Managing People ─ A Practical Guide for Front-Line Managers

This updated and exciting fourth edition of Managing People: A Practical Guide for Front-Line Managers addresses the growing needs of front-line managers who are not themselves specialists in personnel management but whose roles require them to have these skills. A growing trend over the last two decades has given these managers an increasing amount of responsibility of direct line management, which can be extremely challenging especially if the correct training is not given.

This book examines how the different parts of managing people fit together, whilst acknowledging that different contexts require different approaches and recognizing ongoing organizational, environmental and legal changes that affect the employment framework. It recognizes the rapidly changing context in which modern front-line managers have to operate and acknowledges the increasing expectations of good leadership as a necessity. However, the book also emphasizes the need for front-line managers to understand themselves, their own management styles and attitudes, together with the importance of empathy in appreciating the perspectives of the staff that work under them.

Managing People: A Practical Guide for Front-Line Managers is designed for both new managers and for NVQ/SVQ Level 4 students. It is also appropriate for the first stages of Foundation Degrees and for HND courses combining academic study with workplace learning.

Rosemary Thomson was a senior lecturer at the Open University Business School, UK. She was the author of the first two editions of this text before she sadly passed away in 1998. Her husband, Andrew Thomson, has worked with Eileen Arney to prepare this new edition

Eileen Arney is a lecturer in Management at The Open University, UK. Eileen has previously worked as a senior civil servant in the Home Office, including as Assistant Director of National Police Training. She has also worked in specialist HR and recruitment roles and as an Executive Coach

Andrew Thomson is Emeritus Professor at The Open University, UK where he was the first Dean of the Open University Business School (1988-93), after working in Unilever and at Glasgow University. He is authoring this edition on behalf of his late wife, Rosemary Thomson