They have chapters on several “half-truths”, sorting out the conditions where they are true and the conditions where applying them makes things worse. The first half-truth they tackle is one you touched on, “Is work fundamentally different from the rest of life and should it be?” The answer, for this and the other half-truths, is “yes and no.”

Lots of business books use methods that are totally bogus, like looking at common features in successful firms. What if unsuccessful firms are doing exactly the same thing? If you don’t check that, the conclusions are no better than guesses. That was the method used for In Search of Excellence, and the later performance of those “excellent” firms was not impressive.

Read Pfeffer and Sutton, then apply a skeptic’s eye to other business books. Right now, you can read Bob Sutton’s blog.

They all boiled down to the standard advice: pay attention to your staff, tell them when they’re screwing up, reward them (not just with money) when they succeed. It’s depressing how little has changed. It’s depressing how hard that is — I was a product manager for a while (all the responsibility, none of the authority) and I wasn’t very good at it. So best of luck to you!

It wasn’t just sticking 2.0 after “management,” and the discussion around changing the nature of the workplace was about flattening the organization, making it more team-based and collaborative, and getting administration (including middle managers) to relinquish enough control so that staff can experiment with new services and technologies.

Your post stands on its own, but I thought I should clarify the catalyst.