Often lost in the study of people management is the crucial skill of relationships management. It is not simply the study of how to help people get along, nor is it the same as managing compensation, for example, but it is infinitely more volatile, complex, and difficult to do. Snider sees it as the key to success in new and growing organizations of almost any kind (he refers to these relationships as partnerships) and in his challenging new book proves that in any high-growth company, people really are partners. He explores the dynamics of such groups, their social and psychological aspects, and shows how to use the concepts that emerge from these understandings to manage a real world enterprise. What happens if it fails? Snider, a clinical psychologist with experience in couples therapy, shows that the dissolution of a business can be likened to the breakup of a marriage and managed the same way. This book is engrossing, essential reading for entrepreneur executives in all types of companies--new, growing, even mature ones--but also for venture capitalists and others on the way up, with financial or personal career stakes in them.

Snider defines the types of partnerships found in almost all kinds of businesses, and identifies the variables that are crucial to managing them successfully. He examines concepts familiar to social psychologists, then relates them to the specifics of business culture and probes their influences upon it. He discusses hands-on topics like team management, the use of power, the place of values and beliefs, the very real cost/benefit implications of any human relationship in a work setting, and the critical role played by interpersonal communications. Of special interest to entrepreneur-executives is his discussion of the dynamics of managing transitions, as organizations move from one stage of development to the next, and also the use of delegation. Dr. Snider then tackles the all-important problem of how to keep a business healthy, and how to notice and identify early signs of trouble. But if everything fails and a break-up becomes inevitable, it may actually prove the best thing. Far from being a confidence-shattering crisis, Dr. Snider shows how it can be a learning experience, and how it can benefit everyone the next time around.

MARVIN SNIDER is an organizational consultant with a private practice in Waban, Massachusetts./e He holds a doctorate in psychology and is the author of an earlier book on process family therapy. Among his past and present clients are hospitals, school systems, banks, law firms, public agencies, and an insurance company. His book emerges, in part, from his own experiences in establishing a professional partnership practice.