After more than half a century spent studying and advising them, management guru Henry Mintzberg now thinks “understanding organizations, finally”. It is a question, in particular, of turning away from universal recipes and anchoring oneself rather in reality.
At the end of the 1970s, the Montrealer and professor at the Desautels faculty of management at McGill University published a synthesis of the research that was to become a school in the world of management. For his 21e book, the holder of so many honorary doctorates wanted to revisit this book in the light of his knowledge, his experience and the lessons he had accumulated since then.
“It’s probably me who has changed the most,” he notes in an interview with the Duty, smirk. I have a lot more experience. It’s much clearer in my head. You know. When we say that something is complex, it is sometimes because it is, and sometimes because we do not understand it. »
What is clear, he says, is that, contrary to what so many management consultants would have us believe, there is no single solution that comes in “five easy steps”, and that it would be madness, for example, to want to “manage a hospital as one manages a factory”.
This does not prevent, each election, people from putting forward their experience and their success in the business world to present themselves as the ideal candidates to lead a government.
From theory to reality
More than 40 years ago, the expert described at least four different major forms of organizations. Today, he adds three more to the list. For those who are less interested in the form of organizations than in the internal forces that drive them, he offers seven other categories.
“But I have bad news for you,” Henry Mintzberg told his readers. Not only do none of these seven forms of organization exist in the real world, but neither should they. These are only analytical concepts used to better describe and analyze reality.
Moreover, these different concepts should not be seen as puzzle pieces that can only be put together one way, but rather as Lego blocks with which to create new forms of better anchored hybrid organizations. in reality.
Although strongly imbued with the moment of its creation and its sector of activity, the form that each organization takes should not be immutable, but constantly evolve. The image that we often have of the ideal manager in this area is one of a great strategist who applies a carefully elaborated plan, whereas, in fact, several transformations emerge over time following a trial and error process.
And that’s fine, insists Professor Mintzberg. “A good manager does not only know how to plan strategies. He must also know how to let himself learn them. »
Chefs listening
To do this, there is often nothing better than to listen to the “community” in which the organization is immersed, that is to say its personnel, its customers and its partners, says the expert. We really like to talk about leadership in management. But the more established an organization is, the more it should rely on this communityship.
These principles should apply not only to managers, but also to those who claim to teach them their trade. It’s been almost 40 years since Henry Mintzberg stopped teaching young, inexperienced students in MBA programs. He prefers managers who already have some experience. “Leadership is like swimming, it can’t be learned from books. »
He doesn’t believe in lectures either. Instead, he favors work and pooling activities in small groups of peers. What he calls “social learning” (social learning).
As he does for his students, the old professor invites, at the end of his book, his readers to “free themselves from orthodoxies” in order to design better organizations. “Look for simplicity, he tells them, then beware of it… finally! »