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Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development
In this sweeping critique of how managers are educated and how, as a consequence, management is practiced, Henry Mintzberg offers thoughtful and controversial ideas for reforming both.
“The MBA trains the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences,” Mintzberg writes. “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.”
Leaders cannot be created in a classroom. They arise in context. But people who already practice management can significantly improve their effectiveness given the opportunity to learn thoughtfully from their own experience. Mintzberg calls for a more engaging approach to managing and a more reflective approach to management education. He also outlines how business schools can become true schools of management.
“The MBA trains the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences,” Mintzberg writes. “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.”
Leaders cannot be created in a classroom. They arise in context. But people who already practice management can significantly improve their effectiveness given the opportunity to learn thoughtfully from their own experience. Mintzberg calls for a more engaging approach to managing and a more reflective approach to management education. He also outlines how business schools can become true schools of management.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
47 people are currently reading
702 people want to read
About the author
Henry Mintzberg
62 books209 followersProfessor Henry Mintzberg, OC , OQ , Ph.D. , D.h.c. , FRSC (born September 2, 1939) is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he has been teaching since 1968, after earning his Master's degree in Management and Ph.D. from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1965 and 1968 respectively.
Henry Mintzberg writes prolifically on the topics of management and business strategy, with more than 140 articles and thirteen books to his name. His seminal book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, criticizes some of the practices of strategic planning today and is considered required reading for anyone who seriously wants to consider taking on a strategy-making role within their organization.
He recently published a book entitled Managers Not MBAs Managers Not MBAswhich outlines what he believes to be wrong with management education today and, rather controversially, singles out prestigious graduate management schools like Harvard Business School and the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania as examples of how obsession with numbers and an over-zealous attempt at making management into a science actually can damage the discipline of management. He also suggests that a new masters program, targeted at practicing managers (as opposed to younger students with little real world experience), and emphasizing practical issues, may be more suitable.
Ironically, although Professor Mintzberg is quite critical about the strategy consulting business, he has twice won the McKinsey Award for publishing the best article in the Harvard Business Review.
In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1998 he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He is now a member of the Strategic Management Society.
Henry Mintzberg writes prolifically on the topics of management and business strategy, with more than 140 articles and thirteen books to his name. His seminal book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, criticizes some of the practices of strategic planning today and is considered required reading for anyone who seriously wants to consider taking on a strategy-making role within their organization.
He recently published a book entitled Managers Not MBAs Managers Not MBAswhich outlines what he believes to be wrong with management education today and, rather controversially, singles out prestigious graduate management schools like Harvard Business School and the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania as examples of how obsession with numbers and an over-zealous attempt at making management into a science actually can damage the discipline of management. He also suggests that a new masters program, targeted at practicing managers (as opposed to younger students with little real world experience), and emphasizing practical issues, may be more suitable.
Ironically, although Professor Mintzberg is quite critical about the strategy consulting business, he has twice won the McKinsey Award for publishing the best article in the Harvard Business Review.
In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1998 he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He is now a member of the Strategic Management Society.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 9, 2012
Mintzberg spends a lot of time telling us what's wrong with the MBA and then a lot of time telling us why his IMPM is better. But, in spite of too many words and a bit too much idealism, we can clearly learn a few things from Mintzberg.
Mintzberg hammers MBA programs on two fronts: they mostly cater to managerial novices, and they focus on the B (as in Business analysis) rather than the A (i.e. Management). He makes a compelling case that management cannot be taught to novices, and that good managers must be more than analysts.
He could have sufficiently developed this theme in a single chapter. But, the fact that MBA-program marketing materials (and some deluded grads) may insist the MBA "makes managers," keeps his nickers in a knot for the first 194 pages of the book.
However, if solving the challenges around developing managers interests you, the second half of the book provides plenty of rich insight. Particularly useful are chapters 8 and 9, Management Development in Practice and Developing Management Education (respectively). Chapters 10 and 11, the first two chapters describing the IMPM's operating philosophies will also keep you engaged.
But unless reinforcing your existing reasons to despise the MBA was high on your list, you'll only chalk up about 115 of the 415 pages as high-value content. Either way, you will find the Professor articulate and well-researched throughout.
I should disclose at this point that I'm in the first year of my MBA. Having been a teacher and harboring many concerns about the state of management that I've experienced (and see in the news), I enjoyed Mintzberg's views. If I worked for one of the companies that sends managers to his program (and if it's really as good as he makes it look), I might switch. But until then, I'll draw from his lessons to enrich how I pursue my MBA experience.
Mintzberg hammers MBA programs on two fronts: they mostly cater to managerial novices, and they focus on the B (as in Business analysis) rather than the A (i.e. Management). He makes a compelling case that management cannot be taught to novices, and that good managers must be more than analysts.
He could have sufficiently developed this theme in a single chapter. But, the fact that MBA-program marketing materials (and some deluded grads) may insist the MBA "makes managers," keeps his nickers in a knot for the first 194 pages of the book.
However, if solving the challenges around developing managers interests you, the second half of the book provides plenty of rich insight. Particularly useful are chapters 8 and 9, Management Development in Practice and Developing Management Education (respectively). Chapters 10 and 11, the first two chapters describing the IMPM's operating philosophies will also keep you engaged.
But unless reinforcing your existing reasons to despise the MBA was high on your list, you'll only chalk up about 115 of the 415 pages as high-value content. Either way, you will find the Professor articulate and well-researched throughout.
I should disclose at this point that I'm in the first year of my MBA. Having been a teacher and harboring many concerns about the state of management that I've experienced (and see in the news), I enjoyed Mintzberg's views. If I worked for one of the companies that sends managers to his program (and if it's really as good as he makes it look), I might switch. But until then, I'll draw from his lessons to enrich how I pursue my MBA experience.
June 5, 2020
I found the author’s argument compelling and certainly worth consideration, however I would have preferred a more balanced analysis. The description and history of management education over the past 100 years was very interesting.
January 4, 2008
Hard hitting book that really calls into question the value of the MBA. It looks at how MBA CEOs have fared (bad), how schools recruit MBAs (poorly), and what value MBA students offer to society in general (very little).
June 30, 2012
A lot of good points are made throughout the book however you can't help to put it into perspective when you know that Mintzberg himself has put his own kind of, very expensive, MBA in production. Most of this book reads very auto promotional to me...
February 1, 2025
The positive: he points out how MBA programmes recruit snot-nosed young Junior G-Men, make them even more arrogant, and then send them out to wreck companies. He correctly points out that much of the time, a caretaker manager will do while a heroic MBA know-it-all will swoop in, fire most of the employees, wreck the company, then move on to greener pastures.
The negative:
-For one thing, like Karl Moore, he accepts at face value any razzle-dazzle the Army tells him. He was very impressed by a desert parade ground tank maneuver...except that he never took time to notice how disastrously the US panzerwaffe habitually performs at real life ops like Kasserine, the Ardennes, Herrlisheim, Tan Son Nhut and Baghdad.
--He pimps out his specially custom crafted ersatz for an MBA, and brags about its success, reeling off a bunch of obscure companies that participated. For one thing, famous international companies like Goldman-Sachs, Red Bull, BMW and Ferrari never participated in his ersatz. For another thing, if his ersatz for the MBA was so wondrous, why did it completely fail to stop the economic collapse of 2007-2008?
The negative:
-For one thing, like Karl Moore, he accepts at face value any razzle-dazzle the Army tells him. He was very impressed by a desert parade ground tank maneuver...except that he never took time to notice how disastrously the US panzerwaffe habitually performs at real life ops like Kasserine, the Ardennes, Herrlisheim, Tan Son Nhut and Baghdad.
--He pimps out his specially custom crafted ersatz for an MBA, and brags about its success, reeling off a bunch of obscure companies that participated. For one thing, famous international companies like Goldman-Sachs, Red Bull, BMW and Ferrari never participated in his ersatz. For another thing, if his ersatz for the MBA was so wondrous, why did it completely fail to stop the economic collapse of 2007-2008?
February 15, 2024
This book was on suggested reading from one of my MBA professors as the school had actually used the International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM) as a founding model. Years later, I am still working my way through the lists of suggested reading.
In honesty, this was a technical read on the teaching of MBAs and for my general interest purpose, I would have been happier with just a 20 page summary. I could relate to the added richness of going through the MBA with a breadth of real world experience versus straight out of school and could see how the model played in my classes.
I pushed through the book as the history on the development of an MBA was interesting. (Even tinged by the author's perspective of what should have been done instead of what was done.) Several good points were made on the technique of teaching management and I would consider suggesting prospective MBAs at least read the first few chapters.
In honesty, this was a technical read on the teaching of MBAs and for my general interest purpose, I would have been happier with just a 20 page summary. I could relate to the added richness of going through the MBA with a breadth of real world experience versus straight out of school and could see how the model played in my classes.
I pushed through the book as the history on the development of an MBA was interesting. (Even tinged by the author's perspective of what should have been done instead of what was done.) Several good points were made on the technique of teaching management and I would consider suggesting prospective MBAs at least read the first few chapters.
October 15, 2020
Mintzberg on MBA programs
Very interesting point of view about the usefulness of MBA programs. The author succeeded in showing what is wrong and hie to fix it. Excellent reference for pre MBA candidates and executives looking for responses on business education.
Very interesting point of view about the usefulness of MBA programs. The author succeeded in showing what is wrong and hie to fix it. Excellent reference for pre MBA candidates and executives looking for responses on business education.
August 24, 2020
Excellent book on MBA!!! How much it is fucked up! I call MBA-----> Maraamari between Assoles!! hahahahhahaha!! ( I am MBA Holder) hehehheheh!!!!!
July 29, 2022
Thought provoking book. Management isn't theory. It's daily execution in practise.
December 17, 2010
As a first year MBA student at India's No 1 Bschool, this book interested me since it questioned the very basis of the progam I was in!!! My Bschool takes in about 40% freshers and makes them leaders of tomorrow. Mintzberg questions the 2 yr MBA and advocates the case for a part time executive MBA.
The arguments in the book are difficult to refute but the author could have made more impact trying to improve the 2 yr MBA than only push his agenda in the book.
Still, the book 'pricks the bubble' surrounding the 2 yr MBA and can help students like me iron out their smudges. For that reason alone, the book is required reading for every MBA aspirant.
The arguments in the book are difficult to refute but the author could have made more impact trying to improve the 2 yr MBA than only push his agenda in the book.
Still, the book 'pricks the bubble' surrounding the 2 yr MBA and can help students like me iron out their smudges. For that reason alone, the book is required reading for every MBA aspirant.
October 10, 2011
At the same time I am one of those that believes in education as most valuable tools for developing skills we should never overestimate it and most of the time good combination of both learning by doing and education is best practice for success. I have gone through education learning to make the business plans, marketing plans and et.c. but also like the books like Rework that tells you to drop all that. This book is not like Rework but comprehensive way of describing the difference between MBA's and Management
September 5, 2020
I was really interested in this book after a colleague of mine recommended it. Unfortunately I I did not enjoy it. Professor Mintzberg makes some interesting points at the start and at the end of the book but the middle is long, feels very dated and praises a university program that I believe has gone the way of the dodo. Professor Mintzberg is a very thoughtful and highly influential writer but this particular book did not work for me.
June 6, 2016
Thoughtful and controversial view of MBAs. Definitely to read before deciding to enroll into a MBA program! You'll learn what MBA does, what it does not, what it should do and how it should do it. You will also discover more about your own motives for doing a MBA and what managing is and how to learn managing.
August 14, 2008
Agree w/ some points that you don't learn how to lead in many b-school classes (though some are fantastic for it) but not necessarily w/ his conclusions on what to do
April 25, 2010
Shall be read by middle management
April 24, 2012
An interesting book, very useful to demystify a concept.Henry Mintzberg
Read
July 23, 2015Good arguments, but they apply to all Higher Education in general, not just MBA programs.
October 4, 2011
witty quick read.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews