HENRY MINTZBERG The Academic and Author EARLY LIFE
HENRY MINTZBERG The Academic and Author
EARLY LIFE • Born September 2, 1939 in Montreal. • Degrees • Undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of Mc. Gill University. • Master's degree in Management and Ph. D from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1965 and 1968 respectively. • After receiving his BS he began work with the Canadian National Railways but returned to school to study for his Masters. • Mintzberg became a professor at Mc. Gill University and subsequently Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies. He is now recognized as one of the top management thinkers in the world.
CAREER • Author on the topics of management and business strategy, with more than 150 articles and fifteen books to his name. • Book: The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (Mintzberg 1994). • In 2004 he published a book entitled Managers Not MBAs (Mintzberg 2004) which outlines what he believes to be wrong with management education today. • Won the Mc. Kinsey Award twice for publishing the best article in the Harvard Business Review. • Made Officer of: • The Order of Canada (1997) • The National Order of Quebec (1998) • Current member of the Strategic Management Society.
PERSONAL LIFE • Family: • Two daughters, Susie and Lisa. • Three grandchildren, Laura, Tomas and Maya • Enjoys writing short stories based on personal experiences. • Religion: • Jewish • Other interests include: • • Canoeing Cycling Short story writing Blogging
CONTRIBUTION TO ORGANIZATION THEORY • The organizational configurations framework of Mintzberg: 1. Simple structure characteristic of entrepreneurial organization 2. Machine bureaucracy 3. Professional bureaucracy 4. Diversified form 5. Adhocracy or Innovative organization • Each organization can consist of a maximum of six basic parts: 1. Strategic Apex (top management) 2. Middle Line (middle management) 3. Operating Core (operations, operational processes) 4. Technostructure (analysts that design systems, processes, etc. ) 5. Support Staff (support outside of operating workflow) 6. Ideology (halo of beliefs and traditions; norms, values, culture)
CONTRIBUTION TO BUSINESS STRATEGY THEORY • Emphasized the importance of emergent strategy (a set of actions, or behavior, consistent over time, "a realized pattern [that] was not expressly intended" in the original planning of strategy). • Arises informally at any level in an organization • Strongly critical of the stream of strategy literature which focuses predominantly on deliberate strategy (determined consciously by top management). • Mintzberg is cited in Chamberlain's Theory of Strategy as providing one of the four main foundations on which theory is based. • His theory states decision making is decentralized, which is typical when the organization contains a large number of knowledge workers, and it's why it's common in places like schools and universities, and in accounting and law firms.
SOURCES • Vlient, V. V. (2015, March 24). Henry Mintzberg. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http: //www. toolshero. com/toolsheroes/henry-mintzberg/ • https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Henry_Mintzberg • (2009, January 16). Henry Mintzberg. Retrieved April 11, 2016 from http: //www. economist. com/node/12918770. • http: //www 2. open. ac. uk/openlearn/business_thinkers_static/people/mintzberg. html • http: //www. encyclopedia. com/article-1 G 2 -3482600121/mintzberg-henry-1939. html • Mintzberg, H. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. New York, NY: The Free Press. Hax, A. C. & Majluf, N. S. (1996). The Strategy Concept and Process, A Pragmatic Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http: //planningskills. com/glossary/154. php • Mintzberg's Organizational Configurations. Retrieved April 11, 2016 from https: //www. mindtools. com/pages/article/new. STR_54. htm
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