Managing to Manage – The Essential Guide to People Management

This book is not for HR professionals, but for scientists and engineers, for lawyers and accountants, for nurses and police officers, for technical advisers and school teachers, for social workers, for librarians and actuaries, perhaps even for authors and lecturers -- those who may not see managing people as their main job.  Managing to Manage aims to give them the essentials to cope with the core demands of people management when their expertise is in a completely different area of business.

Torrington splits his book into two parts: what it takes to be a great manager and how to become that manager.  The first part deals with the main aspects of managing people in an organizational context.  The second part has a series of much shorter "How to" guides, to help do specific things that are essential features of work in the first part of the book.  He explains the crucial matters that managers need to understand, such as how their particular organization works, how they can use it to produce positive results, how people learn and getting the right people in the right place. Managing to Manage explains the skills needed to make the right decisions for both the people involved and the business itself.