Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook [Hardcover]

Scott Adams (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1996

In this latest cartoon compilation, Dilbert's canine sidekick, the Machiavellian Dogbert, presents a break-through management manual to help the bosses "stick it" to their employees.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cartoonist Scott Adams gives us still more corporate belly laughs with a point in Dogbert's Management Secrets Revealed, the 10th book based on his wildly popular Dilbert comic strip. Taken this time directly from the word processor of world-class consultant Dogbert, it focuses on critical management responsibilities like keeping up with fads, implementing pointless reorganizations and demanding status reports. "Leadership isn't something you're born with," it declares. "It's something you learn by reading Dogbert books."

From Booklist

Nipping at the heels of the number-one best-seller, The Dilbert Principle , lampoonist Adams' new book is another collection of managerial wisdom and Dilbert cartoon strips. This time, Adams lets loose Dogbert, a caricature of the management guru types responsible for turning those in charge into "fully functioning, paradigm-spewing management zombies." Dogbert offers secrets on how to act like a manager, motivate employees, communicate, get ahead, understand compensation programs, establish staffing levels (get rid of employees), and most important, be happy as a manager. WARNING! This book should be kept hidden in your organization's loose-leaf^-bound action plan and should not be read at work unless you have a soundproof cubicle! David Rouse

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 163 pages
• Publisher: Harper Business; 1st edition (October 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887307884
• ISBN-13: 978-0887307881
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #983,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

What started as a doodle has turned Scott Adams into a superstar of the cartoon world. Dilbert debuted on the comics page in 1989 while Adams was in the tech department at Pacific Bell. Adams continued to work at Pacific Bell until he was voluntarily downsized in 1995. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay area since 1979.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it and weep - it is terrifying!, August 20, 2001

By 

Lesley West (St James, Western Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook (Paperback)

The true horror in this fantastically funny book is its incredible accuracy. For any one who works in a corporate environment with levels of management it reads like a horror story, all the more frightening because you know all of the characters personally.

Yes it is hysterically funny. But read it at your own peril. You will never look at your colleagues and managers in the same way.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book rivals anything Stephen King could imagine!, March 8, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook (Hardcover)

This book is like spending 40 hours a week in hell... which is where I used to work, as a matter of fact. I can't believe I used to sit in my cubicle with a headphone growing out of my ear, staring at blank walls we were not allowed to decorate, reading meaningless memos from our last "Quality Driven Leadership" meeting and wondering how my brainless boss could somehow manage to come up with an idea more idiotic than the last one. And then, to top it all off, I find out that Scott Adams spied on me, wrote a book and I'm not seeing a penny from the royalties! This is hell. Seriously, if you have ever been an incompetent manager -- or have suffered at the hands of one -- this book is a must-read. But be prepared to be horrified. It will be the story of your corporate life...and it's NOT a pretty tale!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dog's Eye View of Middle Management, August 21, 2004

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook (Hardcover)

If you think you can learn management skills from a character in a newspaper comic strip, this book is not for you. On the other hand, if you read Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip before you read the headlines of your local paper, or if you find yourself LOL at most of his cartoons, you have already committed this book to memory and don't need this review.

Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook is a combination of reprinted Dilbert comic strips from the first half of the 1990's and a management handbook written as if it were the work of a cartoon dog named Dogbert. The cartoons are funnier than the handbook. I gave up reading the book linearly and read the cartoons first. Then I went back and read the management handbook.

The cartoons work better because you get to see Scott Adams view of management both from the manager's point of view and also from that of the dumbfounded workers. It is this juxtaposition of manager logic and worker reality that makes the Dilbert strips so funny.

The text of the handbook is entirely one-sided. You get to see the world from the unrelenting point of view of the demented management expert. The cruel logic is there, but you, the gentle reader, are forced into the role of Dilbert facing the twisted thinking of middle management. You may laugh on the outside, but you may be crying inside. I do not recommend reading this book before spending lots of time with your own manager.