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The technical manager's handbook—A survival guide
Book Reviews
tional management abilities. The book will be of interest to students of the history of science and to all those interested in the development of a major international company.
George Hayward
]he TechnicalManager's Handbook--A SurvivalGuide by Melvin Silverman. Chapman and Hall, London and New York, 1996. ISBN 0-412-991217, 505 pp., paperback. This book is encyclopaedic in its coverage of management issues and theories but tends to pr6cis each topic rather too much. It therefore tends to be more of an anthology, because for serious study it would probably be necessary to go back to the original work.
The author makes good use of case studies at the beginning of each chapter with detailed possible answers at the end. As an experienced practitioner I quite liked the studies, but wonder what newcomers to management would have made of some of them if they had not read the whole chapter first. The book has fifteen good chapters covering: Technical management--a definition, Managing yourself, Building your own model, Organisational models, Model components, People management, Goals and motivation, Structures-Functions Teams, Temporary teams, Managing and controlling the technology, Leadership and ethics, Information and communication systems, Measurement and cost control, Change management, and Speculation on the future. However, it tends to treat everything as a system. Managing sys-
tems is comparatively easy, but people are not systems and, to attain optimum performance, their management is extremely difficult. Although the book discusses in various places the differences between people, functional and project managers, it does not dwell long enough on the psychology of the individual and the fact that motivation will vary with time. Hence managing people is a juggling act of high complexity. All in all, the book is a very useful and comprehensive survival guide for experienced managers but would be hard going for the inexperienced ones that it also sees as audience. I would recommended it to managers as a reference book.
G.C.S. Collins October 1996
tional management abilities. The book will be of interest to students of the history of science and to all those interested in the development of a major international company.
George Hayward
]he TechnicalManager's Handbook--A SurvivalGuide by Melvin Silverman. Chapman and Hall, London and New York, 1996. ISBN 0-412-991217, 505 pp., paperback. This book is encyclopaedic in its coverage of management issues and theories but tends to pr6cis each topic rather too much. It therefore tends to be more of an anthology, because for serious study it would probably be necessary to go back to the original work.
The author makes good use of case studies at the beginning of each chapter with detailed possible answers at the end. As an experienced practitioner I quite liked the studies, but wonder what newcomers to management would have made of some of them if they had not read the whole chapter first. The book has fifteen good chapters covering: Technical management--a definition, Managing yourself, Building your own model, Organisational models, Model components, People management, Goals and motivation, Structures-Functions Teams, Temporary teams, Managing and controlling the technology, Leadership and ethics, Information and communication systems, Measurement and cost control, Change management, and Speculation on the future. However, it tends to treat everything as a system. Managing sys-
tems is comparatively easy, but people are not systems and, to attain optimum performance, their management is extremely difficult. Although the book discusses in various places the differences between people, functional and project managers, it does not dwell long enough on the psychology of the individual and the fact that motivation will vary with time. Hence managing people is a juggling act of high complexity. All in all, the book is a very useful and comprehensive survival guide for experienced managers but would be hard going for the inexperienced ones that it also sees as audience. I would recommended it to managers as a reference book.
G.C.S. Collins October 1996