Bøger af Robert Spillane

Funny Business: management unmasked is an exposé of management as it is practiced in business, government and the non-profit sector.Keywords are explained through humour, making them better understood than a library of management textbooks.Management theories and applications are made memorable through savage wit and fearless comedy. This book is an ideal gift for bosses, peers and subordinates to give to each other. It is similarly useful to distribute at conferences and semonars, to question assumptions and the status quo.Each business word in the book holds a bundle of meanings, and can serve to create entertaining and productive discussions.

Poses the problems inherent in being a 'psychomanager' that requires specialized knowledge so that many Australian managers have yielded their authority to counsellors, coaches and consultants. Unpacks the falsie that human behavior is determined by internal and external forces over which individuals have little or no control.Freud, Maslow, Eysenck, Skinner and other influential psychologists have denied, or minimized the importance of, personal responsibility. And insofar as managers have entered into an unholy alliance with them, they too have minimized personal responsibility at the workplace.Using his 50 years of study and teaching, the author has represented both sides of the debate about personal responsibility and human freedom. A personal and selective account of a professional life spent studying the problematic relationship between managers and psychologists.

How can we gain insight into and mastery of ourselves? Entering the world of the great philosophers and engaging with them, we become aware of what we are capable of becoming. They speak to us of themselves and the good life and thereby offer the possibility for self-development. While this sounds like psychology, it is what the ancient Greeks called moral philosophy and its main precept is 'know oneself'. To know oneself is to embrace one's personal power. From Socrates to Sartre, from Plato to postmodernism, philosophers have important things to say about the personal power that underpins human existence. This book discusses ten philosophical perspectives, or worldviews, which present original ideas capable of evoking in us values that are guidelines for personal conduct. Harmonising knowledge, values and conduct maximises our personal power and thereby enables us to solve the practical and psychological problems of human existence, or overcome those that cannot be solved. The philosophers discussed in this book embody ideas of considerable fascination and force which can change our lives by penetrating the illusions of appearance and the delusions of common sense. As philosophy is thinking critically about thinking, it is a liberating activity because philosophers confront us with our prejudices and arouse our curiosity without satisfying it.They show us what they were and how philosophy inspired them to live productive lives. They did not seek disciples but encouraged others to philosophise with them. We cannot escape from philosophy because we philosophise when we reflect critically on how well we are living.Philosophy is, therefore, a meditation on who we are and what we can become: it is an eye for an I.

Office politics, power struggles, ulterior motives, personality differences ...all combine to make this cynical poke at the "executive branch" of a typical office highly entertaining. The setting takes you to a management training program where several managers are invited to attend. As we watch form the sidelines we are witness to undercurrent of what really goes on. This is pure entertainment disguised as education! Using extensive research and personality tests for a look into human behavior we are able to glean from this witty and ironic work. Performance versus personality, management versus leadership all play a part in the clever portrayal of the world of executives. As the managers are skeptical about the motives of those who organize and conduct management conferences, they meet to discuss tactics. At the conference they argue with the psychologist who is trying to entertain them. The conference proceeds in the face of questions and arguments which challenge the authority of the psychologist who attempts to control the protagonists. But the conference participants have other ideas... Sit back in your seats, prepare to laugh uncontrollably.