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Book Review - Manager's Not Mbas a Hard Look at the Sodt Practice of Management by Henry Mintzberg

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Organization Behavior – I
Assignment – Book Review
(Managers not MBAs, A hard look at the soft practice of managing and management development– Henry Mintzberg)

Mayank Sinha Roll No 88 Section B PGDM 2009-11

Exposition of a critique

The leitmotif of the book is that the practice of management can only be learned by the action-reflection model. Management is the practice of getting the right things done, individually and collectively, and learning happens not just by doing but by being able to gain conceptual understanding while doing it. Management competence, as a practice rather than a profession, cannot be taught in the abstract, but is best learned in context through a …show more content…

They are intelligent aggressive people dedicated to business, armed with the know how of the language of business and using it effectively. But due to the disconnected rationality and questionable confidence that most of them suffer from, they are unable to make any major sustained difference at the top. MBAs that succeed do so in spite of the distorted image of managing left by their education, rather than because of it.

Part 2

The second part of the book, titled “Developing Managers” is a series of proposed changes for the management education paradigm. To start off, one of the approaches towards management development described is On the Job Training (OJT) and/or formalized mentoring. The Japanese approach towards on the job management development is highlighted, where the process of learning by watching, listening to and practicing under more experienced colleagues is systemized. Mintzberg then moves on to some atypical off the job non-degree programs, most noteworthy of them being the CCMD (Canadian government centre for management development) for Canadian civil servants, and the Swedish MiL (Management in Lund). The common thread between these two programs is the emphasis on self-directed, action-oriented learning. Through field studies and residential workshops the

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