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Elementaire Deeltjes #15
Management
De baas die elke mail controleert. De baas die gaat tennissen onder kantoortijd. De baas die zich opstelt als coach of die zich gedraagt alsof je zijn voetsoldaat bent. Zoveel managers, zoveel leiderschapsstijlen. Dit Elementaire Deeltje is een introductie op management. John Hendry beschrijft de ontwikkeling van het vak in de afgelopen eeuw. Hij verkent thema’s als moraliteit en toerekenbaarheid en bestudeert de invloed van nationale cultuur en bedrijfscultuur. Een ideale inleiding voor iedere manager en voor degenen die met managers werken.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 26, 2013
24 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
About the author
John Hendry
50 books2 followersJohn Hendry is a writer, teacher and academic. He has spent much of his career working in and managing business schools and writing about the practice of management and business and financial ethics, but has also had a parallel life as a historian and philosopher of science and a historian of contemporary Britain. His most recent books focus on the art (and joys) of managing, on the ethical problems besetting the financial sector, and on the power and limitations of reason. John is a Fellow of Girton College, University of Cambridge, and an Emeritus Professor at Henley Business School.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 31, 2014
Once any organization reaches a certain size and complexity, it becomes inevitable and essential for it to structure itself along the hierarchical lines. Coordinating people in such an organization requires a certain level of skill and specialization, and this, in a nutshell, is what managers and management are all about.
This small book explores the concept and the function of management. It tries to answer a few basic questions: what is management and what do managers do? The book delves into several general theories and approaches to management, and tries to show how thee have evolved over time. Interestingly enough, though, in terms of the specifics of what goes on in an average daily routine of a typical manager, very little seems to have changed in the last half a century or so. However, it seems that there has been very little in terms of empirical or ethnological observation when it comes to management.
The book provides many very concrete and interesting examples of management in various settings. However, this is a primarily a book that approaches its topic from an academic perspective. It is much more concerned with getting a very clear and accurate description of management in all its variety, then providing any concrete advice on managerial skills and best practices. It’s a good book for anyone who wants to get a deeper and more nuanced understanding of management, but it’s certainly not the most practical book on the subject.
This small book explores the concept and the function of management. It tries to answer a few basic questions: what is management and what do managers do? The book delves into several general theories and approaches to management, and tries to show how thee have evolved over time. Interestingly enough, though, in terms of the specifics of what goes on in an average daily routine of a typical manager, very little seems to have changed in the last half a century or so. However, it seems that there has been very little in terms of empirical or ethnological observation when it comes to management.
The book provides many very concrete and interesting examples of management in various settings. However, this is a primarily a book that approaches its topic from an academic perspective. It is much more concerned with getting a very clear and accurate description of management in all its variety, then providing any concrete advice on managerial skills and best practices. It’s a good book for anyone who wants to get a deeper and more nuanced understanding of management, but it’s certainly not the most practical book on the subject.
July 8, 2021
A good, concise overview of the discipline, or rather, the history of the discipline.
December 22, 2020
I've come away from this knowing very little useful information about management. I entered this expecting an overview of the main ideas of management. However, the author took his own path and extolled on the morality of management, the history of management and expounded many of his own pet theories. The author suggests that he has written this book for 3 types of readers, new managers, experienced managers and academics studying management. Whilst I think this viewpoint would be interesting to an experienced manager or academic it has very little interest for a new manager in my view.
January 5, 2018
A clever view of Management and Managers. Far better than a summary of management thinking it provides so interesting perspectives of its own. It provides areas of thought and other links that can be explored in more detail.
May 16, 2020
Reaching the platonic ideal of very short introductions. Tracks academic theory and colloquial ideas over time, links to wider theoretical movements, adds nice insights (e.g contrast between "managing" to do something and "managing" an org), nicely structured sections, doesn't bang his own drum.
August 30, 2024
Good Intro
About to start my first management role and this was a good overview of the field. Rudimentary, sure, but insightful and good for getting managers to reflect on their role.
About to start my first management role and this was a good overview of the field. Rudimentary, sure, but insightful and good for getting managers to reflect on their role.
September 24, 2018
Provides it's stated aim. The ultimate takeaway is that management is very simple in practice, but difficult to quantify
May 18, 2020
A must-read for any student of leadership and management, whether going into a position yourself or looking to work better within an organization.
August 12, 2025
Not sure if this was the most readable and practical of all the VSI books I’ve read so far, or if, because I did my UG degree in management, I just wasn’t hopelessly lost the entire time. Anyways, would recommend!
June 26, 2016
I work in an office, as part of a team. Each team has both a 'project manager' and a '[software] development lead'. For the six months or so for which I have been doing the job, their work has been something of a dark art to me. What exactly do they do all day? How are their jobs actually different?
John Hendry has been a teacher (it seems) at a variety of business schools. My experience of such people is that they are actually people who tried at management and failed. I do sometimes wonder whether this makes them entirely qualified to teach what they teach, but the thing is, those who do succeed at management tend to stay in management, and, moreover, tend not to understand why they are successful enough to be able to teach about it.
Hendry appears neither to have succeeded nor failed at management, or even to have attempted it. He does protest that he plays a part in business school administration, but since success in that field is hardly quantifiable I'm not sure it counts.
At any rate, his approach to the subject in Management: A Very Short Introduction is far more academic than practical, so all this is hardly important. His writing, unfortunately, is rather dry, thus it can be difficult to absorb the very dense content of what he is saying without concentrated effort; effort which, alas, I am not sufficiently interested to give it. He covers a very wide range of topics in very little space, not going into quite as much example-detail as I would like. Or perhaps it was there, but I missed it in the thickets of the prose.
Since the subject matter is a little off the straightforwardly academic path of the usual VSIs, it is difficult to make a comparison. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to make a comparison with anything else I have ever read. I will say this: those who are interested in the intricacies of corporate life, and are thus prepared to put some time aside for learning more, will hopefully find this book to be a rich introduction.
John Hendry has been a teacher (it seems) at a variety of business schools. My experience of such people is that they are actually people who tried at management and failed. I do sometimes wonder whether this makes them entirely qualified to teach what they teach, but the thing is, those who do succeed at management tend to stay in management, and, moreover, tend not to understand why they are successful enough to be able to teach about it.
Hendry appears neither to have succeeded nor failed at management, or even to have attempted it. He does protest that he plays a part in business school administration, but since success in that field is hardly quantifiable I'm not sure it counts.
At any rate, his approach to the subject in Management: A Very Short Introduction is far more academic than practical, so all this is hardly important. His writing, unfortunately, is rather dry, thus it can be difficult to absorb the very dense content of what he is saying without concentrated effort; effort which, alas, I am not sufficiently interested to give it. He covers a very wide range of topics in very little space, not going into quite as much example-detail as I would like. Or perhaps it was there, but I missed it in the thickets of the prose.
Since the subject matter is a little off the straightforwardly academic path of the usual VSIs, it is difficult to make a comparison. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to make a comparison with anything else I have ever read. I will say this: those who are interested in the intricacies of corporate life, and are thus prepared to put some time aside for learning more, will hopefully find this book to be a rich introduction.
February 16, 2014
John Hendry provides an interesting, easy, and well-rounded introduction to the topic of Management. As he states in the Preface and Acknowledgements, he writes for three groups of people: those that have studied management but not (yet) practiced it, those that have practiced it but never studied, and those that have neither studied nor practiced it, but are curious about it. It's an ambitious goal to tackle any of these in just over 100 pages. He does a fine job balancing the interests of all three groups of readers to provide something for everyone throughout.
Please note that I never studied management and I've only briefly practiced it, so I don't feel I have a good sense of where this book falls in wide world of organization literature. I have to say it was an interesting read and provided perspective on my experiences with managers, immediate coworkers, professional peers, and organizations as a whole. Of course, different readers will measure this again different experiences, but nonetheless I think there's really something for everyone here. I had this feeling throughout that there was more to be said about this or that topic, but overall I feel he provided a fairly complete account of what management is like today.
Please note that I never studied management and I've only briefly practiced it, so I don't feel I have a good sense of where this book falls in wide world of organization literature. I have to say it was an interesting read and provided perspective on my experiences with managers, immediate coworkers, professional peers, and organizations as a whole. Of course, different readers will measure this again different experiences, but nonetheless I think there's really something for everyone here. I had this feeling throughout that there was more to be said about this or that topic, but overall I feel he provided a fairly complete account of what management is like today.
July 26, 2017
The book offers a tour behind the rise of management study, with quick-fire references to important work done in psychology, sociology and management study that have impacted the way management and leadership have taken shape, particularly in Western companies. Towards the end, the author occasionally sidetracks into a short rant about irresponsiblities within financial market (book was published shortly after the financial crisis), which I didn't care for. But overall, a useful introduction to various management concepts and frameworks, and useful advice dotted throughout for any managers.
January 20, 2016
It's a very short guide to management
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews