The Decline of the Tea Lady : Management for Dissidents

We spend most of our lives in organisations, yet most of what is written about them obscures more than it reveals.

The Decline of the Tea Lady takes a light-hearted yet penetrating look behind the facade of management to reveal the far more interesting world beyond. A former public servant, Dr Jenny Stewart has published widely in the fields of public policy and public sector management, and is also well-known for her articles on current issues in management and policy in Quadrant and The Canberra Times. 'Jenny Stewart's book does not depend on abstract nouns, character-forming citations or that general shortage of full stops which represents a greater threat to human comfort than the disappearing hydrocarbon.

Rather it makes its point by anecdote and illustration, and by the creation of images, from the tea-lady we all remember, the world of blah and guru, of quiz show and of volunteers and bureaucracies big and small.

It's all the more powerful for that.' - Jack Waterford, Editor in Chief, The Canberra Times