Reading Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed To…and What To Do About It is just one book out of a “set” that I checked out from our local library that I am currently reading my way through. My housemate was recently promoted to a general manager position at a national pizza chain and was supposed to receive on the job training…but typically, has received none. So, we thought it might be helpful to do some reading on the subject of leadership, management and supervision of employees. This is our second read and overall, I’d say it covers the basics and is a great lead off for doing a reading set (as we are) but this book would probably be useless to anyone who had had adequate management experience or for those who have already done extensive reading in this area.

Fourines leads off with the premise that there are essentially 16 reasons or “root causes” for conflict between employees and managers and he sets out to systematically explain, clarify and give examples for each. It might have been nice for the author to acknowledge that his moderate and positive approach to these issues and problems do not always work…and he offers no progression or escalation of steps beyond the very basics…so if you have one of the problems he’s describing and the solution given doesn’t work, the author really hadn’t helped delineate what the progression from there might or should be. The writing here is simple, concise and accessible and the author makes his point very well (with the exception of escalation of problems beyond the scope given). We both enjoyed reading this and feel it’s best used by those new to management who are not receiving mentoring or adequate on the job training as they are starting out. Long-time managers or those well read in this area might enjoy it as a reminder or refresher for the basics of management but won’t find much else to inspire or learn in these pages. Ultimately I give Fourines book 3 stars…a good place to start, but don’t stop here! ( )