Guy Charlton (2000). Human Habits of Highly E¡ective
Organisations Published by Van Schaik Publishers and
selling for R149,95

Guy Charlton is a training and developmental consultant at
Knowledge Brokers International. He holds Master’s degrees
in clinical mental health and in management. Charlton is the
author of four books.

In his recently published book, Humanhabitsofhighlye¡ectiveorga-
nisations, Charlton addresses the very relevant topic of long term
and sustainable growth that depends on an organisation’s ability
to attract, develop, motivate, measure and retain competent and
committed people. The focus is thus on people as an organisa-
tion’s most important asset and not on strategy, structure, systems
or technology. People are the drivers of change.Their capacities
to change can be improved by implementing six interdependent
human habits, namely: e¡ective leadership at all levels of the or-
ganisation, e¡ective self-directed teams, the encouragement of
diversity, focusing on enhancing people’s competence to change,
concentrating on sustained performance and a comprehensive
human resource strategy. These human habits are discussed
throughout the book. Each chapter includes summaries in the
middle and end of the chapter as well as very useful graphicsthat
summarise the essential matters of a given chapter. Charlton re-
fers to various authors.They are leading business people, for ex-
ample Sumantra Ghoshal (not Ghushal), Dave Ulrich, Tom
Peters, Pat McLagan, Peter Drucker, John Kotterand Daniel Go-
leman.

There are some valuable models discussed in the book. The
viewpoints on leadership of several practitioners, namelyWar-
ren Bennis, Bernard Bass, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, John
Kotter,Tom Peters, Kouzes & Posner and Daniel Goleman are
summarised in awell-researched competence model.This mo-
del should enhance understanding of e¡ective leadership as
well as sustained performance.The author’s 720‡ Performance
Questionnaire (PIQ) is furthermore a useful instrument to
measure generic competencies in order to enhance performan-
ce.

Another instrument which‘‘takes the sting out of culture/ge-
nder di¡erences’’ (p. 105) is the Global Intelligence Model that
concentrates on natural orientation or intelligence. It could be
usefully applied in a team context to ensure diversity.

The positive contributions of Charlton, however, is often ham-
pered by the author’s style.Too much time and space are spent on
trivialaspects,forexample:the importance of leadership,whether
a person is born with leadership qualities, the di¡erence between
managers and leaders etc.These kinds of information do not en-
hance the reader’s ability to implement the six human habits.

There is often not a coherent £ow of information. The re-
ferences to authors are not well integrated into the text and
give the appearance of addenda that tend to distract the reader
from the main theme or focus of the work.The reader is enti-
ced rather to read the books that are quoted instead, instead of
reading Charlton’s work.

Charlton’s target group is too broad.The author tries to focus
on the individual, team, organisation, families, politicians and
sporting performance on a local, national and global scale. Alt-
hough they might be interdependent and equally important,
none of these areas are satisfactory explored. The aim is see-
mingly on breadth rather than depth.

In the ¢rst part of the book, practical applications of valuable
information (for example the Global Intelligence Model) are
often either not given or provided in a non-business context.
Examples are taken from the World Cup and the combat
against famine in Africa.The last fewchapters (6 to 9) are more
practical in terms of business-related examples.

In conclusion it could be said that the book is worthwhile to
read. It is well researched and there are some valuable points
you may wish to attend to. However, in general the book is
trying to be everything to everyone instead of focusing on a
few cardinal aspects and providing suggestions how to apply
them in a practical manner.

Reviewed by: Nelva Janse van Rensburg, Department of Hu-
man Resource Management, RAU

REVIEW68