cover image Life & Work: A Manager's Search for Meaning

Life & Work: A Manager's Search for Meaning

James A. Autry. William Morrow & Company, $20.95 (303pp) ISBN 978-0-688-11764-1

Autry, the recently retired president of the Meredith Magazine Group and author of Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership , uses essays, letters and poems to confront substantive issues in this solid study whose central question is, ``How can I keep my life and work properly integrated?'' He looks at such issues as the recent upswing of spirituality and the possible impact on the business world. His musings about the American business landscape are perspicacious: ``We rarely get the easy choices--wrong versus right, good versus evil--that seem so apparent to those who are not engaged in management every day.'' Instead, managers confront ``pedestrian'' issues of compensation systems, motivation and perceived discrimination that often debilitate employees and society. This is not, however, an excuse for exploiting others, Autry argues. His observations about synergy, education, homosexuals and sex are provocative. (Mar.)