You cannot create a manager in a classroom
07 Jun 04

“The MBA trains the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences” writes top management thinker, Henry Mintzberg. “Using the classroom to help develop people already practicing management is a fine idea, but pretending to create managers out of people who have never managed is a sham.”

Each year tens of thousands of twenty-something CEO wannabe's work their way through the MBA sausage machine and plop out onto the management fast-track of our major corporations.

The problem, according to Mintzberg, is that the MBA does not just fail to develop managers; it breeds a dysfunctional style of managing that is undermining our organizations and societies. We need leaders with human skills, not professionals with academic qualifications. He believes that leaders cannot be created in a classroom. They arise in context.

These are the thoughts and insights presented in Managers Not MBAs Henry Mintzberg’s first major new work for years. Chris Brady of Cass Business School commented that it: “should be recommended reading for MBA students and faculties.”

At his provocative, engaging and brilliant best, Mintzberg delivers a sweeping critique of how managers are educated and how; as a consequence, management is practiced. He goes on to offer thoughtful and controversial ideas for reforming both, outlining how business schools can become true schools of management.

Managers not MBAs, A Hard Look at the soft practice of managing and management development published by Financial Times Prentice Hall in May 2004.

For further information or to purchase click here. Buy from Pearson-books.com before 30th June to receive a 10% discount off the RRP of £24.99

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