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Henry Minzburg

In: Business and Management

Submitted By gaddo15
Words 626
Pages 3
Mintzberg: Descriptions about Managerial Work
These notes summarise the main conclusions of MIntzberg's early 1970's conclusions of the (nature of managerial work). He observed the everyday activities of senior managers and offered telling conclusions to be compared with the limited definitions of managerial functions from the classical and human relations schools e.g. Fayol - to forecast, plan, organisation, command/motivate, communicate, review and control or leadership models which recommend various task and relationships-oriented behaviours.
Mintzberg presents a picture of an all-consuming role for managers and prescriptions about how to behave or techniques to use should be treated with caution.
His conclusions, although related to senior management, seem to reflect the demanding job roles of the mid-1990's - the post-In Search of Excellence, matrix management, lean and down-sized organisation era.

A Realistic Description of Managerial Work?
Minzberg concluded that

1. Senior management jobs are open-ended, managers feel compelled to tackle a large workload at demanding pace. there is little free time. Breaks are rare. Escaping from work after hours is physically/mentally difficult. 2. The work is fragmented, full of brevity & variety with a lack of pattern. Managers confront the law of the trivial many and the important few (80/20 principle). Behaviours must change quickly and frequently; interruptions are common. 3. Managers seem to prefer this and become conditioned by workload. Opportunity-costs of time (urgencies) are keenly felt and superficiality in relationships is a hazard. 4. There is an activity-trap - managers tend towards current, specific, well-defined, non-routine activities. Processing mail is a pain; 'non-active' mail gets little attention. Current information (chat, speculation) is preferred - routine

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