The Blame Game: A must-read for managers

The Beatles were once badly put out when their producer, George Martin, scooped much of the praise for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Fab Four felt they had been underappreciated after Time magazine piled praise on Martin, describing the record as his "new album".

Although the record has subsequently been recognised as one of the greatest ever, the story illustrates how issues of credit and blame can result in anxiety and stress in any walk of life.

In The Blame Game, the psychologist Ben Dattner finds that many of the problems we experience at work can be attributed to the misplaced allocation of blame and credit. Be it the boss who passes off his subordinate's ideas as his own, the clueless manager who always blames his workers but never himself, or the worker who is so constantly undermined he decides to quit, Datner attempts to explain the psychology that leads to this behaviour.

He admits that he can't offer a "one size fits all" strategy for solving many of the common problems at work, but he offers general ideas as to how both bosses and workers can avoid the pitfalls that can take root, making it a must for any manager.