The People Business

In this unusual book about the relationship between psychology and management, Adrian Furnham does not present a management system based on psychological principles, but rather a collection of observations arranged in loose alphabetical order, beginning with "the aging workforce" and ending with "workplace romantic relationships." Furnham says his purpose is "to educate in an entertaining way." For the most part, he succeeds. The book resembles an old-fashioned commonplace book, full of random ideas, quotations and lists. Some are striking, as when Furnham notes the similarities between CEOs and convicts – both tend to be paranoid, narcissistic and antisocial. Others seem not particularly earth-shattering, but no doubt time, mood and circumstances will determine the degree of relevance or utility readers find in any particular observation. getAbstract finds that the book seems written as much for occasional doses of inspiration as for cover-to-cover reading.