Running head: BOOK REVIEW OF THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER

Book Review of The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey

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BOOK REVIEW OF THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER

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The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, Kenneth Blanchard, William Oncken, Jr., Hal
Burrows. New York, USA: William Morrow. 1989. ISBN: 0-688-10380-4.
Soon after Kenneth Blanchard published his book, The One Minute Manager, it became one of the best-selling business books of all time; and it remains one of the most popular business books until this day. Kenneth Blanchard is a Sociologist who obtained his masters from
Colgate University and his Ph.D. in educational administration and management from Cornell
University. He co-authored the famous text “Management of …show more content…

Isn't it interesting that the roles are clearly reversed? When the manager takes up too many responsibilities out of enthusiasm, others start exploiting him. The manager starts to avoid

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dealing with his associates. Morale suffers, the boss gets nervous, and now he has more status reports to write, making it even harder to take care of that monkey at all.
In order to make changes and progress, Blanchard points out that it is important to understand that there are three types of monkeys to deal with at work. Two types are automatically handled based on structure and accountability. Downward leaping monkeys come from our bosses. If you don't take care of them, you are soon unemployed; therefore, they get all the care and attention they need. Sideways leaping monkeys come from other departments.
Think of them as forms and procedures. You may believe you have a little more flexibility here, but these "systems" can easily fail at the worst time. For example, if you don't complete your expense report, you won't get reimbursed. Fail to fill out the requisition properly and it goes to someone's desk to die a slow death. Have you ever had that happen?
Upward leaping monkeys, however, have no built-in structure to keep them on your back.
These are tasks you take simply by choice. It is easy to make the wrong choice, too. Your intentions are good but the