Page 115 - (DK) The Business Book

LIGHTING THE FIRE 113

See also: From entrepreneur to leader 46–47 ■ Leading well 68–69 ■ Gods of management 76–77 ■ Learning from failure
164–65 ■ Crisis management 188–89 ■ Simplify processes 296–99 ■ Kaizen 302–09

The informational role is possible personnel resources and decision
because, although managers do making (be a “resource allocator”),
not know everything, they tend to encourage innovation (act as an
know more than their subordinates. entrepreneur); and seek conciliation
“Scanning the environment” and or pacification when the company
processing information is a key part is unexpectedly upset or Organizational effectiveness
of the manager’s job. In this sense, transformed (be a “negotiator” does not lie in that narrow-
Mintzberg claims, they are “the and “disturbance handler”). minded concept called
nerve center of the organizational None of these roles is exclusive rationality. It lies in the blend
unit.” They monitor what is going or privileged. Mintzberg claims that of clearheaded logic and
on, disseminate it to others in effective managers shift seamlessly powerful intuition.
the companies, and act as a between these different functions Henry Mintzberg
spokesperson for the business and know when each role is most
in the world at large. appropriate for the given context.
Information is easily available
to the manager because the role Fact and fiction
connects him or her to many The traditional view held that
people. In this sense, the manager management was a science, where
plays an interpersonal role, which managers controlled a company’s Mintzberg argues that the answer
also involves acting as a figurehead constituent parts—people and to the question “what do managers
for the companies, providing machinery—both of which acted do?” is not simple. He concludes
leadership, and acting as a liaison in predictable and scientifically that management is complex and
point between a large group of controllable ways. Mintzberg contradictory in its demands,
people. The group may include argues, however, that management relying as much on intuition,
subordinates, clients, business is a practice in which art, science, judgment, and intellectual agility
associates, suppliers and peers and craft meet. It involves sorting as on technical skill, planning,
(managers of similar organizations). and processing of information, and scientific logic. All these come
The third role of management, organization of systems and, into play, he says, since a manager
is decision making. Managers must most importantly, highly subjective, designs, monitors, and develops the
oversee financial, material, and nonscientific management of people. ways in which things are done. ■

Henry Mintzberg Mintzberg is the author or co- Although he has been teaching
author of 15 books and more than since 1968, Mintzberg’s interest
Born on September 2, 1939 in 150 articles, and is best known for in organizations and managers
Montreal, Canada, Henry his work on management and emerged during his first degree,
Mintzberg’s background was in managers. His Harvard Business when he spent time at the
mechanical engineering. After Review paper “The Manager’s Canadian National Railway.
graduating in 1968 from the Job: Folklore and Fact” won a His memoirs describe the
Massachusetts Institute of McKinsey award in 1975. In 1997 catastrophic result of two
Technology (MIT), US, he moved he was made an Officer of the boxcars colliding as an excellent
to McGill University in Montreal, Order of Canada and of l’Ordre metaphor for corporate mergers.
where he joined the faculty of national du Quebec; and in 2000
management. He later took a he was awarded Distinguished Key works
joint appointment as professor of Scholar of the Year by the
strategy and management at Academy of Management. In 2013, 1973 The Nature of Managerial
both McGill in Montreal and he was awarded the first honorary Work
INSEAD, in Singapore and degree ever given by the Institut 1975 “The Manager’s Job”
Fontainebleu, France. Mines-Télécom in France. 2004 Managers not MBAs