Games At Work: How to Recognize and Reduce Office Politics

"A terrific read not only for senior leaders and executives but also for employees seeking growth in complex organizations. Goldstein and Read dissect the interpersonal dynamics that affect a company's performance, provide a framework to understand the games that are commonly played in businesses around the world, and offer practical tools to correct these behaviors and improve the organization's effectiveness."

—Jacopo Bracco, executive vice president, DIRECTV Latin America

"Whether you are an employee, manager, or CEO, this book will help you uncover the games that are going on around you and in your organization and will arm you with strategies to combat the negative effects of these games."

—Corey J. Seitz, vice president, global talent management, Johnson & Johnson

"This book is a good warning sign for organizational life. A road map of potholes and wrong turns. Written in a clear and down-to-earth way, its strength is its concreteness."

—Peter Block, author, Community: The Structure of Belonging

"Play or don't play, your choice. But if you need to manage and aspire to lead, you must read Goldstein and Read's helpful treatment of the games going on all around you all the time. Prepare to be entertained and disconcerted in equal measure."

—Seán Meehan, Martin Hilti Professor of Marketing and Change Management, IMD

"Goldstein and Read provide an accessible and penetrating discussion of the twenty-two most common games at work and their individual and organizational causes, business costs, and remedies. Every working person who has ever been a victim or perpetrator of political games will profit from reading Games at Work."

—Harvey A. Hornstein, emeritus professor of psychology; former director of Columbia University Organizational Development Programs; and organizational consultant

Keywords: people who play games at work, employees who play games at work, employees who are negative, employees with a bad attitude, employees who play gotcha, employees who gossip, gossip at work, gossip and employees, employees who marginalize others, people who play the blame game, employees who play the blame game, the pecking order at work, pessimism at work, employees who are pessimistic, employees who have a big idea, employers who give no bad news, playing negative games at work