Effective Management in Practice: Analytical Insights and Critical Questions

Citation

Writer, F. (2014), "Effective Management in Practice: Analytical Insights and Critical Questions", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 28 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-05-2014-0039

Effective Management in Practice: Analytical Insights and Critical Questions

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, Volume 28, Issue 4

Martin Cussons,Sage,London,2013,232 pp.

Robin Wensley has strong credentials; he is an Emeritus Professor at Warwick Business School, where he was Chair of the School for five years, three Fellowships and a host of other advisory positions. He has also been involved in consultancy and management development for many organisations.

The back cover tells us the book is “…for thoughtful students, managers and academics”. It does what the title suggests, provides insights and critical questions. Indeed, in the preface while talking about the oral tradition, the author says “it leaves the listener not actually with an answer but with an insight and therefore a more meaningful question”. The book is true to its title in that it does offer and provoke critical questions. In the introduction and again later, the author deals with the issues of “it is not like that in the real world” and the notion of common sense and Aristotle’s practical wisdom. While basing his arguments and critical questions on sound academic lines, the author succeeds in offering something for the practitioner who might have that real-world perspective.

The author identifies four strands to the book, one being the importance of questions, another insights from research. Both of these are obvious throughout the book, and provide many of the benefits that are here for the reader.

The content ranges widely with chapters covering the topics of evidence-based management, tools for thinking and then making sense of the numbers. A chapter on the decision process provides perspectives on decision making, using questions and “making some sense of innovation”. The chapter on “Returning to practical wisdom” particularly caught your reviewer’s attention with its reference to common sense providing both “useful guidance […] ”, but also perhaps preventing us from asking the critical questions encouraged by the book. A chapter on the central role of stories begins by referring to Bob Dylan, and in effect, a story about his creative process. An interesting story which starts the reflection about how stories communicate ideas and concepts, moves through the “perils of learning from the past” to a concluding section which draws from previous chapters and provides “seven simple rules” which any practicing manager should find worth following.

While one could dip in and out of this book, the structure of the book lends itself better to being read in the order written, with a helpful flow of ideas and questions.

A real plus for the reader who wishes to pursue his or her own critical questions or simple curiosity is the author’s use of a wide range of quotations and references. First, these are relevant and interesting, thought provoking and support and explain the author’s point. They then lead the inquisitive reader to yet more reading, and to aid this, we are provided with links to appropriate Internet sites as well as more traditional literature sources.

Overall, the author has led us through some fundamental aspects of what it means to manage. The author admits that “this is unashamedly a book written by a management academic”. However, he succeeds in presenting his academic perspective in such a way that the practitioner can gain useful ideas and questions to inform and illuminate practice. I found the book did provide insight and pose questions, and I enjoyed reading it. For the academic study of management, it assuredly makes a positive contribution: for the practicing manager who wishes to reflect on and improve practice, there is much to be gained from the author’s content and approach.

Reviewed by Robin Wensley

The review was originally published in Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 46 No. 3, pp. 165-167