Henry Mintzberg

Henry Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies, at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University in Montreal. His work has focused on the work of the manager, and how managers are trained and developed. The author or co-author of 15 books, Mintzberg is, perhaps, best known for his work on organizational forms – identifying five types of organization: simple structure; machine bureaucracy; professional bureaucracy; the divisionalized form; and the adhocracy. He is also credited with advancing the idea of emergent strategy – the idea that effective strategy emerges from conversations within an organization rather than being imposed from on high.

Cheerfully contrarian, Mintzberg is a long time critic of traditional MBA programs. In his first book, The Nature of Managerial Work (1973) challenged the established thinking about the role of the manager, and is one of the few books that actually examine what managers do, rather than discussing what they should do. Other highlights include The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (1994); Managers not MBAs (2004), and Managing (2009).

Awards

30th place, World’s Top 50 Business Thinkers

2011: Management Book of the Year, Chartered Management Institute

2008: Carl Sloan Consultant of the Year, Association of Management Consulting

2007: Creation of Mintzberg Center for Management Research, Renmin University, Beijing

2006: Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in Social Sciences and Humanities

2006: Hebert Simon Award, Corvinus University

2006: Prix Gerard-Parizeau

2005: Grand Montréalais, Chambre de Commerce

2004: Best paper in Strategy, Strategic Management Journal

2004: Best paper in Strategy, ASAC Journal

2003: Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace Learning and Performance, American Society for Training and Development

2000: Distinguished Scholar Award for Contributions to Management, Academy of Management

1999: Who’s Who in the World

1998: Officier de l’ordre national du Québec

1996: Cleghorn Chair in Management Studies, McGill University

1996: Distinguished Scholar Award, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management

1996: Prix du Québec in Social Science

1995: George R. Terry Award for the best book of the year, Academy of Management

1993: Economist de l’année (Categorie: Organisation et management) Le Nouvel Economiste

1993: Special Award for Contribution to the Field, AMOD (The Association for the Management of Organizational Design)

1992: Who’s Who in America

1991: Laureat du Merit Annuel pour le Réalizations Exceptionnelles dans le domaine des Resources Humaines, L’Association des Professionnelles en Resources Humaine du Québec

1987: McKinsey Prize for Second Best Article, Harvard Business Review

1986: First Honorary Member, Institute of Management Consultants of Quebec

1983: Grand Prix des Meilleurs Livres de Management, Harvard L’Expansion

1982-1996: Bronfman Chair

1980: Gold Medal for best publication by a member, Canadian Operational Research Society

1975: McKinsey Prize for Best Article, Harvard Business Review

Selected publications

Books and monographs

Mintzberg, H., Managers Not MBAs: A Hard look at the soft practice of managing and management development, CA: Berrett-Koehler, distributed in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa by Pearson Education, June 2004, pp. 480. Related Link: Berrett-Koehler listing

Why I Hate Flying (Texere, 2001) - spoof of the flying and the managing businesses, and of commercialism in general. Related Link: Why I Hate Flying

Managing Publicly (with Jacques Bourgault; Institute of Public Administration of Canada, Toronto, 2000) - based on study I did of 8 Canadian public sector managers, published with commentaries

Strategy Safari (with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joe Lampel, Free Press and Prentice-Hall International, 1998) - as the subtitle says, "A Guided tour Through The Wilds Of Strategic Management" Related Link: Amazon listing

The Canadian Condition: Reflections of a "Pure Cotton" (Stoddart [en français: Les Propos d'un "Pur Coton," Québec/Amérique] 1995) - expression of some personal feelings about what Canada is all about (not a management book!)

The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning: Reconceiving the Roles for Planning, Plans, Planners (Free Press and Prentice-Hall International, 1994) - review of the process, very critical, though ends on a positive note Related Link: Amazon listing

Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations (Free Press, 1989) - an effort to draw together my main material for practitioners, including some other (mostly polemic) material Related Link: Amazon listing

The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases (with J.B. Quinn. various editions, Prentice-Hall, since 1988) - I did the text, which comprises selected readings, including some of my own, all shortened Related Link: Amazon listing

Power In and Around Organizations (Prentice-Hall, 1983) - attempt to draw together the literature of power around notion of configurations

Structure in 5's: Designing Effective Organizations (Prentice-Hall, 1983) - condensed version of The Structuring of Organizations Related Link: Amazon listing

The Structuring of Organizations: A Synthesis of the Research (Prentice-Hall, 1979) - attempt to draw together the empirical literature on structuring, using five configurations as integrating devices-my most integrated book Related Link: Amazon listing

The Nature of Managerial Work (Harper and Row, 1973, reissued by Prentice-Hall, 1983) - roles and characteristics of managerial work, based on my doctoral thesis (study of five managers) Related Link: Amazon listing