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This is an enhanced edition of HBR article 90210, originally published in March-April 1990. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. What do managers do? A study of five CEOs and studies of managers conclude that managerial work involves interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles. These roles require developing peer relationships, carrying out negotiations, motivating subordinates, resolving conflicts, establishing information networks, making decisions with little or ambiguous information, and allocating resources. This article includes a commentary by the author outlining his perspective 15 years after the original publication of the article. McKinsey Award Winner.
Henry Mintzberg is Professor of Management at McGill University, Canada. He has written numerous books and articles on different management issues. This Harvard Business Review Classic was originally published in July-August 1975, this On-Point edition contains a retrospective commentary from Mintzberg and was published in March-April 1990.
The classical view on management says that the manager organizes, coordinates, plans, and controls. But Mintzberg’s research into how managers spend their time shows a different reality. “There are four myths about the manager’s job that do not bear up under careful scrutiny of the facts.” (1) The first myth, or folklore, is that the manager is a reflective, systematic planner. However, the truth is that managers are strongly oriented to action and, in most cases, dislike reflective activities. (2) The second folklore is that the manager has no regular duties to perform. The truth is that “managerial work involves performing a regular duties, including ritual and ceremony, negotiations, and processing of soft information that links the organization with its environment.” (3) The third folklore is that managers need aggregated information, which is best provided by a formal management information system. The truth here is that managers prefer verbal media, telephone calls and meetings, over documents. (4) The fourth folklore is that management is, or at least is becoming, a science and a profession. The truth here is that managers’ programs are still focused on traditional time-management, decision-making, etc. So what does Mintzberg suggest? “The manager’s job can be described in terms of various ‘roles’, or organized set of behaviors identified with a position. My description comprises ten roles.” These ten roles are divided under three main issues: Interpersonal roles (figurehead, leader, liaison); Informational roles (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson); and Decisional roles (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator). Each of these roles are discussed in detail, complemented with examples and academic literature on these subjects. After debunking the myths and discussing the different roles Mintzberg emphasizes that “the managers’ effectiveness is significantly influenced by their insight into their own work.” He provides various ’self-study questions for managers’, which can/will help managers in this task. But more essentially, Mintzberg believes that management/business schools should change their curriculum. “Our management schools have done an admirable job of training the organization’s specialists. But for the most part, they have not trained managers.”
Mintzberg is not a conventional professor. All his publications are challenging and this one is no different. He challenges the widely-held myths about the manager’s job based on the results from his research into managerial work. He then gives good advice onto a new approach to manager’s job. And as usual, Mintzberg argues that traditional business/management schools are not doing their job properly. Good challenging article which I recommend to all people interested in management. Mintzberg uses simple US-English to get his point(s) across.
Rating: 5 / 5