Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development

by Henry Mintzberg

Overview

In this sweeping critique of how managers are educated and how, as a consequence, management is practiced, Henry Mintzberg offers thoughtful and controversial ideas for reforming both.

“The MBA trains the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences,” Mintzberg writes. “Using the classroom to help develop people already practicing management is a fine idea, but pretending to create managers out of people who have never managed is a sham.”

Leaders cannot be created in a classroom. They arise in context. But people who already practice management can significantly improve their effectiveness given the opportunity to learn thoughtfully from their own experience. Mintzberg calls for a more engaging approach to managing and a more reflective approach to management education. He also outlines how business schools can become true schools of management.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609940447
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	06/02/2005
Series:	0
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Henry Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He was named Distinguished Scholar for the Year 2000 by the Academy of Management, served as President of the Strategic Management Society from 1988-1991, is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (the first from a manage-ment faculty), and has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada and of l’Ordre Nationale du Quebec. He is the author of 12 books, including The Nature of Managerial Work, The Structuring of Organiza¬tions, Mintzberg on Management, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, and Strategy Safari.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

This is a book about management education that is about management. I believe that both are deeply troubled, but neither can be changed without changing the other.

The trouble with “management” education is that it is business education, and leaves a distorted impression of management. Management is a practice that has to blend a good deal of craft (experience) with a certain amount of art (insight) and some science (analysis). An education that overemphasizes the science encourages a style of managing I call “calculating” or, if the graduates believe themselves to be artists, as increasing numbers now do, a related style I call “heroic.” Enough of them, enough of that. We don’t need heroes in positions of influence any more than technocrats. We need balanced, dedicated people who practice a style of managing that can be called “engaging.” Such people believe that their purpose is to leave behind stronger organizations, not just higher share prices. They do not display hubris in the name of leadership.

The development of such managers will require another approach to management education, likewise engaging, that encourages practicing managers to learn from their own experience. In other words, we need to build the craft and the art of managing into management education and thereby bring these back into the practice of managing.

Follow the chapter titles of this book into the chapters, and you will read about management education—Part I on what I believe is wrong with it, Part II on how it could be changed. But look within the chapters, and you will read about management itself—again what I believe is wrong with it and how it could be changed. To pick up on the subtitle, here we take a hard look at the soft practice of managing, alongside that of management development. There are plenty of books that provide soft looks at the hard practice of managing. I believe we need to face management as it is, in a serious way; it is too important to be left to most of what appears on the shelves of bookstores. Easy formulas and quick fixes are the problems in management today, not the solutions.

I have written this book for all thoughtful readers interested in management education and practice: developers, educators, managers, and just plain interested observers. I mean this to include MBA applicants, students, and graduates, at least ones who harbor doubts about this degree. If what I write here is true, then they especially should be reading this book.

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Readers interested in management education will get the messages about management practice as they go along. Readers interested in management itself—this hard look at that soft practice—can focus on particular parts of the book. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 contain the essence of this material. Before reading this, however, I suggest you look at the introduction to Part I and the first part of Chapter 1 (pages Part One–"EXPERIENCE" IN MBA ADMISSIONS) as well as, from Chapter 2, pages Management By Analysis–Infiltrating Ethics, The Case for Cases–Secondhandedness, and The Impression Left by MBA Education. Beyond Chapter 6, I recommend pages 259-Proposition 7. All of the above should be blended into a process of “experienced reflection.” and especially Toward Engaging Management–Table 9.4 TWO WAYS TO MANAGE in Chapter 9, pages Module I: Managing Self—The Reflective Mindset–Table 11.1 DIMENSIONS OF THE MODULES in Chapter 11, and pages Developing Managers IV–IMPact and Does the IMPM Benefit? in Chapter 13.

I should add that there are all kinds of illustrative materials in the boxes that accompany the text. Reading these will give much of the flavor of my arguments.

Part I of this book is called “Not MBAs.” Some people may see it as a rant; I wrote it as a serious critique of what I believe to be a deeply flawed practice. If you have anything to do with MBAs, whether hiring them, supporting them, teaching them, or being one, I urge you to read this, if only to entertain some dark thought about this ostensibly sparkling degree. And if you are a manager or have anything to do with managers (who doesn’t in this world?), I hope that reading this will open your eyes to a vitally important activity that is going out of social control.

The chapters of this first part flow as follows. What I call conventional MBA programs, which are mostly for young people with little if any managerial experience (“Wrong People,” Chapter 1), because they are unable to use art or craft, emphasize science, in the form of analysis and technique (“Wrong Ways,” Chapter 2). That leaves their graduates with the false impression that they have been trained as managers, which has had a corrupting effect on the education and the practice of management as well as on the organizations and societies in which it is practiced (“Wrong Consequences,” Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6).

There has been a lot of hype about changes taking place in prominent MBA programs in recent years. Don’t believe it (“New MBAs?” Chapter 7). The MBA is a 1908 degree based on a 1950s strategy. The real innovations in management education, mostly in England but hardly recognized in America, serve as a bridge from the critique of Part I to the positive ideas for “Developing Managers” in Part II.

There is a great and unfortunate divide between management development and management education. While a full discussion of management development would require a book unto itself, the presentation of a framework of basic practices (“Management Development in Practice,” Chapter 8) can open up vistas for management education.

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The discussion of the book to this point suggests a set of general principles by which management education can be reconceived (“Developing Management Education,” Chapter 9). These principles have been brought to life in a family of programs that can take management education and development to a new place, by enabling managers to reflect on their own experience in the light of insightful concepts (five aspects of “Developing Managers,” Chapters 10 through 14). No one can create a leader in a classroom. But existing managers can significantly improve their practice in a thoughtful classroom that makes use of those experiences.

All this suggests that the business schools themselves need to be reconceived, including a metamorphosis into management schools (“Developing True Schools of Management,” Chapter 15). But will these agents of change be able to change?

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Introduction	1
Part 1	Not MBAs
Chapter 1	Wrong People	9
Chapter 2	Wrong Ways	20
Chapter 3	Wrong Consequences I: Corruption of the Educational Process	69
Chapter 4	Wrong Consequences II: Corruption of Managerial Practice	81
Chapter 5	Wrong Consequences III: Corruption of Established Organizations	120
Chapter 6	Wrong Consequences IV: Corruption of Social Institutions	142
Chapter 7	New MBAs?	162
Part 2	Developing Managers
Chapter 8	Management Development in Practice	197
Chapter 9	Developing Management Education	238
Chapter 10	Developing Managers I: The IMPM Program	276
Chapter 11	Developing Managers II: Five Mindsets	292
Chapter 12	Developing Managers III: Learning on the Job	313
Chapter 13	Developing Managers IV: Impact of the Learning	333
Chapter 14	Developing Managers V: Diffusing the Innovation	359
Chapter 15	Developing True Schools of Management	377
	Bibliography	417
	Index	437
	About the Author	463

Editorial Reviews

Two decades ago, Mintzberg, a professor at McGill University who was then teaching MBAs at MIT, discovered a profound "disconnect between the practice of management... and what went on in classrooms." Since that time, he has dedicated himself to the problems of management and management education, both of which he believes are "deeply troubled," and the latter of which has become the wrong that he, with help from colleagues around the world, must right. Using words like "arrogance," "mindless" and "exploitation," Mintzberg outlines just what is wrong with MBAs (the people and the degrees) and why the degree he's developed is rooted in the real world and, as such, is far more relevant and valuable to students, companies and the business world at large. Strong economies are based on good management, not on good business schools, Mintzberg believes, and because the top companies employ the top MBAs and the top MBAs (not to mention the mediocre and bottom-level degree-holders) are, or so he says, the products of an out-of-touch and unrealistic graduate program, then the effects of this miseducation can be felt far beyond the classroom walls. Mintzberg's argument is clearly researched and set forth in a progressively logical and even convincing way. Managers and manager wannabes will be intrigued and can certainly learn a thing or two as long as they, as Mintzberg himself urges in his teachings, consider the source of the education. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Every decade almost 1 million MBAs graduate into the economy. After two years of classes they expect to manage people who have many times the amount of knowledge gained through intensive personal experience. Those without the credentials are increasingly relegated to the "slow track" and subjected to the leadership of those who do not have the legitimacy to lead. The MBA was first introduced in 1908 and went through its last serious overhaul in the late 1950s. It is time for a change.

The current system ensures that the wrong people will get educated in the wrong way with the wrong consequences. There is a better way. Professor Henry Mintzberg has designed a program, the International Masters in Practicing Management, that addresses many of the problems associated with traditional programs that profess to develop managers, but instead produce analysts ready to apply one-size-fits-all techniques no matter the context. By integrating reflective, analytical, worldly, collaborative, and action mindsets, this philosophy will not only improve managers, but also their organizations and society.

Wrong People
Conventional MBA programs do not work because they pretend to create managers out of people with no experience or expressed leadership. Leadership is a natural quality, and teaching it to someone who has never managed is like teaching psychology to someone who has never met another human being.

More art than science, when management is mixed with craft or experience, it becomes a practice. Inexperienced students cannot appreciate the practice of management, so they focus on the science, or analysis, that is the basis of most MBA programs. Management is treated like a profession that can be learned without experience and then applied in every situation. Management is actually a facilitating activity that depends on the immediate context.

Wrong Training
Once you have the wrong people, there is no right way to develop them. Business students receive a false sense of management and propagate it in organizations. The ill-conceived pedagogy becomes so entrenched that even when the right people are sent to executive MBA programs, they learn the wrong things.

Much of decision making involves soft skills to identify problems, consider options, and set up holistic solutions. Professors either can't or don't want to teach soft skills, and young students aren't ready to learn them. The business school programs focus on what they can do - evaluate choices - a very narrow view of management. Students are encouraged to analyze by learning generally applicable techniques, but not by taking responsibility for specific situations.

Wrong Consequences
Though business school programs claim to teach business discipline and understanding, they often focus more on fitting in and competition. Getting into the best school and networking reign over management, while learning to increase shareholder value triumphs over customer needs and product quality. Despite expanding classes in ethics, MBA graduates are becoming less and less concerned with the topic. School gives the students confidence, but not enough competence.

Along with a group of colleagues from Canada, England, France, India and Japan, the author developed a novel plan for management education to showcase the ideas in this summary. Though the attainment of knowledge and the enhancement of competencies are important, they wanted their program to help people become wiser human beings in addition to becoming more effective managers. They developed the International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM), which is true to eight propositions for an overhauled management education. Though parts of the IMPM can be found in other programs, the whole package cannot.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Managers Not MBAs throws a stone into the often complacent world of management education. It should be required reading for anyone who has the qualification, who wants one, or just wanders what all the fuss is about.”

Economist

This book offers an important perspective for the global MBA community.”

Booklist

A powerful statement and a terrific read. Mintzberg is a fine writer.”

Observer (London)

This book offers profound thoughts on management education and development. It should be recommended reading for MBA students and faculties. It will excite and exasperate readers, but it will never bore them.”

Management Today

In this provocative work, [Mintzberg] challenges the very basics of business education.”

Businessweek

[A] constantly stimulating book… It should be required reading for anyone who has the qualification, wants one, or just wonders what all the fuss is about.”
—The Economist

““…an inspiring and insightful book.”
—Globe and Mail

"… a powerful statement and a terrific read…. What gives the book its resonance is that it is 'a book about management education that is about management.'"
—The Observer

"...a rousing manifesto for the thoroughgoing reform of management education and how we think about it.”
—The Financial Times

From the Publisher

In this lengthy evaluation of manager training, Mintzberg shares his thoughts on MBA education, looking at the problems he sees in Part 1 of his book and using Part 2 to share his ideas for addressing those issues. Joe Barrett narrates with an even, slightly hypnotic, cadence. His deep voice becomes a little gravelly at the end of each sentence. This book covers a lot of ground, including stories and examples, research, and quotations as Mintzberg sets up a winding path of ideas on how managers should be developed. Barrett provides short pauses between sections that alert the listener to a change in topic, breaking down the long chapters, which are not well suited to audio, into more manageable chunks. E.N. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2012 - AudioFile