Managers not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development

The trouble with "management" education, says author Henry Mintzberg,is that it is business education, and leaves a distorted impressionof management. In Managers Not MBAs, he offers a new definition ofmanagement as a blend of craft (experience), art (insight), andscience (analysis). An education that overemphasizes scienceencourages a style of managing the author calls "calculating," or ifthe graduates believe themselves to be artists, the related style"heroic. According to the book, neither heroes nor technocrats inpositions of influence are useful - what's really needed arebalanced, dedicated people who practice a style that can be called"engaging. Such people believe their purpose is to leave behindstronger organizations, not just higher share prices. Managers NotMBAs explains in detail how to cultivate such managers, and how theycan transform the business world and, ultimately, society.