New book looks at management from a different perspective

What would you think if an employee everyone thought was a liability to the company gets promoted? Also, one could always take credit for whatever you accomplish, relegating you to obscurity. And, how can firms and managers make decisions that would help the organisation reap maximum gain from their human resources? These and more issues that could boost productivity and performance of workers and managers are what author Mitch Vandell handles in his new management book, “Bargepole Management; Minimal Input Maximum Gain” that is expected to change the management concept in organisations and public offices. The book uses irony to explore the best ways firms and managers can ensure accountability and work productivity. “Success is neither coincidence nor luck…,” the book notes. Though it urges managers to use all the tricks in the book to take the credit and rewards accruing from employees’ contribution, it pushes people to accept consequences of failure. “...you need to create a distance between oneself and those who contribute to the delivery of goods or services so as to avoid accountability and deflect failure and project an image of being a critical enabler for an organisation to function,” the book that will surely rub some readers the wrong way notes. Vandell uses the metaphor of the bargepole used to push or pull boats in and out of a dock in a harbour to signify the relationship between workers and those in management positions, and how this interaction helps grow the company in the long-run.