

Stephen P. Robbins

FT Press, 2002 - Business & Economics - 211 pages

Annotation The truth about management: no-holds-barred advice and specific tactics based on the world's best research, written by the world's #1 selling management textbook author.

-- Leadership, communication, team-building, and motivation: what works, and what doesn't.

-- Four job-design changes that can dramatically improve productivity -- right now.

-- The conventional wisdom: when it's wrong, and what to do about it.

In The Truth About Managing People, one of the world's leading management experts distills today's most important management research into 64 principles you can use right now! Stephen P. Robbins rips away the hype, fads, and cliches that keep managers from seeing reality, delivering no-holds barred advice for hiring, motivation, leadership, communication, team-building, change and conflict management, performance evaluation, and much more. Robbins focuses on what we really know about management, distilled from over 30 years of management research and consulting. You'll learn what works -- and you'll learn what conventional wisdom has proven to be utterly worthless. Robbins offers real insight and specific techniques for overcoming the real obstacles to teamwork; improving your hiring and employee evaluations; healing "layoff survivor sickness"; even "learning charisma." Along the way, you'll discover why too much communication can be as dangerous as too little, why participatory management doesn't always work; why experienced leaders aren't alwa

Contents

• TRUTH 1 Forget Traits Its Behavior That Counts: 3
• What You See Is What You Get: 6
• Tips for Improving Employee Interviews: 9
• Want Pleasant Employees? Its in the Genes: 12
• Good Citizenship Counts: 14
• Brains Matter or When in Doubt Hire Smart People: 16
• Dont Count Too Much on Reference Checks: 19
• When in Doubt Hire Conscientious People: 22
• My Good Employee Is Your Stinker: 25
• Match Personalities and Jobs: 28
• Manage the Socialization of New Employees: 31
• PART II: 35
• Why Many Workers Arent Motivated at Work Today: 36
• Happy Workers Arent Necessarily Productive Workers: 39
• Workforce Generations and Values: 42
• Telling Employees to Do Your Best Isnt Likely to Achieve Their Best: 45
• Not Everyone Wants to Participate in Setting Their Goals: 48
• Professional Workers Go for the Flow: 51
• Watch Out for Cyberloafing: 54
• Criticize Behaviors Not People: 57
• You Get What You Reward: 60
• Its All Relative: 63
• Recognition Motivates and It Costs Very Little: 66
• Ways to Motivate LowSkill LowPay Employees: 69
• Theres More to High Employee Performance Than Just Motivation: 71
• PART III: 73
• The Essence of Leadership is Trust: 74
• Experience Counts Wrong: 77
• Most People THINK They Know What Good Leaders Look Like: 80
• Effective Leaders Know How to Frame Issues: 82
• You Get What You Expect: 86
• Great Followers Make Great Leaders: 88
• Charisma Can Be Learned: 90
• Make Others Dependent on You: 93
• Theres No Ideal Leadership Style: 96
• Adjust Your Leadership Style for Cultural Differences or When in Rome: 98
• When Leadership ISNT Important: 101
• PART IV: 105
• Hearing Isnt Listening: 106
• Choose the Right Communication Channel: 109
• Listen to the Grapevine: 112
• Men and Women DO Communicate Differently: 115
• What You Do Overpowers What You Say: 118
• The Case for OpenBook Management: 120
• What We Know That Makes Teams Work: 124
• Status Matters: 130
• PART VI: 137
• Beware of Groupthink: 144
• PART VII: 151
• Four JobDesign Actions That Will Make Employees: 157
• Dont Blame Me The Role of SelfServing Bias: 165
• PART IX: 171
• Most People Resist Any Change That Doesnt Jingle in Their Pockets: 172
• You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks: 176
• Use Participation to Reduce Resistance to Change: 179
• Layoffs Are as Tough on Survivors as Those Who Get Laid Off: 181
• PART X: 185
• Ill See It When I Believe It: 186
• First Impressions DO Count: 189
• Dont Ignore Emotions: 192
• Beware of the Quick Fix: 195
• References: 198

About the author

DR. STEPHEN P. ROBBINS is the world's #1 best-selling textbook author in the areas of management and organizational behavior. His books have sold more than two million copies, are currently used by students at more than one thousand U.S. colleges and universities, and are widely read worldwide. Robbins' Organizational Behavior, Ninth Edition (Prentice Hall) is the market leader throughout Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, India, China, and Scandinavia. He is the author of Managing Today and co-author of both Management, Fifth Edition and Fundamentals of Management. Robbins holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona and has served in management roles for Shell and Reynolds Metals. Currently a member of the faculty at San Diego State University (Emeritus), Robbins' research interests have focused on conflict, power, and politics in organizations, as well as the development of effective interpersonal skills. His articles on these and other topics have appeared in Business Horizons, California Management Review, Business and Economic Perspectives, International Management, Management Review, The Journal of Management Education, and other leading journals. An avid participant in masters' track and field, Robbins has set numerous indoor and outdoor age-group world sprint records since turning 50 in 1993. He has won more than a dozen indoor and outdoor U.S. national titles at 60m, 100m, 200m, and 400m, and has won five gold medals at the World Veteran Championships.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Truth about Managing People-- and Nothing But the Truth; Financial Times Prentice Hall books; Pearson Education
• Author: Stephen P. Robbins
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: FT Press, 2002
• ISBN: 013066927X, 9780130669278
• Length: 211 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Entrepreneurship; Business & Economics / General; Business & Economics / Human Resources & Personnel Management; Business & Economics / Leadership; Business & Economics / Management