Managing
Berrett-Koehler Publishers | 2009-09-01 | ISBN: 1576753409 | 288 pages | PDF | 1 MB


A half century ago Peter Drucker put management on the map. Leadershiphas since pushed it off. Henry Mintzberg aims to restore management toits proper place: front and center. "We should be seeing managers asleaders." Mintzberg writes, "and leadership as management practicedwell."

This landmark book draws on Mintzberg's observations of twenty-ninemanagers, in business, government, health care, and the social sector,working in settings ranging from a refugee camp to a symphonyorchestra. What he saw--the pressures, the action, the nuances, theblending--compelled him to describe managing as a practice, not ascience or a profession, learned primarily through experience androoted in context.

But context cannot be seen in the usual way. Factors such as nationalculture and level in hierarchy, even personal style, turn out to haveless influence than we have traditionally thought. Mintzberg looks athow to deal with some of the inescapable conundrums of managing, suchas, How can you get in deep when there is so much pressure to getthings done? How can you manage it when you can't reliably measure it?

This book is vintage Mintzberg: iconoclastic, irreverent, carefullyresearched, myth-breaking. Managing may be the most revealing book yetwritten about what managers do, how they do it, and how they can do itbetter.