
Games People Play (1964) explores the fascinating and bizarre world of psychological games, where players unconsciously manipulate each other into acting in alienating and self-destructive ways.
This isn't a resource allocation problem, or rather, it isn't a resource allocation problem the way you seem to think it is.
Seeing like a State (1998)
But other books I’ve read recently that are specific to work which may help were:
Organisational Behaviour. 6th Edition, by McShane, Olekalns, Newman, & Martin.
Group Dynamics for teams. 5th edition. By Daniel Levi.
I also have a heap of really interesting readings on dark triad personality traits in the workplace...
Hogan, J., Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2011). Management derailment. In S. Zedeck (Ed.), APA Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (vol. 3, pp. 555–575). American Psychological Association.
Tourish, D. (2018). Dysfunctional leadership in corporations. In P. Garrard (Ed.), The Leadership hubris epidemic: Biological roots and strategies for prevention (pp. 137–162). Palgrave Macmillan.
Tourish, D. (2013). The dark side of transformational leadership: A critical perspective. Routledge.
Chapter 3: Coercive persuasion, power and corporate cults Alvesson, M., & Blom, M. (2019). Beyond leadership and followership: Working with a variety of modes of organizing. Organizational Dynamics, 48(1), 28–37.
I recommend the 1964 book Games People Play, which should be available at any decent library (possibly from an inter-library transfer). If it isn't at a library near you, it has additionally been uploaded to libgen.
It made me reflect a lot on the interactions I have with the people around me, and I think I needed to develop a deeper level of self-awareness than I had prior to reading it. So I’m glad I read it.
I know what you mean here. Victims of narcissistic abuse often become vulnerable narcissists and codependents, deferring their own needs for those of others until the damage becomes too great to ignore.
You didn't mention what psych books you read so I will suggest Games People Play by Eric Berne.