As far as many managers are concerned, HR is little more than a necessary evil, ticking boxes, filling in forms and contributing nothing except bureaucracy to company life. So why is HR is so vilified?

How can managers learn to deal with their emotions, particularly in a meeting situation or when they're frustrated and angry? To discuss this, Wayne is joined by Mick Quinn, author of The Uncommon Path.

What can managers learn from stand-up comedians? That's the subject of a new book by coach, author and speaker, Roger Edward Jones. It's also something that Wayne - who spent over 15 years working as a stand-up comic – has a few thoughts of his own about.

This week, Wayne talks to Bill Tate about his book, The Search for Leadership: An Organisational Perspective, and his systemic leadership model whose moral is: 'manage the fishtank, not the fish'.

The term "personal brand" is a pretty familiar one. But what about an online personal brand? This week, Wayne talks to personal branding specialist, Tessa Hood, about how to mange your personal brand when others can only see what you look like in photos.

The recession isn't just hitting people financially. It may also be taking a toll on people's mental health. Wayne explores this with Marie Apke, COO of Bensinger Dupont & Associates, a Chicago-based employee assistance company.

For our 100th show, we tackle the perennial scourge of bullying bosses - the issue that is the most common subject of questions sent to our advice clinic and features prominently in questions and comments made on the site.

Are company boards doing their jobs properly? How should companies and their boards work together? What about the role of independent directors? How are they and how are they recruited?

Alan Lurie is the Managing Director of a large New York real estate firm. He is also an ordained Rabbi whose weekly staff meetings start off with his thoughts on some questions not related to real estate. Things like authenticity, balance, honesty, happiness, humor and how to understand difficult times.

Why does work get such a bad press in both popular and highbrow culture? From Dickens to Zola to the Who, work always seems to be displayed in a negative light, the 9-5 as the enemy of the free soul.

This week, Wayne is joined by Dinah Bennett, director of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Durham Business School in the UK, to discuss "the new normal" - what the business environment might look like when we finally emerge from the recession.

The first organisation we all signed on for – whether we wanted to or not – was our family. And as psychologist and author, Sylvia Lafair, tells Wayne this week, we bring our family dynamics from childhood with us to work – and the results are often not pretty.

This week, author John Man tells Wayne that Genghis Khan has a strong claim to be the greatest leader the world has ever seen and certainly somebody who can tell us much about the nature of leadership and what "greatness" in leadership really means.

This week, Wayne talks to spiritual teacher, Peter Tadd, about some of the more surprising and esoteric effects the economic crisis is having on attitudes and beliefs in the business world.

Wayne talks to Tom Karl from Mastery Works, a career development and talent management consultancy, about the right ways and wrong ways to handle job cuts, career paths and organizational change.

This week Wayne talks to Pauline Crawford, founder of Gender Dynamics, about her vision for a new blueprint for business that shifts the dynamic of the workplace from one that is inherently masculine to one where there is a balance between the masculine and the feminine within us all.

This week, Wayne talks to INSEAD Professor Dr Soumitra Dutta - author of the evocatively-titled book "Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom" - about the impact social networking is having in our personal and professional lives.

What does the financial melt-down tell us about the MBA? Has it had its day or does it need to be fundamentally re-thought? That's the subject of this week's discussion as Wayne talks to Ken Starkey, Professor of Management at Nottingham University Business School in the UK.

Wayne talks to Penny Power, co-founder of the business social network Ecademy, about the role social networks will play in our careers in future.

Everyone is watching President Obama's first 100 days in office. But what about companies? What can they do over the next 100 days to manage their customers? Deloitte's Jonathan Copulsky shares some ideas with Wayne Turmel.

This week, Wayne talks to management guru Robert Heller about the auto industry bailout in the U.S. and what it tells us about U.S. industry and, in particular, U.S. management.

Wayne talks to Hal Bolton about the pervading influence of war myths in the business world and how these myths have been allowed to ride roughshod over society for too long.

Wayne is joined by John Kamilis, Director of Clinical Operations at employee assistance company, CuraLinc Healthcare, to discuss the stress caused by financial worries.

Was the financial meltdown a failure of regulation or a failure of management? That's the question posed this week as Wayne talks to Dr Alexandra Michel, an Assistant Professor at the Marshall School of Business and author of Bullish on Uncertainty: How Organizational Cultures Transform Participants.

Wayne is joined by spiritual teacher, Peter Tadd, to discuss the need for a greater emphasis on values and truth in the workplace as well as the value of intuition as a tool for executives in challenging times.

Wayne talkas to Dr Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, who leads the higher education practice at Cisco Systems, where she works closely with Global Universities to advance innovative uses of technology in academia.

How can consultancies ride out the downturn? That's one of the questions Wayne explores this week with David Beresford, Managing Director of Serco Consulting, whose 40,000 employees deliver services in over 30 countries.

This week, Wayne discusses incentives and motivation with Brooks Mitchell, a Professor of Management at the University of Wyoming and President of Snowfly.com, a company that uses gaming to promote reward and recognition.

Employee ownership can be a tough proposition. But if you have really want to empower employees and create a decentralized, network-based company that values input from everyone, it is a model that can deliver tremendous benefits.

If you've experienced a clash of ideas or difficulties in communicating with people of a different generation in your work environment, then this week's Working Week is required listening.

In the current economic climate, financial literacy and good money management has never been more important. But one thing that we've all learnt over the past few months is that many so-called financial experts aren't so expert after all.

This week, Wayne explores the challenges of balancing the demands of home and work lives with Kathy Sherbrooke, CEO of Circles, a company which helps employees improve their quality of life

Wayne talk to biotech entrepreneur and author Leo Kim about his book Healing the Rift, in which he argues that the conflicts between science and spirituality aren't as great as they might seem.

This week, Wayne is joined by Crawford Rix, Managing Director of budget airline, bmibaby, to discuss that vital question: how do you engage and motivate your staff during a downturn?

Wayne talk to Gus Steiber from Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, an employee assistance company, about the warning signs and effects of substance abuse in the workplace.

Why don't women occupy more senior leadership positions? That's the subject of this week's Working Week discussion as Wayne is joined by Harvard University psychologist and Management-Issues columnist, Dr Myra White.

This week, Wayne talks to Mr MOOF, aka James Mccarthy, Microsoft UK's mobile working expert and the brains behind the MOOF blog.

Rather than turning to a consultant to tell you about your problems, have you ever thought about bringing in an interim manager whose remit is to provide solutions?

Do you work in a sick organization? Is it sluggish, inefficient and gossip-ridden? Are you worn down by a culture of back-biting and blame? If this sounds familiar, what can you do about it?

This week, Wayne is joined once again by Management-Issues' longest-standing columnist, Dan Bobinski, to discuss why it is that so many organisations are ignoring the transfer of critical knowledge.