Henry Mintzberg is Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a Professor of Organization at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. This classic article was published in the January-February 1981 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

In order the discuss and distinguish the five distinct organizational configurations, Mintzberg first discusses the five component parts which make up the whole organization: strategic apex, operating core, technostructure, support staff, and middle line. He then continues with describing how each of these elements cluster into the five configurations. Each of these five configurations (simple structure, machine bureaucracy, divisional form, adhocracy) are discussed in detail, with both their strengths and weaknesses. So how do we need to use these configurations? "... this set of five configurations can serve as an effective tool in diagnosing the porblems of organizational design, especially those of the fit among component parts." Mintzberg uses four basic forms of misfit to show how managers should use it as a diagnostic tool. He emphasizes that especially fit remains an important characteristic. There are excellent graphs, tables, and a great appendix explaining the organizational configurations and component parts. The author concludes that "the point is not really which configuration you have; it is that you achieve configuration."

Yes, this is one of the best articles I have read. It provides a great introduction/framework into organizational structures and design. Mintzberg does not want us to see his introduction as a framework. But I disagree. This article is thorough enough to use as a framework, keeping in mind that larger organizations (can) consist of a mixture of the discussed configurations. For people interested in a further discussion of organizational structures I refer to Henry Mintzberg's 1978-book "The Structuring of Organizations". This article should be compulsory reading for managers and MBA-students. The author uses simple business US-English.

The best book to understand the nature of any organization in business or no business world. Henry Mintzberg give us the elements to detect the sick part in the structure and the way to keep in control every part through parameters.

That's the best tool to use when you want to see your company focused in the structure analysis, to take the actions to align the model. This article is old, but is actual too, then you want to know it.

As frightening as the volume of the book might see, it is written very well and it is very contemporary with the topics discussed in.
The book is divided in several sections with general theory and implications disussed first and with some real cases presented afterwards. Each case is usually backed with some questions to think about and to extract the essence of it. The complete book feels like being a student in the class with authors performing as teachers (as they also do sometimes).
Concepts of strategy are extremely tricky. It can hardly been negotiated if there is a strategy or if you just got to have the feeling or if there simply are people who earn 1 million US$+ a year that turn into gold everything they touch and you can't run a serious business without them. This book will help you understand that strategy exists, will teach you how to define it and set it through and how to predict the future and react on it. But as real life is, many things can happen. You get the driver's licence after you learn the basics of driving. But no one can tell after you get the licence if you will get involved into the crash and when.
Many people expect from such books that they will get a broad pavement covered with roses to walk through their careers on simply by paying some 70 US$. How naive they sound sometimes. The pen alone doesn't write a book, it is just an instrument to success, behind which stands an enormous human effort. This wonderful book is only an instrument to avoid some crashes of company in your career. If it can therefore win you a job or a mere 100 US$ raise, it has paid back heavily, don't you think?

This is an important and recent strategy book. I recommend it for MBA students and managers.

This is the kind of book that everyone who wants to be a business administrator should read. It is a compilation of diferents articles most of them from HBR and each unit has some real cases which explain the theme better.

I managed to read it throughly and study most of the cases presented on this book. This book is a very actual source of information to learn and expand existing knowledge. I give 5-stars due to the fact that it is rich in its contents.

Henry Mintzberg is Professor of Management at McGill University, Canada. He has written numerous books and articles on different management issues. This Harvard Business Review Classic was originally published in July-August 1975, this On-Point edition contains a retrospective commentary from Mintzberg and was published in March-April 1990.

The classical view on management says that the manager organizes, coordinates, plans, and controls. But Mintzberg's research into how managers spend their time shows a different reality. "There are four myths about the manager's job that do not bear up under careful scrutiny of the facts." (1) The first myth, or folklore, is that the manager is a reflective, systematic planner. However, the truth is that managers are strongly oriented to action and, in most cases, dislike reflective activities. (2) The second folklore is that the manager has no regular duties to perform. The truth is that "managerial work involves performing a regular duties, including ritual and ceremony, negotiations, and processing of soft information that links the organization with its environment." (3) The third folklore is that managers need aggregated information, which is best provided by a formal management information system. The truth here is that managers prefer verbal media, telephone calls and meetings, over documents. (4) The fourth folklore is that management is, or at least is becoming, a science and a profession. The truth here is that managers' programs are still focused on traditional time-management, decision-making, etc. So what does Mintzberg suggest? "The manager's job can be described in terms of various 'roles', or organized set of behaviors identified with a position. My description comprises ten roles." These ten roles are divided under three main issues: Interpersonal roles (figurehead, leader, liaison); Informational roles (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson); and Decisional roles (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator). Each of these roles are discussed in detail, complemented with examples and academic literature on these subjects. After debunking the myths and discussing the different roles Mintzberg emphasizes that "the managers' effectiveness is significantly influenced by their insight into their own work." He provides various 'self-study questions for managers', which can/will help managers in this task. But more essentially, Mintzberg believes that management/business schools should change their curriculum. "Our management schools have done an admirable job of training the organization's specialists. But for the most part, they have not trained managers."

Mintzberg is not a conventional professor. All his publications are challenging and this one is no different. He challenges the widely-held myths about the manager's job based on the results from his research into managerial work. He then gives good advice onto a new approach to manager's job. And as usual, Mintzberg argues that traditional business/management schools are not doing their job properly. Good challenging article which I recommend to all people interested in management. Mintzberg uses simple US-English to get his point(s) across.

Mintzberg provides a complete framework to support the reflection and comprehension on how networks of external and internal inffluence take place in organization general decision systems. The main players in and around the organizational scenario are analysed and grouped according to their general interests. There results a comprehensive cartography of the games these players and respective interests play in the construction of organization objectives, structures and strategies. Organizations are then classified, according to the way power is distributed among different players, into cathegories or "power configurantions". The discussion on the environment and on the nature of the decision system for each of the configurations is rich and produce valuable insights for those who leave inside and among organizations of varios kinds. The book is particularly useful for those who deal with very complex organizations, helps understanding organizational changes, the possibility of success in change inniciatives and programmes and also provides useful information on the issue of social control of organizational behaviour.

It's a misstary story and a good one at that if you have read the book the older son had gone out on a rainy night to watch a paper boat float down the stream he lost his arm and was found dead his brother always went back every 4 years to face the creature who took his brother and faced worst fears everytime he went there. He was in the drain as I recall. He took a Life of one every year and his Younger brother studder He Learned how to talk slow without studdering, and went on into his own business so that he could make sure he was there every 4years to face the creture that took his big brothers life. He won the first go round I really can't remember the rest it has been awhile since I have read the book You ought to get it if you have not read it.

By Kathy Truman

When you have read this very practice book, you can see how organisations work, were the weaknesses en strengths are in the company en how you can give advise to solve the problems.

This book provides a great introductory overview of the field of Strategic Management and is useful to any MBA or consultant with an interest in that area. It provides an overview of 10 schools of strategy, with an assessment of the contributions made by, and a brief critique of, each school. This helps you learn to spot the pitfalls of using one approach exclusively.

The text can occasionally be a bit academic however, since cases are not the authors' intent, so don't expect many "real world" examples. Nor is the book exhaustive, though it does provide a bibliography for further reading. Finally, the attempt to pull all 10 approaches together, while an admirable effort, may be little more than wishful thinking, since the tenets of some schools are difficult to reconcile.

With this in mind, the book is a great starting point for those exploring the field and a handy refresher for those with more experience. If you're interested in Strategic Management, this is as good a place to start.

If you're tired of approaching the topic of strategy piecemeal, seminar by seminar, bouncing from concept to concept, read this book. You might read this book after sifting through the assumed absolutes of decades old strategic planning procedures, in an effort to retrofit and contextualize early schools of thought. Or you may read it as a preface to understanding the fashionable strategic development theories emanating from today's academic and consulting leaders. Whatever the motivation, if you are a student of strategic management, read this book. The authors paint the clearest picture of the strategic landscape you will find in print. They've done a tremendous job of describing, comparing, contrasting and critiquing the premises and accomplishments of ten prominent schools of thought on strategic development. The book's final chapter provides an excellent summary and an overview framework for engaging in, observing or studying the strategy development process in organizations.

An elaboration of concepts that Mintzberg has been writing about for a decade: how different mental models of strategy can be classified. This is NOT a how-to-run-a-company book. This is an intellectual exercise in the taxonomy of schools of thought about strategic management. If you are a strategic planner, read this book for its own sake. It is the antithesis of MBA texts; it is about epistemology and competing perspectives, not about a single "truth". After reading this, the obscure academic literature on management will be more accessible.

I felt that the first three writers were the strongest. Mintzberg promotes an idea that leader is just a role in his advocated all mighty manager. Zaleznik brings this down with his idea that managers and leaders are different kind of people and talk about managerial mystique. But maybe best advice how to solve present leadership dilemma comes from Kotter, who says that companies should pick up talented individuals and then put them to grow into leaders through tough challenges.

Gives an insightful view of a manager's job. It enunciates traits and behaviors of leaders and managers very well, and explains how it is important for a manager to have both traits. The material triggers a manager to look within to understand one's leadership and managerial styles. If one wishes to change or develop leadership and managerial skills this material is a great beginning.
It also points out that organizations and academic institutions are good at developing organizational specialists but not at training managers. The author thinks that these institutions should provide management programs that also focus on developing leadership and managerial skills. But to do that it's important to understand what managers and leaders really do.
Overall a very good read for a traditional manager to be introspective and effective.

Excellent book with eight fantastically different views on Leadership. Describes fundamental differences between leadership and Management and brings forth thought process which can help professionals in all fields. Contents are 1) The managers Job (folclore and fact), 2) What leaders really do, 3)managers and leaders (are they different), 4) The discipline of building Character, 5) the ways CEO's lead (5 different ways gathered from study of 160 CEO's),6)The human side of management, 7) the work of leadership, 8) whatever happened to the take-charge manager, also contains brief background about the contributors. Each chapter is from a different contributor

Even if you don't agree with Henry Mintzberg, this is "must" reading for executives. It is thought-provoking for the individual reader; and it is a great discussion starter for a management team. I highly recommend it!

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning is an important book, whose significance goes well beyond its subject. Most leaders, managers, and companies have adopted methods of deciding what to do and how to implement them without considering the fundamental assumptions and experiences with those methods. In essence, this important knowledge work is back where the planning of manual work was before Frederick Taylor. What he says has implications for quality, production planning, capacity expansions, new product design, IT, and many ohter functions, processes and activities.

Before you dismiss this point as being merely of academic interest, consider several of Mintzberg's more telling points: Forecasting is seldom accurate for long; creating intense alignment in the wrong direction can make a company vulnerable to sudden shifts in the market; formal staffs can simply create political games; and thinking that is not linked into the important processes of the company will have limited impact. If those points are right, what does it mean about how work should be performed in your organization?

Having been there and done that as both a strategic planner in the early 1970s and a strategy consultant before that, I recognize the disease as he diagnoses it. In fact, many of the people he quotes and evaluates are people I know. I also saw many of the companies improve themselves by doing less planning.

You can only cover so much in one book, but the potential of strategic work is to improve significant communications, thinking and action in the enterprise. That can help eliminate the significant stalls that delay progress. If Professor Mintzberg decides to do a second edition of this book, I hope he will do more with those subjects.

What has been disappointing to me and others who are familiar with the problems that strategic planning has experienced is the lack of alternatives being proposed. Mintzberg has proposed one, but it is pretty primitive. It just gets rid of some of the wasted motion in strategic planning, without building on success.

One of the few advanced processes that I know of is one that I co-authored in the soon-to-be-published, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise. If you are interested in that subject, take a look at that book's introduction.

I was pleased to see Mintzberg challenge Michael Porter to choose a method for selecting among paths for a business or company. When I first read Porter, I felt he waffled on that point, too. My research and experience strongly suggest that paths that leave you better off regardless of the unexpected changes you could experience work best. To locate those paths can be made systematic, as a way of helping people apply both analysis and intuition to finding better alternatives. That is what strategic planning should have focused on. I agree with Mintzberg in assigning importance to the generation of new and better alternatives as one potential benefit of strategy work, whether done by the line executive, a staff person, a consultant, or all of the above together.

I especially liked his awareness of the need for commitment. Involvement is a necessary part of gaining commitment, and the strategy processes that many use misses that important connection.

The book could have been improved, however, by doing some field work with companies which developed strategies that prospered well beyond their peers and seeming potential. What did they do that helped to create these results? Or was it a case of a stopped clock being right twice a day? Without answering that question, Mintzberg leaves us back in the pre Frederick Taylor days, except with a better idea of what does not work.

I have done substantial unpublished research on just that question. It is clear that there are several models that companies have used successfully to develop better strategies, implement them well, adapt to changes in a timely manner, and build systematically on success. I suggest you consider Clear Channel Communications as a company that focuses on rethinking the basic business model, Southwest Airlines as a company that achieves a superior cost position and efficiently transfers benefits from that to all stakeholder groups, and Linear Technology as a company that follows a strategy that should allow it to prosper regardless of the shifts in things it cannot stop or control.

No review of this book would be complete without noting that Mintzberg's persistent skepticism makes for some pretty humorous reading (unless you are one of the writers or planners he is questioning). Be sure you take time to enjoy the subtle humor in his writing.

Well done, Professor Mintzberg! I think this is the best work about how managers should manage their fundamental thinking that I have seen in the last 20 years.

You should be sure to read this book both to understand the lessons of strategic planning and what that implies for other thinking processes in your enterprise. You management education will not be complete until you do.

I have read varied books and articles of Mintzberg. All of them convey the realities of the real organizations, not fictions of varied writers and quick-fixer management consultants. This book is about the formal strategic planning school. Mintzberg carefully and with a great detail put the basic assumptions of formal planning under the microscope. Mintzberg especially questioning the assumption that is formal planning is the best way to create strategy and formulation and implementation can be seperated. This book is a good source for people to want to move from fictions and academic rhetoric to the strong and real realities. I advice this book for all sane and realist creatures. Thanks Mintzberg...