What Were They Thinking?

Unconventional Wisdom about Management

Jeffrey Pfeffer

Publisher: Harvard Business School, 2007, 241 pages

ISBN: 1-4221-0312-9

Keywords: Management

Last modified: Aug. 4, 2021, 7:22 p.m.

Why do so many companies make so many missteps — even while led by hard working, smart, and serious people who expend major time and effort trying to do the right thing? In What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management, Jeffrey Pfeffer provides incisive and engaging responses to this question based on his popular Business 2.0 column, "The Human Factor."

Pfeffer shows how poor business choices arise when business leaders:

  1. FAIL TO CONSIDER THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS.
    For example, when companies get into financial trouble, they often slash wages, benefits and staff. That boosts cash flow in the short run. But it also drives essential talent — and customers — out the door as service, quality and innovation vanish.
  2. RELY ON NAIVE THEORIES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
    For instance, many executives fall victim to the prevailing — but inaccurate — belief that if you want employess to do something you have to impel them with external forces, such as threats or rewards.
  3. IGNORE OBVIOUS ANSWERS
    Many principles governing organizational behaviour are simple and powerful—but companies fail to capitalize on them. To illustrate, leaders could activate the "norm of reciprocity" by demonstrating generosity toward employees and thereby building a loyal and committed workforce. Yet management theory fails to take such obvious solutions into account.

What Were They Thinking? contains twenty-eight short chapters filled with examples, data and insights that challenge conventional beliefs and much accepted management wisdom. Each chapter also provides guidelines about how to think more deeply and intelligently about a wide range of critical topics — from people management and leadership to performance measurement and competitive strategy.

Abounding with solid organizational advice — delivered by Pfeffer himself — this book provides the wise and timely business commentary you need to make the smartest possible decisions for your company.

    1. What Were They Thinking?
      Avoiding Common Management Mistakes
  • Part I: People-Centered Strategies
    1. The Face of Your Business
      It's People, Not Software, That Build Customer Relationships
    2. Making Companies More Like Communities
    3. A Blueprint for Success
      Spend More on Training
    4. How Companies Get Smarter
      Taking Chances and Making Mistakes
    5. Why Employees Should Lead Themselves
  • Part II: Creating Effective Workplaces
    1. Stop Picking Employees' Pockets
      It Seldom Fixes Anything
    2. Let Workers Work
      The Downsides of Having People Manage Their Own Benefits
    3. Why Spy on Your Employees?
      Building Trust in the Workplace
    4. All Work, No Play?
      Maybe Long Hours Don't Pay
    5. Sins of Commission
      Be Careful What You Pay For, You May Get It
    6. More Mr. Nice Guy
      Why Cutting Benefits Is a Bad Idea
    7. Resumes Don't Tell
      Pick People for What They Can Do, Not What They May Have Done
  • Part III: Power Play
    Rethinking Leadership and Influence
    1. The Courage to Rise Above
      Don't Be Afraid to Stand Out
    2. Executive-in-Chief
      The Importance of Framing and Repetition
    3. How to Turn On the Charm
      Building Influence Through Real Human Interaction for a Change
    4. A Field Day for Executives
      The Benefits of Knowing WhatYour Organization Actually Does
    5. The Whole Truth, and Nothing But
    6. Refuse to Lose
      Persistence Pays
    7. No More Excuses
  • Part IV: Measures of Success
    Rethinking Organizational Strategy
    1. The Real Budget Crisis
      Stop Rewarding Forecasting and Negotiating Instead of Real Performance
    2. Shareholder Return Is the Wrong Measure of Performance
    3. Dare to Be Different
    4. Curbing the Urge to Merge
    5. Don't Believe the Hype About Strategy
  • Part V: Facing the Nation
    Organizations and Public Policy
    1. In Praise of Organized Labor
      What Unions Really Do
    2. What to Do — and Not Do — About Executive Pay
    3. Stopping Corporate Misdeeds
      How We Teach the Wrong Lessons

Reviews

What Were They Thinking?

Reviewed by Roland Buresund

Mediocre **** (4 out of 10)

Last modified: March 6, 2011, 2:34 p.m.

Pfeffer is normally one of my preferred authors, but this is just prolonged columns of his. Interesting as they may be, they don't warrant a whole book, and the only commonality among the chapters are that most managers are morons, but that isn't new either.

You may read it, or not. Either way, you wont miss much.

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