Beyond the Hype: Rediscovering the Essence of Management

In recent years there has been a plethora of business advice on how to make companies more successful. Countless management gurus and business consultants have come up with new concepts and buzzwords that purport to offer the solution to every organization's competitiveness problems. Unfortunately, despite the exalted claims of these experts, these magic solutions rarely meet expectations and can detract from the real job at hand. Beyond the Hype is a groundbreaking attempt to go beyond the verbiage plaguing today's manager to understand how things actually get done in organizations. Instead of focusing on panaceas for revitalizing companies, the authors concentrate on the very essence of what managers do: mobilizing action in organizations. Rather than prescribe a specific managerial framework, they propose a new way of thinking-an "action perspective"-that emphasizes the judgement of the individual manager in determining what course of action to take.