Good people, bad managers : how work culture corrupts good intentions

209 Pages·2017·1.34 MB·English

by  Samuel A. Culbert

A N EC AV D P R A I S E F O R
GOOD PEOPLE, BAD MANAGERS
“This is pure Sam Culbert! And, if you’ve never had a class
with him, this book will give you that experience. He’s known
for his straight talk, and also for his ability to call attention to
the truth of any situation. He calls it as he sees it and he seems
to always be able to see what can’t quite be seen. You’ll prob-
ably take issue with some (or much!) of what he says, but you
will appreciate the points he makes even if you want to argue
the other side. Open this book and walk into his classroom!”
—Beverly Kaye, founder, Career Systems International and
co-author of Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People
to Stay and Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career
Conversations Employees Want
“Samuel Culbert is one of those rare writers on management
who really can see the forest despite all the organizational
trees. The result is Good People, Bad Managers—a wonderfully
clear, lively, and entertaining indictment of companies and
the people who run them. His ‘tell it like it is’ writing style
is refreshingly honest and direct, as he delivers no-nonsense
wisdom about just how bad most managers really are. It’s a
good read for managers willing to wonder why they do what
they do and whether they could do it better.”
—Harold Edwards, President, CEO and Director, Limoneira
“A String of Pearls. Muckraker, author, professor, researcher
Samuel Culbert has written a career capstone, easy to read
book that everyone, today’s managers and managers of the
future, can learn from. He gives common sense advice and
puts into words what takes place every day that people
totally miss.”
—Gordon Perkin, Co-founder and President of PATH,
initial Director of Global Health for Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation (now retired), and recipient of the Order of
Canada
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“Professor Culbert digs deep into what our Gallup research
continues to show—that very few employees here in the USA
and around the world are engaged in their jobs. Good People,
Bad Managers gets into the guts of how this all came to be, and
what managers and organizations can do to blow it up and
replace it with culture and systems that support good people
being good managers too.”
—Larry Emond, Managing Partner, Gallup
“Instead of offering quick fxes, Culbert portrays the gritty
reality that distracts well-intentioned managers and sets them
on a self-absorbed course of mediocrity. It’s a must-read for
anyone, anywhere in an organization, who wants to be effec-
tive and empathetic, and for skeptics of management theory
to understand the importance of knowing how other people
think and why they behave as they do.”
—Gayla Kraetsch Hartsough, President of KH Consulting
Group; Adjunct Associate Professor of International Public
Policy, University of Southern California
“As a former student of Sam Culbert’s, and now as a business
leader, I know how crucial—and diffcult—it is to create open
and direct discourse in a company. Good People, Bad Managers
provides managers with the framework to do just that. The
process is not for the timid, but if you care about the health and
success of your organization, this provocative and thoughtful
book is a must read.”
—Chip Robertson, Co-managing Director, Warland Invest-
ments Company
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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered
trade mark of Oxford University Press in
the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Samuel A. Culbert 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Culbert, Samuel A., author.
Title: Good people, bad managers : how work culture
corrupts good intentions / Samuel A. Culbert.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]
Identifers: LCCN 2016035233 | ISBN 9780190652395
(jacketed hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Management. | Supervisors. | Executives. |
Executive ability. | Corporate culture. | Organizational behavior.
Classifcation: LCC HD31 .C79 2017 | DDC 306.3/6—dc23 LC record
available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035233
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
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