Five Minds of a Manager In today’s competitive business environment, effective management plays a crucial role. The article Five Minds of a Manager by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg, identify some important aspects of effective managers. According to the author, “The world of the manager is complicated and confusing.” Consequently, mangers need to think above ordinary employees. In particular, managers should, think global and act local, collaborate through competitions, be agents of change and maintain order. This paper provides a reflective review of the article Five Minds of a Manager by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg. The Mindset In today’s complex management environment, I believe that the mindset of a manger weigh the same as their views and attitude on the job. Certainly, Jonathan Gosling an established scholar and the director of the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter provide an excellent view on the diverse talent requirements in effective management. The main issue identified by the author is the connection between leadership and management. Separation of management and leadership is impractical. However not all good leaders are good managers and vice versa. Gosling, and Mintzberg (2003), argues that management without leadership promotes uninspired behavior, which hinders business activities. On the other hand, leadership devoid of management results in disconnect of actions and ideas. I concur with the author’s argument on the relationship between management and leadership. I believe that good managers should be good leaders too. However, most organizations do not enjoy both the benefits of effective leadership and management. In particular, most organizations lack either of these ... ... middle of paper ... ...sect. If the article identifies a seamless integration, between the three aspects, then, the article would have achieved its mandate. I feel that the author has achieved commendable results through the identification of the mindsets of effective management, however I feel that the author needs to emphasize on the need to combine the three factors. Instead, the author has emphasized on the mindset of effective management. In either case, effective management is all about mindset and not the capacity and environment. I believe that although different individuals are gifted differently, everyone can be an effective manager if given a chance. Reference Gosling, J. and H. Mintzberg (2003). "The Five Minds of a Manager." Harvard Business Review (November 2003): 1-10. Hirschey, M. (2009). Fundamentals of Managerial Economics 9th Ed. Boulevard: Cengage Learning.
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Show MoreThe Effective Manager: Perspective and Illustrations. Ed. Jon Billsberry. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications: 287-294.
Buckingham, M. (2005). What Great Managers DO. Harvard Business Review, 83(3), 70-79. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
To be an effective manager one must be able to mange with purpose not just manage the daily activities. All of the manager’s responsibilities need to be molded and developed to align with the company’s vision and mission. Mintzberg discusses a model image of what a manager’s job looks like from the inside out. His concept of new managers are “putty to be molded” (Mintzberg, 2005, p. 55) provided insight that not everyone that is a manager should be a manager. Many new managers want to take their own direction and work towards their own vision of what should happen. Whereas, managing with purpose is the fundamental framework of a manager’s job. I have always maintained that managers and leaders had very different roles and not every manager can lead and not every leader can manage. A manager focuses on deadlines, metrics and budgets while the leader motivates the people, develops the culture and focuses on the vision of the business. I found it interesting that Mintzberg contends an organization becomes dysfunctional if the manager is not a leader. I feel that organizations, in the 21st century, need to have managers that lead and leaders that manage. These positions should be synonymous in order to synergize innovation and cultivate creativity.
The Competing Values Framework is originated by Quinn and Rohrbaugh. It emphasizes the organizational problems and choices faced by managers. The framework is divided into various managerial roles corresponding situations, as well as specific organizational environments. For instance, the facilitator and mentor roles rely on cohesion and morale to bring about human resource development within the organization. While the innovator and broker roles rely on flexibility and readiness in order to receive the growth and resource needed to perform an effective organization. The director and producer roles are more applicable for planning and goal setting skills and will result in productivity and efficiency. The monitor and coordinator roles are intended to managing information and communicating. The framework can also be divided into two main roles. The first four mentioned above are the transformational roles, and the last four are the transactional roles (Belasen, 1996). The transformational roles are more aimed toward making changes and developments, while the transactional roles have strong emphasizes on managerial authorities. The key to becoming a master manager is to be a successful manager who is able to perform each role in order to cope with all difficulties being faced as a manager (Quinn, 1988). A successful manager is also someone who is perceived by others as performing all of the eight roles more frequent than a normal manager and recognizes each of its importance thoroughly (Denison, 1995). A study by Bono (2004) also shows that giving importance to any specific working environment, such as rational goal model, may lower the effectiveness of other areas. Denison and Spreitzer (1991) stated that when a manager does not gi...
Management and Leadership are two concept that are often used interchangeably; however, they actually describe two different concepts. The power available to managers tends to arise from their position, whereas for leaders it often comes from within (Naylor, 2004). Capowski supports this theory suggesting that the contrasts between management and leadership are that one stems from the head and the other the heart (Capowski, 1994). However these roles differ, it remains that both have “the potential to influence behaviour of others” (Naylor, 2004). This essay will attempt to explain how someone may possess the ability to be one and not the other, or both, and how this influences their roles.
Plunkett, W., Attner, R., & Allen, G. (2008). Management: Meeting and Exceeding Customer Expectations (1st ed.). Cincinnati: South-Western College Pub.
Another problem is ineffective communication. According Herman Aguinis, managers should listen to others, process the information and communicate effectively. They should also instill trust and provide proper direction to their team. As leaders, they should guide, develop and motivate to im...
Effective managers optimize the use of resources. They gain a thorough understanding of each resource to maximize the value of an investment. For instance, they would ensure the owner’s manual for a new piece of equipment so that users can maximize the equipment’s benefits and features. They would also focus attention on the organizations most valuable resource – their human capital. Effective managers facility their teams success by fully developing employee talent through training and
While reading this book, one comes to understand the many problems confronting management. Achieving a set goal is one of them. The organization being managed is responsible for some sort of an objective weather is developing a new product, getting new customers or whatever it may be. There are goals associated with that objectives and those goals require effort. Bringing out the best in the employees is another job for management. It’s important that management tries their best to create as many “good days” as possible. Dealing with underperforming employees also confronts management. Not all employees will do their best. Any issue that contributes to an underperforming employee is the manager’s problem and management needs to provide some sort of motivation and counsel. Dealing with outstanding employees is also something management needs to confront. Some employees obviously outperform others. That presents its own set of challenges. Outstanding employees need special treatment. You want them to keep doing an exceptional job which could mean to have to pay them special attention. They need recognition for their talents and efforts as well as knowing that they have a career path ahead of them. Hiring the right people is another problem management needs to face. Hiring is easy, but hiring the right person is extremely difficult. Responding to a crisis is also an extremely...
In the twenty first century, leaders are required to build a greater impression in which people believe in strategy, trust in management decisions, and trust in their work. Once people believe in management choice, there will be enthusiasm inside an organisation. Such an environment helps the organisation growing or flourish. A doing well leaders create a surroundings in cooperation inside and outside the organisation. (Subir chowdbhury management, 21c financial times prentice hall (2000)
"There seems to be overall agreement that effective managers must be effective in conceptual, interpersonal, technical, and political skills."(Robbins&Decenzo, 2003).
It is no secret that at a core of every successful organisation lies the management of people. When the employees are successfully managed, they work more effectively and efficiently to deliver desired output.
In my opinion, there are some managerial roles that a manager needs to follow to become successful in the company. Depending on organizations these managerial roles changes and to be successful in business, every organization must assign right person for managerial roles. Finding a right person to a particular managerial role is really hard to do but there is another factor that we can consider here, which is the managerial skills. Managerial skills help a person to perform the managerial roles effectively. So by evaluating a person’s managerial skills we can identify whether he is suitable for particular managerial job or not. There is a company called Tata group, which is one of India’s biggest company, follows certain procedures which is called the Tata way, for dealing managers which includes hiring, training and assigning efficiently and effectively. This is reason why managerial job in the Tata group became my favorite job. This paper examines how this unique procedure for dealing managers make the Tata group successive and how can the study of organizational behavior help to replicate it and maybe even improve it.
Managers nowadays do not actually do what a manager really should do back in the eighties. Changes that occurred in the new economy, the increasing use of technology in business, and the effects of globalisation towards business world have led management into a whole new dimension. New managers are expected to be able to manage on an international scale, act strategically, utilize technology, establish values, and of course, act responsibly as well. (Crainer, 1998) Henry Mintzberg once asked, "What do managers do?" After conducting his research based on a study of five CEOs, he concluded that managerial work involves interpersonal role, decisional role and informational role. And the fact is that, managers get things done through other people. Therefore, managers are required to possess certain skills and competencies which allow them to play these roles effectively and efficiently throughout the four functions of management. (Mintzberg, 1998)
Over the past hundred years management has continuously been evolving. There have been a wide range of approaches in how to deal with management or better yet how to improve management functions in our ever changing environment. From as early as 1100 B.C managers have been struggling with the same issues and problems that manager’s face today. Modern managers use many of the practices, principles, and techniques developed from earlier concepts and experiences.