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.
Mintzberg, H. (1975) The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact, Harvard Business Review, vol. 53, no. 4, pg. 49-61
The systematic and scholarly study of leadership consumed much of the twentieth century and continues to remain a vital topic of discussion today. Theories abound as to what makes one a good leader and, despite the continued efforts of many, no single operable expression of the meaning of leadership exists. In an attempt to address this issue James Kotterman wrote, “Leadership Versus Management: What’s the Difference.” The following review shall briefly summarize Kotterman’s article and follow with conclusions based on the experiences of this author.
Robbins, S. P., & Coulter. M. (2014). Management (12th ed.). Retrieved from: Colorado Technical University eBook Collection database.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
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...
Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (2009). Management (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
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)
Today in the business world there are many successful business men and women that succeed in their own areas of business. The main reasons of their success are of their aspects on managing their company from taking risks to motivation and commitment. A successful manager is also a leader to the other co-workers and employees of the company; he/she must guide and lead them to success and happiness.
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.
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.
Robbins, S.P., & Coulter, M. (2009). Management (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Leadership, without doubt, is a significantly important function of management. It helps to aggrandize efficiency and to fulfil an organization’s goals. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence, determination, courage and zeal. It is also defined as ability to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders should have the capability of developing future visions, and to drive the organizational members to want to attain the visions. This paper states my points in which I duly believe, justifies the importance of an outstanding leader in any organization.
After we discuss the Manager’s Functions and Roles in the modern organization, the next topic we discuss is the important managerial activities of an effective manager.
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)
Management and leadership are very important functions in getting a job done. In Peter Drucker`s statement “Management is doing things right and leadership is doing the right things”, doing things right means being able to perform well, whilst doing the right things is knowing what exactly what to do inorder to perform well. Management is associated with efficiency, and involves coordinating people's efforts and the allocation of resources to maximize productivity whilst leadership is to effectiveness, which involves directing and inspiring people to achieve set goals (Sterling, 2014). Leadership and management are different but are closely linked functions: each is complimentary to the other and is essential in ensuring change in achieving strategic goals and in boosting team performance (SmallBizConnect, 2012). In this paper, I will explain why knowing yourself and understanding others form the basis for efficient management and effective leadership, and how these concepts can be improved upon. In addition, I would explore how management and leadership complement each other in pragmatic leadership and the great debaters.