The New Rules of Engagement: Life-Work Balance and Employee Commitment.

The New Rules of Engagement: Life-Work Balance and Employee Commitment. By Mike Johnson. CIPD, 170 pages. $47.

A relatively quick, snappy yet insightful read on the evolving workforce, The New Rules of Engagement has a key underlying premise: today's younger worker is far more interested than his or her older counterpart in lifestyle issues, making flexibility and engagement critical concepts. Johnson, a British-based consultant and the author of six previous books, says this new focus on lifestyle has evolved in the past few years alone. "People want to be themselves at work, and we need to cater to that," he writes.

While the book is refracted through a British lens, the trends Johnson finds are common throughout developed economies. And, the need for change is palpable, he argues. "We are currently reaping the harvest of our inability to give those we erroneously call managers the right skills to manage people ... These people are doing daily damage to our organizational structures, and they are de-motivating our people," he writes in an especially harsh assessment.

One key area, he writes, is improving communication, making it honest and open, and insisting it be delivered by a person in real authority. Don't gloss over bad news, he argues, because employees will hear the worst anyway, and will take euphemisms as the company simply being disingenuous or worse.

Written in a distinctly personal voice, the book covers a lot of territory very readably, even if Johnson does flit from topic to topic like a butterfly in a flower garden. He's managed to identify and address a host of key subjects that companies need to confront to keep their best people--and attract the next generation.