Schoolonomics

A Review on the Article “The Managers Job: Folklore and Fact” written by Henry Mintzberg.

It has been my privilege to go through the contents and the vast spread information about Managers job in the article. Initially it was very tuff job for me because the language used was very sophisticated and highly professional , but slowly as I proceed with the article I actually got control over the words used and started understanding it. I was amazed by the critical thinking capacity of Mr.Mintzberg’s brain and the way he had elaborated and differentiated the folklore {Traditional belief} and the facts with regards to the Managers potential and his Job. In the following paragraph I am trying my level best to mention all the important points I came across in the article and incase you find me missing some points , please consider me as any other imperfect human and forgive me for it.

As Mr.Mintzberg said “The Classical view says that the manager organizes, coordinates, plans and controls; the facts suggest otherwise” was the best starting punch line for the article to make its reader think deeply before starting with the contents about the subject of the article. The writers main motto is to draw readers attentions towards the drawbacks of the traditional beliefs regarding the scope of managers job and the actually facts regarding it. The article makes its reader to think: What do managers do? Without a proper answer how can we teach management? How can one design planning or information system for the managers? How can we improve the practice of management? How can and what should B-Schools teach to make better managers and leaders?

This are the very few of the questions that rushed into my mind after reading the article. I was impressed by the way Mr.Mintzberg have scrutinize and mentioned few of the different ways of the research studies like “Diary Method”, “anthropological method”, “presidential power” etc. I also was drilled away into the deep rooted subject of Managers Job while going through the different roles of managers like Interpersonal role, Informational roles and Decisional roles.

I have also gone through the points mentioned in the articles with respect to the B-Schools and their training which are not in a deep sense imparting its students with the mantras of practicality of the theories they do learn and mug up. I liked the way the writer has quoted “Cognitive Learning no more makes a manager than it does a swimmer” which means like a swimmer cannot just swim by learning theory of swimming like wise even a manager has to be provided practical knowledge which comes from practical situations. And finally I liked the way the writer has mentioned that no job is more vital to our society than that of the manager.

Finally I would conclude my review by saying that this article is a must read for all the MBA aspirants and it can make wonders for them...