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‘We need more managers, not leaders’

Mon 15 March 2010

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“You can’t turn a non-manager into a manager,” declares Henry Mintzberg, professor of Management Studies in Montreal-based McGill University. The Economist hasn’t named him a contrary academic for nothing. 

In this audio interview with The Economist, Canadian Management Studies professor Henry Mintzberg says business schools are to be blamed for fostering an unethical, selfish approach in the managers of today.

“Business schools are still trying to fix something that’s fundamentally broken. They’re still trying to train people who are not managers to be managers, by having new courses in ethics, leadership and so on. The problem is, you can’t turn a non-manager into a manager.”

MBA oath

Mintzberg isn’t a fan of the MBA oath that business schools like Harvard are having their students make. The oath is a voluntary pledge by MBA students to be ethical and responsible. “That is just laughable. It’s a fantasyland where business schools think that their documents, cases and oaths are business reality.” Henry Mintzberg has authored books like Managers not MBAs and Managing and is ranked 16 (2007 list) on the list of 50 top business thinkers worldwide.

‘Cult’

He isn’t thrilled either about the fact that leadership has been slowly but gradually replaced management. “Why this cult of leadership? I suspect that the less leadership we get, the more we crave it. And the more we crave it, the more we put people who have no leadership capabilities into leadership positions,” argues the contrary Canadian academic.

Listen to Henry Mintzberg’s audio interview with The Economist here.