Henry Mintzberg McGill University

BY: Khushboo Daga

 Professor Henry Mintzberg ( born in Montreal, September 2, 1939) is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management.. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, QUEBEC, Canada, Where he has been teaching since 1968

 Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University, and is the author of more than 15 books and about 150 articles, including ones that have won the highest academic and practitioner awards
His seminal book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, criticizes some of the practices of strategic planning today.

Education
Ph.D. ( doctorate)

Sloan School of Management, M.I.T., 1968

Thesis: The Manager at WorkDetermining his Activities, Roles and Programs by Structured Observation Fields: Policy (major), Organizational Studies, Information and Control Systems, minor in Political Science Awards: Ford Fellowship, M.I.T. Fellowship Management, M.I.T., l965 Awards: Quebec Fellowship, M.I.T. Fellowship Activities: Student Government General Arts, Sir George Williams (now Concordia) University (evening), 1962 B.Eng. Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 1961 Honors Societies: A, Scarlet Key Activities: Student Council Representative, McGill Daily Sports Editor, Student Athletic Council Chairman, etc.

S.M. ( Master of science)

B.A.

Life and career

Henry Mintzberg was born in Canada, and has spent virtually all his working life in that country. He studied at McGill University, and after further study at MIT, returned to Canada to take up an appointment with Canadian National Railways in 1961. In 1963 he moved into the academic world and by 1968 was back at McGill University as a professor, a post he holds to the present day. He is also director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Organization at McGill and has held several important positions in other management institutions, including that of visiting professor at INSEAD. He has been a consultant to many organisations throughout the world and from 1988 to 1991 he was President of the Strategic Management Society.
Mintzberg's major impact on the management world began with his book The nature of managerial work, published in 1973, and a seminal article in Harvard Business Review, The manager's job: folklore and fact written two years later. Based on detailed research and thoughtful observation, these two works established Mintzberg's reputation by showing that what managers did, when successfully carrying out their responsibilities, was substantially different from much business theory.

BOOKS BY HENRY MINTZBERG (in reverse chronological order).

Management: It's not what you think (Online) Managing (Online) Tracking Strategies: Toward a General Theory (BUS stack HD30.28.T733 2007) Strategy Bites Back: It Is A Lot More, and Less, Than You Ever Imagined (Online) Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development (BUS stack HD30.4.M56 2004b) The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases (BUS stack HD30.28.Q53 2003) Managing Publicly ( DBW stack JF1351.M56 2000 ) The Strategy Process, with James Brian Quinn and Sumantra Ghoshal, (BUS stack HD30.28.Q532 1998). This work contains over a dozen contributions by Mintzberg, most of which have appeared elsewhere. This is a revised edition of a work published over a decade earlier. Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic Management The Canadian Condition: Reflections of a "pure cotton

 The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning: Reconceiving Roles for Planning In this work Mintzberg criticizes strategic planning and the way it is typically used. Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations, Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations Organizations: A Quantum View, by Danny Miller & Peter Friesen, (HD31.M4375 1984). This work was written in collaboration with Mintzberg who contributed Chapter 1, "The Case for Configuration", and Chapter 3, "A Typology of Organizational Structure". Tracking Strategies in the Birthplace of Canadian Tycoons: The Sherbrooke Record 1946-1976 Power in and Around Organizations The Structuring of Organizations: A Synthesis of the Research, Impediments to the Use of Management Information, The Structure of Strategic Decision Processes, with Raisinghani & Theoret, (This is essentially a working paper. The Nature of Managerial

Key theories
Mintzberg's contribution to management thinking is not based on one or two clever theories within some narrow discipline.His approach is broad, involving the study of virtually everything managers do and how they do it. His general appeal is further enhanced by a fundamental belief that management is about applying human skills to systems, not applying systems to people - a belief that is demonstrated throughout his writing.

How managers work

In The nature of managerial work, Mintzberg proposes six characteristics of management work 1. The manager's job is a mixture of regular, programmed jobs and unprogrammed tasks. 2. A manager is both a generalist and a specialist. 3. Managers rely on information from all sources but show a preference for that which is orally transmitted. 4. Managerial work is made up of activities that are characterized by brevity, variety and fragmentation. 5. Management work is more an art than a science and is reliant on intuitive processes and a feel for what is right. 6. Management work is becoming more complex.

Mintzbergs 10 Managerial Roles

Management expert Professor Henry Mintzberg has argued that a managers work can be boiled down to ten common roles. According to Mintzberg, these roles, or expectations for a managers behavior, fall into three categories:

1. Interpersonal (managing by information), 2. Information (managing through people), 3. Decision-making (managing through action).

Interpersonal
a) Figurehead - performing symbolic duties as a representative of the organisation. b) Leader - establishing the atmosphere and motivating the subordinates. c) Liaiser - developing and maintaining webs of contacts outside the organisation.

Information
a) Monitor - collecting all types of information that are relevant and useful to the organisation. b) Disseminator - transmitting information from outside the organisation to those inside. c) Spokesman - transmitting information from inside the organisation to outsiders.

Decision-making
a) Entrepreneur - initiating change and adapting to the environment. b) Disturbance Handler - dealing with unexpected events. c) Resource Allocator - deciding on the use of organisational resources. d) Negotiator - negotiating with individuals and dealing with other organisations.

Theory on Organizational Forms- The structure of organizations

'The organizational configurations framework of Mintzberg is a model that describes six valid organizational configurations (originally only five; the sixth one was added later):
The entrepreneurial organisation - small staff, loose division of labour, little management hierarchy, informal, with power focused on the chief executive. The machine organisation - highly specialised, routine operating tasks, formal communication, large operating units, tasks grouped under functions, elaborate administrative systems, central decision making and a sharp distinction between line and staff.

 The diversified organisation - a set of semi-autonomous units under a central administrative structure. The units are usually called divisions and the central administration referred to as the headquarters. The professional organisation - commonly found in hospitals, universities, public agencies and firms doing routine work, this structure relies on the skills and knowledge of professional staff in order to function. All such organisations produce standardised products or services. The innovative organisation - this is what Mintzberg sees as the modern organisation: one that is flexible, rejecting any form of bureaucracy and avoiding emphasis on planning and control systems. Innovation is achieved by hiring experts, giving them power, training and developing them and employing them in multidiscipline teams that work in an atmosphere unbounded by conventional specialisms and differentiation. The missionary organisation - it is the mission that counts above all else in such organisations; and the mission is clear, focussed, distinctive and inspiring. Staff readily identify with the mission, share common values and are motivated by their own zeal and enthusiasm.

According to the organizational configurations model of Mintzberg each organization can consist of a maximum of six basic parts:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Strategic Apex (top management) Middle Line (middle management) Operating Core (operations, operational processes) Technostructure (analysts that design systems, processes, etc.) Support Staff (support outside of operating workflow) Ideology (halo of beliefs and traditions; norms, values, culture)

Strategy according to Henry Mintzberg

Henry MintzbergsThe Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy,

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Strategy can mean a Plan Strategy can mean a Ploy Strategy can mean a Pattern Strategy can mean a Position Strategy can mean a Perspective

Interrelating the Five Ps

An emerging Pattern can be recognized, and formalized into a Plan for the future Strategy as Plan or Pattern can lead to a Strategy as Position and / or Perspective A sequence of Ploys can become a Pattern
Perspective can constrain all the others

The Strategy Concept II: Another look at why Organizations need Strategies
Organizations need Strategies to Set Direction Organizations need Strategies to Focus Effort and promote Coordination Organizations need Strategies to Define themselves Organizations need Strategies to Provide Consistency

Selected Articles by : Henry Mintzberg

Why the value of an MBA has declined, Financialpost.com January 4, 2012
Looking Forward to Development Training & Development (February 2011)) --a very different perspective from the practicioner perpective on the development of managers and their organizations.

The Rhythm Of Change

Developing Theory about the Development of Theory.

Mintzberg Says If you are interested in how I research, conceive, and write, please see Developing Theory about the Development of Theory.

The Globe and mail -

Productivity is a Time Bomb: Our misguided faith in crude economic indicators such as productivity is going to blow up in our faces, says management guru Henry Mintzberg",

Awards and Recognition

Professor Mintzberg has twice won the McKinsey Award for publishing the best article in the Harvard Business Review. Also, he is credited with co-creating the organigraph, which is taught in business In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada In 1998 he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He is now a member of the Strategic Management Society. Strategic Management Journal Best Paper Prize (2005) and two Harvard Business Review McKinsey prizewinners: "The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact" (first place in l975) and "Crafting Strategy" (second place in l987). He is recognized in the Web of Science list of the worlds most cited and influential researchers with approximately 4,000 citations. Gold Medal, Canadian Operational Research Society, for best publication by a member (1980) Hebert Simon Award, Corvinus University (Budapest 2006)

Latest Publication : Rebalancing Society: Radical renewal beyond Adam Smith and Marx According to him, theres a critical imbalance threatening our societies and unless it is addressed in a new, practically relevant way, the worlds economies are doomed.

Thank you