Author

Jeffrey Pfeffer

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5

This review was submitted by mauzenne.

Pfeffer is the Dean of the People part of management, which is where we spend a lot of our time as well.  This book lays out how to make things happen, step by step - how to analyze your situation, assess your strengths and weaknesses, whom to align with, whom to develop better relationships with.  It's so tactical, with help every step of the way, we wish we'd written it ourselves.  MUST READ for Senior Managers, Directors and entry level VPs in large organizations.  If you're competing for a promotion with someone who uses these concepts, they will bury you.

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tlhausmann's picture
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This book is heavy on pragmatism AND it is very cleverly designed/published.

Among the features that I thoroughly enjoyed are the anecdotes printed in the margins of the text. Everything from Aesop's fables to _The Prince_ gets quoted.

The book draws on a very broad spectrum of past work.

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US41's picture

This isn't a book about business ethics. This is a book about business reality. These are the things that managers do in order to be successful. While you might find some of the techniques described to be unsavory, know that others will employ them, and those who are ignorant of what is happening will not even see it coming.

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canuck's picture

I I liked the book well enough to finish it, and there's some really good stuff in there.

However, for anyone who's been operating in the workforce for a while, you may not get many "a-ha!" moments out of it.  

The book seems to be stating things that are pretty obvious so, for me, the book's value comes from being so comprehensive and academically researched that you re-affirm linkages you already sensed were there.  

It didn't give me a new paradigm to think about, but it did make me stress test and examine my current thinking around power in organisations.

 

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BalancingAct's picture

 This is very interesting. I know I'll be thinking out of the box if I will read this one. I will give it a try.  3850 N. Powerline Road Deerfield Beach, FL 33073

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