In Search of Management

Book excerpt: This book aims to cover the sorts of issues that managers constantly face: competencies; empowerment; chaos; culture change; survival; and competition. How do they understand these terms and apply them in their everyday lives? Tony Watson looks at the nature of managerial skill and organizational effectiveness, asking managers what it is they think they do, what power do they really have, how they manage under increasing pressure and whether they feel in control. By searching for a definition of management from managers themselves, Tony Watson draws a picture of the way managers shape their own lives and identities at the same time as shaping the organization's work activities.