The Harvard Business School
recognized it needed to develop a new structure for MBA education, a new
structure that encouraged synthesis rather than separation (Gosling &
Mintzberg, 2003). This new structure was based on five aspects of a managerial
mind, five ways in which managers interpret and deal with the world around them
(Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003). These five aspects that correspond with five
modules of their program are action (Managing change), reflection (Managing self),
collaboration (Managing relationships), worldly (Managing context), and
analytical (Managing organizations) mind-sets. When describing the action and
reflection mindsets, the article compared management development in business
organizations today with organizations like the Red Cross where managers know
how to execute but are not adept at stepping back to reflect on their situation
and some are just the opposite where they get wrapped up in their thinking but
can’t get things done fast enough. This was also very reflective of some of the
leaders of the disaster response teams during the Hurricane Katrina and Rita
disasters. Gosling & Mintzberg believe every manager has to find a way to
combine these two mindsets –to function at the point where reflective thinking
meets practical doing.
The other two mindsets I
found most interesting and relative to our readings this week were
collaboration and worldly. In discussing collaboration the article talks about
managing people is more about managing relationships among people, projects,
divisions and alliances. It also describes that this type of manager do less
controlling, thus allowing other people to be in greater control of their own
work (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003). First, I see a parallel to one of the two
sets of responsibilities, managing the team’s boundaries, identified in the
Managing Your Team article (Hill, 2005). The identified responsibility is about
managing relationships your team connects with. Secondly, this is also reminiscent
of the fourth paradox identified by (Hill, 2005) that involves achieving a
delicate balance between the authority of the manager and the discretion and
autonomy of the team.
Worldly is the other mindset
that held my interest because I recognized similarities to Hill’s first paradox
that talked about embracing individual differences among team members. As the
article progressed, they explained how they should be encouraging managers to
be more worldly, get into worlds beyond our own – into other people’s
circumstances, habits, cultures – so that we can better know our own world
(Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003). Although worldly has many meanings, I believe
they were also saying in order to manage a diverse team you must be familiar
with the diversities.
In conclusion, I believe the
article is right on target in its discussion on how Harvard Business School developed
modules to prepare managers for the real world. Modules that prepare them to be
effective managers that focus not only on what they have to accomplish but also
on how they have to think.
Gosling, J. and Mintzberg,
H. (2003)The five minds of a manager, Harvard
Business
Review.
Hill, L. (1995) Managing Your Team, Harvard Business
School, pp. 1-22
Majcharzak, A., Jarvenpaa, S., and Hollingshead, A.
(2007) Coordinating
Expertise Among Emergent Groups
Responding to Disasters, Organization
Science, Vol. 18
No. 1, pp.147-161
Audrey, how was Harvard structured before these five mindsets? Do you think the importance of teamwork in organizations can fall into all five categories? Are all five equally important for all managers?
ReplyDeleteHarvard was structured very commonly to other MBA education, dividing management into the business functions of marketing, finance, accounting etc. I do believe the importance of teamwork can fall into all five categories including the one that speaks to reflection. Many of the things you learn about yourself you can teach and/or share with others in the team. I want to believe that managers truly try to help their team members grow and excel into managers also. I do believe the five mindsets are intertwined to support managers in how they interpret and deal with the world around them (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003).
ReplyDeleteAudrey, stepping into a colleague's shoes is very important. It's difficult to build face-to-face relationships and technology helps, but you never really understand the challenges colleagues in other countries face, until you're there and attend 11 p.m. calls with the U.S. Walking in their shoes really puts into operation the fifth paradox Hill identifies--that of manager, indivdual and team member. I find that in the U.S., we tend to schedule meetings in the time zone of the majority of the team, which invariably means there's someone in the minority is always inconvenienced. As a worldly manager, paying attention to all the legs of the triangle, you'd need to rotate schedules to build that sense of fairness across the team.
ReplyDeleteGood point Cynthia. We are running into that with some of our cohorts in very different time zones or traveling. I believe we have been sensitive to it and willingly compromising.
ReplyDelete