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
LIGHTING THE FIRE
The informational role is possible
because, although managers do
not know everything, they tend to
know more than their subordinates.
“Scanning the environment” and
processing information is a key part
of the manager’s job. In this sense,
Mintzberg claims, they are “the
nerve center of the organizational
unit.” They monitor what is going
on, disseminate it to others in
the companies, and act as a
spokesperson for the business
in the world at large.
Information is easily available
to the manager because the role
connects him or her to many
people. In this sense, the manager
plays an interpersonal role, which
also involves acting as a figurehead
for the companies, providing
leadership, and acting as a liaison
point between a large group of
people. The group may include
subordinates, clients, business
associates, suppliers and peers
(managers of similar organizations).
The third role of management,
is decision making. Managers must
oversee financial, material, and
personnel resources and decision
making (be a “resource allocator”),
encourage innovation (act as an
entrepreneur); and seek conciliation
or pacification when the company
is unexpectedly upset or
transformed (be a “negotiator”
and “disturbance handler”).
None of these roles is exclusive
or privileged. Mintzberg claims that
effective managers shift seamlessly
between these different functions
and know when each role is most
appropriate for the given context.Fact and fiction
The traditional view held that
management was a science, where
managers controlled a company’s
constituent parts—people and
machinery—both of which acted
in predictable and scientifically
controllable ways. Mintzberg
argues, however, that management
is a practice in which art, science,
and craft meet. It involves sorting
and processing of information,
organization of systems and,
most importantly, highly subjective,
nonscientific management of people.Mintzberg argues that the answer
to the question “what do managers
do?” is not simple. He concludes
that management is complex and
contradictory in its demands,
relying as much on intuition,
judgment, and intellectual agility
as on technical skill, planning,
and scientific logic. All these come
into play, he says, since a manager
designs, monitors, and develops the
ways in which things are done. ■Henry Mintzberg
Born on September 2, 1939 in
Montreal, Canada, Henry
Mintzberg’s background was in
mechanical engineering. After
graduating in 1968 from the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), US, he moved
to McGill University in Montreal,
where he joined the faculty of
management. He later took a
joint appointment as professor of
strategy and management at
both McGill in Montreal and
INSEAD, in Singapore and
Fontainebleu, France.Mintzberg is the author or co-
author of 15 books and more than
150 articles, and is best known for
his work on management and
managers. His Harvard Business
Review paper “The Manager’s
Job: Folklore and Fact” won a
McKinsey award in 1975. In 1997
he was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada and of l’Ordre
national du Quebec; and in 2000
he was awarded Distinguished
Scholar of the Year by the
Academy of Management. In 2013,
he was awarded the first honorary
degree ever given by the Institut
Mines-Télécom in France.Although he has been teaching
since 1968, Mintzberg’s interest
in organizations and managers
emerged during his first degree,
when he spent time at the
Canadian National Railway.
His memoirs describe the
catastrophic result of two
boxcars colliding as an excellent
metaphor for corporate mergers.Key works1973 The Nature of Managerial
Work
1975 “The Manager’s Job”
2004 Managers not MBAsOrganizational effectiveness
does not lie in that narrow-
minded concept called
rationality. It lies in the blend
of clearheaded logic and
powerful intuition.
Henry Mintzberg