Self Management in Organizations : The Dynamics of Interaction

This is a practical book for people under pressure at work.

Drawing on their experience as consultants to many organizations, big and small, in both the public and private sectors, the authors have worked out a thoughtful yet down-to-earth framework which employees, managers and business owners can use to help themselves become more productive, more confident and possibly at the same time more at ease with themselves and their operating environment.

In today's world of downsizing, increasing international competitiveness and often mixed ethical messages, there are many pressures which challenge a person's own basic values.

In contrast to numerous inherently optimistic theories of organizational effectiveness, reality is often difficult and at times seemingly hopeless.

This book recognizes these pressures and lays out an approach to help readers assume more responsibility, improve their self-confidence and develop greater skill in self management.

In the final section it also extends these relatively internal concepts to specific techniques which can be used in managing others. Tackling the question of authority and leadership from a self management perspective quickly produces specific steps which can be of assistance to a wide variety of managers.

Particularly addressed are the issues of how to best employ personal power in organizations, and how the concept of performance appraisal needs to be reexamined in the light of a self-management approach.

The authors are professors of industrial psychology with MBAs from Berkeley, Syracuse, and Loyola, and have extensive consulting experience throughout North America, Europe and Japan.