William B. Parker

The Agency Game: Inside the Bureaucratic Jungle William B. Parker

TRULY this is the book your bosses don't want you to have--and you won't want them to know you have it, once you've read it. It tells what working in government is really all about--not the predigested baloney you've heard in civics class and from media flacks--but the real thing. And being armed with that knowledge can help you survive and thrive--and save you from having your nose bloodied over and over as you learn how the game is really played. This isn't a book for Boy Scouts. Open the book and thumb through the rich and extensive list of topics. Learn where the land mines lie, and how to avoid them. Learn to categorize your colleagues and supervisors. Spot the office stoolie. Learn to leak to the media without being discovered...or fired, and how to control the media. How experts grabbed power and kept it. In other words, this is a primer on how to OBTAIN POWER AND KEEP IT. The greatest game of all, played at the micro-level. The product of years to research, transcribe, collate, analyze, and describe, this master work integrates the theoretical and the observed, annotated with real life events. Nowhere else, under a single cover, will you find all this material, much less any similar reference guide. Infinitely more useful than a dictionary, this is simply the most comprehensive reference for government work you could ever find: users of the draft manuscript refer to it every day. The procedures and lessons are universal, cross-cultural; equally valid in first, second and third worlds, and apply equally across all branches of government service--military, diplomatic, welfare--and throughout all levels: federal, state, regional, local. If you hold a government position of any responsibility, this is the one resource you'll have to have. Only keep it at home!