Management of the Absurd

Paradoxes in Leadership

Richard Farson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 1997, 172 pages

ISBN: 0-684-83044-2

Keywords: Management

Last modified: Aug. 1, 2021, 3:42 p.m.

An original, contrarian philosophy that challenges today's leaders to look past the quick fix and deal thoughtfully with the real complexities of managing people.

In organizations, as in life, human behavior is often irrational — and problems do not easily lend themselves to the simplistic answers and gimmickry offered in the myriad business "self-help" books and management training programs available today. In Management of the Absurd, Richard Farson zeros in on the paradoxes of communication, the politics of management, and the dilemmas of change, exploring relationships within organizations and offering a unique perspective on the challenges managers face.

  • Foreword by Michael Crichton
  • Introduction: Embracing Paradox and Absurdity
  • PART ONE: A Different Way of thinking
    1. The Opposite of a Profound Truth Is Also True
    2. Nothing Is as Invisible as the Obvious
  • PART TWO: The "Technology" of Human Relation
    1. The More Important a Relationship, the Less Skill Matters
    2. Once You Find a Management Technique That Works, Give It Up
    3. Effective Managers Are Not in Control
    4. Most Problems That People Have Are Not Problems
    5. Technology Creates the Opposite of Its Intended Purpose
    6. We Think We Invent Technology, but Technology Also Invents Us
  • PART THREE: The Paradoxes of Communication
    1. The More We Communicate, the Less We Communicate
    2. In Communication, Form Is More Important Than Content
    3. Listening Is More Difficult Than Talking
    4. Praising People Does Not Motivate Them
  • PART FOUR: The Politics of Management
    1. Every Act Is a Political Act
    2. The Best Resource for the Solution of Any Problem Is the Person or Group That Presents the Problem
  • PART FIVE: Organizational Predicaments
    1. Organizations That Need Help Most Will Benefit from It Least
    2. Individuals Are Almost Indestructible, but Organizations Are Very Fragile
    3. The Better Things Are, the Worse They Feel
  • PART SIX: Dilemmas of Change
    1. We Think We Want Creativity or Change, but We Really Don't
    2. We Want for Ourselves Not What We Are Missing, but More of What We Already Have
    3. Big Changes Are Easier to Make Than Small Ones
    4. We Learn Not from Our Failures but from Our Successes — and the Failures of Others
    5. Everything We Try Works, and Nothing Works
    6. Planning Is an Ineffective Way to Bring About Change
    7. Organizations Change Most by Surviving Calamities
    8. People We Think Need Changing Are Pretty Good the Way They Are
  • PART SEVEN: The Aesthetics of Leadership
    1. Every Great Strength Is a Great Weakness
    2. Morale Is Unrelated to Productivity
    3. There Are No Leaders, There Is Only Leadership
    4. The More Experienced the Managers, the More They Trust Simple Intuition
    5. Leaders Cannot Be Trained, but They Can Be Educated
    6. In Management, to Be a Professional One Must Be an Amateur
  • PART EIGHT: Avoiding the Future
    1. Lost Causes Are the Only Ones Worth Fighting For
    2. My Advice Is Don't Take My Advice
  • Acknowledgments

Reviews

Management of the Absurd

Reviewed by Roland Buresund

Excrement * (1 out of 10)

Last modified: Oct. 7, 2008, 10:51 p.m.

Pure rubbish!

Everything is the opposite of what you believe and what you can see. Any new-age guru can write rubbish like this. The only impressing thing about the book is the myriad of people that believes anything in this book. But I shouldn't be surprised, Charles Manson, Hare Krishna, RAF, etc., all have supporters that believe everything that is written/uttered by their "gurus".

If you're into management (or want to be) and belives this is a worthwhile book, my advice is to start a new career in something more fitting to your intelligence, like being a plumber or garbage man…

Comments

There are currently no comments

New Comment

required

required (not published)

optional

required

captcha

required