Theory R Management

Rating:
Summary: The best management book out there!
Review: I was lucky enough to find this book at a bookstore some years ago, and it has been my management bible ever since. It teaches how to handle the most important (and costly) resource in any organization... employees. Whether you know it or not, you have a relationship with everyone in your organization. Once you recognize and accept that, you can begin the process of developing those relationships into cooperative efforts that acheive organizational goals while making the workplace a much nicer place be.

Why isn't this book up there with the top selling management books of all time? Maybe the management world, which is full of matrix-based management theories and decision trees, is not yet ready to face the fact that our relationship with employees is the key to all of our business success.

Rating:
Summary: The best management book out there!
Review: I was lucky enough to find this book at a bookstore some years ago, and it has been my management bible ever since. It teaches how to handle the most important (and costly) resource in any organization... employees. Whether you know it or not, you have a relationship with everyone in your organization. Once you recognize and accept that, you can begin the process of developing those relationships into cooperative efforts that acheive organizational goals while making the workplace a much nicer place be.

Why isn't this book up there with the top selling management books of all time? Maybe the management world, which is full of matrix-based management theories and decision trees, is not yet ready to face the fact that our relationship with employees is the key to all of our business success.

Rating:
Summary: At last a book on how to treat your employees the right way!
Review: Just who is Wayne Alderson and what right does he have to tell me and you how to manage people? He has been in the trenches and succeeded. He took over PITTRON STEEL when it was undergoing an 84-day strike, had lost $6 million, was down to 300 employees, had 600 grievances per year and an absenteeism rate of 20%. Within two years, by applying his "Value of the Person" philosophies of treating workers with dignity and respect, PITTRON saw the strike end, a 400% increase in sales, a 64% increase in productivity, grievances dropped to two and absenteeism to just 1% and, best of all, the company made $6 million!

This experience led Wayne to develop a phenomenal 2-day seminar around his unique managment style that is truly the best I have ever attended. And I'm speaking as a business professor who has taught and developed seminars for 13 colleges and universities. I hosted him in the School of Business at my university some twenty years ago. He was recently here in Birmingham again teaching the young managers of an 80-year old steel company how to manage their people with dignity and respect---and still make the company profitable.

The book THEORY R MANAGEMENT is like no other managment book you will ever read. It is not about how to kick your people in the rear, or firing the bottom 10% on an annual basis. It is not about winning with intimidation or climbing to the top on a pile of worn out subordinates. No, it is about treating your people right and having them respond in in the right way. This sounds revolutionary and it is. In the past 36 years I have personally seen companies experience constant labor stife, walkouts, strikes and phenomenal turnover. But the text books I have to use never seem to address the cause of all this turmoil. They are too wrapped up in the KITA principle, Herzberg, Maslow, Theory X and Theory Y, and management versus labor to see that there is a better way.

THEORY R MANAGEMENT is all about a better way to treat people. Get the book. You won't ever regret it. And when you do, you'll probably want to call Wayne in Pittsburgh for his seminar schedule. Also get a copy of STRONGER THAN STEEL. This earlier book tells the amazing story of the turnaround of PITTRON.

If Wayne Alderson's story were ever to be made into a movie it would get two thumbs up! Get the book and see why.

Rating:
Summary: "THE" Book on Labor Relations and Employee Value
Review: There are far too many points made in this book about the importance of valuing people to adequately do it justice. Wayne Alderson, in his book "Stronger than Steel" talked about his role in the amazing turn around in the early 70's of Pittron Steel Company, and highlighted the risks he took to put people first in the heat of an "unwinnable" battle with the union. In this book, "Theory R Management", he takes the principles learned in that turn around and develops them further.

"Theory R" management says: "People come before economic and organizational concerns. They are the most important asset and the most important product of any organization". In the first chapter titled "Taking a risk to find a better way" he states that the "key is building relationships". With confrontation, everybody loses. This simple fact outlines the necessity of this book. As a Human Resources Director, I see firsthand how a failure to put people before processes can undermine a business's success. Far too often, a manager relies on confrontation instead of seeking a win/win when dealing with labor relations and employee discipline. The long-term cost is a lack of trust, not only with the one employee but others as well. This book addresses some rock solid principles to ensure both valuing the person and holding them accountable for business results are met together.

In the section titled "Treating other's with respect" Wayne outlines some principles behind "Theory R": Respect an employees needs. Respect an employee's desires. Respect an employee's potential. Respect an employee's family. These first three are pretty common in most business manuals, but "Respect an employee's family"? The theory is that if we respect an employee's family with time and appreciation, a cyclic effect begins. Family members place a greater value on the workplace and the working parent or spouse. Employees feel more pride in their work and more appreciation at home. (Page 100).

The principles here in this book are at times self-evident, at times truly revolutionary for Corporations and at times perhaps too simplistic. What is clearly evident though is how they resonate with people who hear them. Wayne is on to something here, and the risk is well worth the reward. This book should be required reading for anyone in business, especially those whose employees are supported by labor unions.

Rating:
Summary: "THE" Book on Labor Relations and Employee Value
Review: There are far too many points made in this book about the importance of valuing people to adequately do it justice. Wayne Alderson, in his book "Stronger than Steel" talked about his role in the amazing turn around in the early 70's of Pittron Steel Company, and highlighted the risks he took to put people first in the heat of an "unwinnable" battle with the union. In this book, "Theory R Management", he takes the principles learned in that turn around and develops them further.

"Theory R" management says: "People come before economic and organizational concerns. They are the most important asset and the most important product of any organization". In the first chapter titled "Taking a risk to find a better way" he states that the "key is building relationships". With confrontation, everybody loses. This simple fact outlines the necessity of this book. As a Human Resources Director, I see firsthand how a failure to put people before processes can undermine a business's success. Far too often, a manager relies on confrontation instead of seeking a win/win when dealing with labor relations and employee discipline. The long-term cost is a lack of trust, not only with the one employee but others as well. This book addresses some rock solid principles to ensure both valuing the person and holding them accountable for business results are met together.

In the section titled "Treating other's with respect" Wayne outlines some principles behind "Theory R": Respect an employees needs. Respect an employee's desires. Respect an employee's potential. Respect an employee's family. These first three are pretty common in most business manuals, but "Respect an employee's family"? The theory is that if we respect an employee's family with time and appreciation, a cyclic effect begins. Family members place a greater value on the workplace and the working parent or spouse. Employees feel more pride in their work and more appreciation at home. (Page 100).

The principles here in this book are at times self-evident, at times truly revolutionary for Corporations and at times perhaps too simplistic. What is clearly evident though is how they resonate with people who hear them. Wayne is on to something here, and the risk is well worth the reward. This book should be required reading for anyone in business, especially those whose employees are supported by labor unions.

Rating:
Summary: A must for all who lead
Review: This is a must-read book for all who lead. It is a workside companion, a "devotional" that will help keep us on track. For the follower, it is a "prayer list" for their superiors. It is also a checklist for them as they aspire to be leaders one day.

I don't just read this book for myself. There is a strong urge within me to pass it on to people of influence and people that could reshape the soul of the firm for good.

This book is best out of the shelves and into the hands of people. If we were just able to digest this one, and apply it to our organization, there will be quantum transformation which will make a difference in the lives of individuals and in the life of the corporation.

Don't just read this book, DO IT, MASTER IT and PASS IT ON!