We have recently seen stock-markets plunge and governments bail out banks.
People have been made redundant, and many others are very worried. Some of the short
essays in this collection are part musing and part reaction to the recent economic
situation, which hope to dispel nonsense and encourage sense in the world of people
management.
ADRIAN FURNHAM is Professor of Psychology at University College, London, UK. He is
on the editorial board of a number of journals, has received many awards, and was
recognized as the most productive psychologist in the world from 1980 to 1989. He is the
author of over 600 journal articles and more than 42 books, including successful, popular
management books. He acts as a consultant to a number of bodies including HM Government,
British Airways, HBOS and SAP and also a number of multinational corporations. He writes
regular columns in the Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times and is a frequent contributor
to BBC radio and television.
Table of Cotents
Preface xi
Introduction 1
Abusing staff 23
Benevolence and entitlement 25
Birth order, creativity, and leadership 28
Brains and beauty 31
Business speed dating 33
Careers advice 36
Common sense in troubled times 38
Communication diets 42
Compensation satisfaction 44
Corporate affairs 47
The criterion problem 49
Decisional latitude 52
Describing failure 55
Disagreeable leaders 57
Drinking in the workplace/boozing in business 59
Dysfunctional empathy 61
Faith at work 63
First impressions 66
Five factors of hubris 68
Forget your weakness 71
Getting to work and behavior at work 74
Going the extra mile 77
Happiness and success 80
Insight 82
Inspirational oratory 84
Integrity testing at selection 86
The joy of Mammon 88
Listening for clues 90
Machiavellian intelligence 92
Malleability or rigidity? 94
Management tagging 96
Modern management styles 98
Morale 101
Mr Niceguy 104
Onion and garlic types 106
Organizational prurience 108
Organizational shock absorbers 110
Organizational territoriality 112
Paradoxical constraint 115
Paranoia, perfectionism, and psychopathy 117
Pathological ambition 120
Pay secrecy 123
Pedantic, popularist, or puerile 127
People data 130
The physiology of leadership 132
Placebonic encounters 135
Political tactics at work 137
Psycho-logical marketing 139
Psychology of redundancy 142
The psychopath in our midst 144
Publication bias in business 146
Pushy parents 149
Retail enlightenment 151
Revisionist management theories 153
Selling ideology 156
Service orientation 158
Service sector strategy 162
Sex in management 164
Spurious connections 167
Story time170
Strategies for talent management 172
Subtle stereotypes 174
Success 177
Suppressed overfunctioning managers 179
Taking offense 182
Talent retention 185
Target setting 188
Typical and maximal performance 190
Value re-engineering 192
Who learns what from coaching? 194
Work-life ethics 196
Work on your weaknesses 198
Workplaces for oldies 200
216 pages, Paperback
