Myths Library

The HR Playbook You Didn’t Know You Needed

Myths of Human Resources Management is a powerful, no-nonsense guide for professionals who are frustrated with hollow HR theory and unproven best practices. Whether you’re a line manager forced to implement HR strategies,
an HR practitioner wondering why nothing works as expected, or a student seeking more than textbook clichés—this book delivers the clarity and challenge you’ve been missing.

Who Is This Book For?

• Managers and team leaders tasked with HR responsibilities
• Senior executives questioning the value of standard HR initiatives
• HR professionals tired of following trends without results
• MBA and HRM students seeking critical insight beyond the curriculum
• Business consultants and decision-makers who want to see through the fog of HR dogma

Common Pain Points Solved in This Book

🔸 “HR is too theoretical—it doesn’t apply to our business.”

🔹 “We’ve implemented frameworks, but staff engagement hasn’t improved.”

🔸 “The literature all says the same thing—but our problems persist.”

🔹 “We’re told to appraise, reward, develop, but no one says how.”

Dr. Ritson tackles each of these head-on. He reveals:

• How HR literature overlooks core issues like employment dynamics and power imbalances
• Why standard models (like Ulrich or Guest) often fail in practical settings
• The flawed assumptions behind research in HRM, including bias and poor methodology
• The cultural, industry-specific, and structural gaps ignored in most HR discourse
• Why ‘best practice’ rarely means best fit—especially in complex organisations

A Strategic Reality Check for Today’s Workplaces

With over four decades of experience in employee relations, consultancy, and academia, Dr. Ritson brings a grounded and skeptical voice to the table. He draws from industry case studies, academic critiques, and first-hand experience
to show:

• Why HR needs to be adaptive—not ideological
• How to deconstruct flawed systems like performance appraisals and job design
• What line managers should know about navigating corporate HR trends
• Where most HR education fails to address the real challenges of managing people

Summary

Myths of Human Resources Management by Dr. Neil Ritson critically examines flawed HR models, offering managers and students practical insight to challenge outdated theory and navigate real-world workplace dynamics.

Order Now and Rethink HR From the Ground Up

📘 Available now on Kindle

What If the Most Trusted Economic Ideas Were Just…Wrong?

Myths of Economics is a rigorous yet readable breakdown of what mainstream economics gets wrong—and why it matters. Designed for readers who work at the intersection of money, management, and meaning, this book deconstructs
foundational myths from classical and neoclassical economics, while offering real alternatives for those involved in strategic or financial decision-making.

This isn’t a beginner’s guide—it’s a myth-buster’s toolkit.

Who Is This Book For?

• Business managers dealing with budgets, policies, and organisational decisions
• Economics students and MBA candidates tired of textbook circularity
• Academic professionals seeking critical alternatives to stale theory
• Policy analysts and consultants needing deeper insight into flawed assumptions
• Anyone confused or frustrated by mainstream economics

Key Pain Points This Book Addresses

🔸 “Economic models don’t match real-world outcomes.”

🔹 “Why is economic research based on experiments with American undergraduates?”

🔸 “Are we still pretending inflation, GDP, and employment are meaningful in isolation?”

🔹 “I need to make business decisions—this theory doesn’t help me.”

How the Book Helps Solve These Problems

Dr. Ritson challenges the prevailing orthodoxy by:

• Debunking myths about economic man, rational decision-making, and market efficiency
• Critiquing standard economic models for their lack of contextual awareness and real-world applicability
• Revealing research flaws, including selection bias, omitted variable bias, and cultural assumptions
• Introducing alternative frameworks, such as bounded rationality, behavioural economics, and narrative analysis
• Equipping readers with critical thinking tools to recognise when economics becomes ideology

This book bridges theory and reality—so you can actually apply economic thinking in your organisation, not just cite it.

What You’ll Learn

• Why economic theory often ignores context, culture, and human behaviour
• How GDP, inflation, and employment figures can mislead decision-makers
• Why ‘rational choice’ is neither rational nor a choice in most real-world cases
• How to challenge top-down economic dogma in your workplace or studies
• When to trust the data—and when to look beyond it

Summary

Myths of Economics by Dr. Neil Ritson critically examines mainstream economic theories, exposing flawed assumptions and research biases. Perfect for managers, students, and academics, the book offers real-world insight into
decision-making beyond economic myths.

Start Thinking Differently About Economics

📘 Available now on Kindle

Because economics should explain the world—not obscure it.

Zen Has Been Hijacked—This Book Takes It Back

Myths of Zen is not another mindfulness guide or minimalist lifestyle handbook. It’s a scholarly but highly readable dissection of how Zen Buddhism has been misunderstood, misapplied, and often misrepresented—especially in
the West. With personal reflections, in-depth historical context, and lived experience from Zen retreats in the UK, Dr. Neil Ritson presents a vital and unflinching look at what Zen really is… and what it absolutely isn’t.

Who Is This Book For?

• Spiritual seekers exploring Eastern traditions beyond Instagram slogans
• Practising Buddhists questioning the Western interpretation of Zen
• Academics, educators, and students of religion, culture, and psychology
• Meditation enthusiasts frustrated by the vagueness of modern mindfulness
• General readers who want clarity—not clichés—on Zen practice

Pain Points This Book Addresses

🔸 “Zen seems to mean everything and nothing.”

🔹 “Is it meditation, design, a state of mind… or a marketing gimmick?”

🔸 “Why do so many Zen books avoid Buddhism entirely?”

🔹 “Is there such a thing as real Zen practice in the West?”

This book answers:

• Why the Western portrayal of Zen is often aesthetic over authentic
• How Zen was removed from its Buddhist roots and commodified
• What actually happens inside a Zen monastery (rituals, daily routines, and all)
• The difference between Zen ideas and Zen practice
• Why true Zen is not ‘achieved’—and why most books get that wrong

A Rare Glimpse into Real Zen Life

Dr. Ritson draws from years of Buddhist practice, including time spent at Throssel Hole Abbey in the UK, to explain:

• The role of Soto Zen in Western practice
• The discipline and beauty of real zazen (meditation)
• Why chanting, ritual, and even silence serve specific purposes
• And how Zen practice can help modern people—not by simplifying life, but by reframing how we relate to it

With critical analysis of Zen myths (from “Zen gardens” to Alan Watts), this book reclaims the word “Zen” from the noise and returns it to its spiritual depth.

Summary

Myths of Zen by Dr. Neil Ritson exposes the Western myths surrounding Zen Buddhism, offering a rare and honest look at real Zen practice based on personal retreat experience, historical research, and Buddhist principles.

Available Now – For Anyone Seeking the Truth Behind the Buzzword

📘 Available now on Kindle

Zen isn’t a product. It’s a practice. Learn the difference.

When Did Academia Start to Feel Like Middle Management?

Universities today increasingly resemble corporations. Senior academics are turned into “line managers,” teaching quality is gauged by star ratings, and intellectual inquiry is often shaped by funding priorities, not curiosity.

Myths of Universities is a timely antidote to the creeping managerialism infecting higher education. With biting analysis and insider experience, Dr. Neil Ritson reveals how modern universities have become more concerned
with optics than outcomes—and what academics can do about it.

Who Should Read This Book?

• Lecturers, researchers, and tutors disillusioned by administrative overload
• PhD students and postgrads navigating a system that feels more corporate than creative
• Deans and department heads wrestling with performance targets and staff burnout
• Education reformers and policymakers interested in meaningful change
• Anyone who once loved teaching—but is now drowning in compliance tasks

Pain Points This Book Tackles

🔸 “Teaching hours up. Research time down. Admin? Always growing.”

🔹 “NSS scores determine my worth—but what about student learning?”

🔸 “League tables reward branding over substance.”

🔹 “I used to shape minds. Now I fill out dashboards.”

What You’ll Find Inside

📌 A critique of:

• The myth that universities are apolitical, objective institutions
• Performance-driven models that reduce education to a numbers game
• Branding, student satisfaction surveys, and target culture
• The erosion of academic freedom under subtle managerial control
• The disconnect between pedagogical excellence and institutional priorities

📌 A call for:

• Reclaiming the purpose of higher education
• Supporting intellectual autonomy over image management
• Encouraging resistance to meaningless metrics and fads
• Honest dialogue about the real cost of the corporatised model

Summary

Myths of Universities by Dr. Neil Ritson is a critical examination of the modern higher education system. It offers insight and reassurance to academics frustrated by the growing corporatisation, administrative overload, and
loss of educational purpose in today’s universities.

Reassurance for Those Who Still Believe in Teaching, Research, and Integrity

📘 Available now on Kindle

The system has changed. But your values don’t have to.

Rethinking Management from the Ground Up

Management is one of the most talked-about but least understood disciplines. While leadership gurus and textbook theorists spin the same recycled narratives, Myths of Management gets brutally honest about what it actually
means to manage people, processes, and power inside modern organisations.

Dr. Neil Ritson brings decades of hands-on experience in both industry and academia to this myth-busting manual. It’s designed for managers who want more than hollow frameworks—and students who want to challenge the status quo.

Who Should Read This Book?

• Working managers tired of corporate fads and fashionable nonsense
• MBA and business students who need a critical edge in assignments and career prep
• HR and training professionals questioning the practicality of their content
• Educators seeking robust, alternative reading material for management courses
• Consultants and analysts dealing with real organisational structures, not just case studies

Pain Points This Book Tackles Head-On

🔸 “None of this textbook stuff applies to our actual problems.”

🔹 “Why do management theories ignore politics, power, and people?”

🔸 “The latest management ‘trend’ just creates more work and fewer results.”

🔹 “I manage in chaos. Where’s the model for that?”

How This Book Provides the Solution

Instead of feeding you another five-point framework or acronym, Dr. Ritson:

• Deconstructs the five most dominant myths in management theory
• Reveals how management literature ignores context, structure, and power
• Shows how real management functions under pressure, in complexity, and amid contradiction
• Provides practical reassurance that you’re not alone—and not incompetent—just misinformed by tradition
• Equips students with critique-ready insights to challenge oversimplified academic materials

With roots in Labour Process Theory, critical management studies, and structural analysis, this book connects the dots between what managers are told to do and what they really face.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Scientific Management, the Human Relations School, and Systems Theory all fall short
• How managers operate within capitalist environments that shape, restrict, and distort their roles
• What Mintzberg’s structures mean for your real-world job, not just your exam answers
• Why managerial ‘corruption’ isn’t about fraud—it’s about survival, compromise, and careerism
• How to defend yourself intellectually and practically from top-down fads that don’t deliver

Summary

Myths of Management by Dr. Neil Ritson is a sharp, evidence-based critique of traditional management theory, offering clarity and reassurance to managers dealing with real-world complexity. Ideal for business professionals
and students alike.

Your Job’s Not the Problem—The Theory Might Be.

📘 Available now on Kindle

Cut through the myths. Manage with clarity.