Management in a Strange World?Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations by Henry MintzbergReview by: Hal G. RaineyPublic Administration Review, Vol. 50, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 1990), pp. 577-578Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Society for Public AdministrationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/976789 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 577

He is one of a growing number of physicists who thinks that one must go far beyond a quantum dominated under- standing of the universe to comprehend the operations of the mind. The mind is the main tool of survival, and Penrose feels that contemporary understanding of the physics of the mind is too limited to tell much about con- sciousness.

What does this imply for public administration? A pos- sible revolution in the way one thinks about people, social change, and organizations. In his challenging book, Images of Organizations (1986), Gareth Morgan counsels that much of the reality of an organization is contained in the metaphors used to describe and understand it. If he and Penrose are correct, then it is human consciousness that is the main tool of design science.

The debate is not about the limits of rationality or even the limits of attempts to emulate human thought. Instead, it must be about the capacity of human consciousness to imagine alternative designs. Rather than lumber around within the bounds of rationality, one might better explore the proposition that organizations, as creatures of human consciousness, are essentially metaphorical.

Even if the reader does not make the extension of Penrose's ideas just suggested, The Emperor's New Mind is an excellent introduction to how contemporary thinking in physics has brought that science face to face with moral philosophy. Further, it is a short course in modem cos- mology. Even those who normally find physics boring will like this book. Penrose is a talented writer graced with humor and wit. He does, despite protests that he does not, make a straw man out of a rather extreme stance among strong AI proponents. Even so, his arguments are con- vincing, and, as he says, the human mind is the most important focus of inquiry. This contentious book adds to understanding of what is known about the human mind.

Louis F. Weschler Arizona State University

References

S. W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time (London: Bantam Press, 1988). G. Morgan, Images of Organizations (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1986).

Management in a Strange World?

............

Henry Mintzberg, Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations (New York: The Free Press, 1989), 418 pp; $24.95 hardcover.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1990

Henry Mintzberg has one of the most interesting research profiles among the major management writers. His book, The Nature of Managerial Work, foreshadowed the recent movement toward qualitative organizational research, which he helped to lead. His intensive observa- tions of a small set of executives overturned some of the conventional wisdom about management behaviors. The executives spent little time rationally devising strategy. They stayed in the thick of things, with many interruptions and brief tasks, employing highly intuitive decision pro- cesses. Mintzberg later carried this perspective into his writing on managerial strategy, arguing that it involves more emergent and intuitive processes than strategic plan- ning advocates acknowledged. Thus, as he puts it, his work celebrates intuition in management. On the other hand, although he fulminates against undue quantification, his The Structuring of Organizations drew on an energetic review of the vast store of quantitative research on that topic and developed an impressive, systematically-struc- tured theory.

In Mintzberg on Management, he provides a stimulat- ing recapitulation of these and other developments in his work. The book contains key selections from his articles on managerial work, intuition, efficiency, and strategy and his books on structure and power. It includes chapter intro- ductions that describe the development of his thinking, and other original materials, which integrate the book into a coherent depiction of themes in Mintzberg's work.

The original additions include correspondence with Herbert Simon in which the two dispute the nature of managerial intuition. Mintzberg contends that research contrasting left brain and right brain functions suggests that intuitive decision making and rational decision mak- ing involve fundamentally distinct processes. Simon argues that the two types of decision making are basically similar. Many in the public administration field, well- versed in the work of Simon, should find the exchange interesting.

Mintzberg also publishes for the first time two of his speeches-diatribes, he calls them. One provocatively lambasts business school education, including pompous professors, for preoccupation with objective and quantita- tive analysis. He calls for more attention to experience and intuitive processes. As described below, the second speech concludes the book with a sharp critique of exces- sive quantification and bureaucratic control in manage- ment.

In other chapters, Mintzberg explains the typology of organizational structures, from his book on that topic. Although one of the most important sections, it involves more substance than this review can cover. Mintzberg makes the topic of structure come alive, weaving it togeth- er with issues of power, internal politics, innovation, orga- nizational life cycle, and other important topics.

Another chapter, from his work on organizational power, concerns who should control the corporation in the interests of corporate social responsibility. Mintzberg con- siders alternatives ranging along an ideological continuum

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578 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW U 50TH YEAR

from left to right-nationalization, regulation, free-market solutions, and others. He condemns both ideological extremes and their panaceas and comes down in the mid- dle. He supports the approach which he calls trusting the corporation. Not so naive as the label implies, this approach involves limited regulation and occasional nationalization where strictly justified. Essentially, he argues for managerial ethics and pragmatic selection among the alternatives for control.

The second of Mintzberg's speeches concludes the book with his stem warning that overemphasis on man- agerial control and quantification makes society increas- ingly unmanageable. Large machine bureaucracies play too dominant a role. Reflecting an obsession with control and objective quantification, they stifle individuals. Perpetuating themselves through political means, they squelch smaller, more entrepreneurial organizations.

Scholars in public administration will find the critique of bureaucracy similar to those found in their own litera- ture. To some readers, his ideas about trusting the corpo- ration and his limited remedies for overbureaucratization will sound dubious. Do not underestimate, however, the significance of a major scholar and consultant on corpo- rate management pressing the issues of corporate power and bureaucracy. Far from compromising, Mintzberg takes on the ideologues. He pronounces Milton Friedman's ideas quaint. He mentions examples of nationalized cor- porations that operate well. Hear that, privatizers and "'government-bashers"? This major management expert calls for more clear thinking about how to choose and implement some of your nostrums.

Readers may dispute any of a thousand points in the book. For example, those who teach and apply quantita- tive methods in administration can mount effective rejoin- ders. Also, most management experts, when they touch on public policy and government, sound like...well,... management experts. Mintzberg generally serves as an exception to this tendency. Yet he makes some oversimpli- fied observations about governmental management which show scant awareness of issues with which the field of public administration grapples, such as chief executive control of administration and the political appointee- careerist nexus. On the other hand, those in public admin- istration should not gloat when Mintzberg castigates busi- ness schools and large corporations. Most of the book, including the sharp critiques, applies to public manage- ment.

But the prospects for controversy contribute to the best aspect of the book. Whether one agrees or disagrees, the book educates and stimulates by allowing the reader to watch Mintzberg work. He tells about changes in his thinking and what induces the changes. He tries to cherish anomalies, as he puts it. He gratefully acknowledges chal- lenges from students and managers that led him to adjust his thinking, and he describes how he responded. The most fascinating instance of this comes when he responds to questions about the adequacy of his typology with an analysis of conflicting forces in organizations. He shows how these forces cause some organizations to fall at inter- mediate points between the categories in his typology.

Any of a thousand quips, quotes, and observations merit the price of the book and range from the delightful to the heartrending. My favorite in the delightful category comes when Mintzberg complains that the economists have done as much damage to the concept of rationality as the statisticians have done to the concept of significance. The most poignant concerns a horribly costly military blunder by coldly analytical staff officers, which Mintzberg uses to dramatize his attack on overly rational- ized management.

I began by mentioning Mintzberg's attention to both qualitative methods and quantitative research. When his structure book came out, I was impressed that the person who had done those intensive studies of executives had then synthesized that mountain of quantitative studies of structure. This book conveys even more clearly that spirit of a driving, energetic, demanding intellect striving to develop conceptual structure, but also open and responsive to challenges and new evidence. For this reason, in addi- tion to the rich ideas and the crisp and lively writing style, academicians, MPA and doctoral students, and practicing managers should all enjoy this book and learn from it.

Hal G. Rainey University of Georgia

The Public Official and ... Constitutional Respect

David H. Rosenbloom and James D. Carroll, eds., Toward Constitutional Competence: A Casebook for Public Administrators (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990) 174 pp.; $19.35 paper.

The last three decades have seen a revolution in judicial enforcement of the U.S. Constitution with respect to the conduct of public officials and the management of public programs at local, state, and federal levels. With the esca- lating cost of insurance or self insurance for constitutional torts, few public organizations can afford to ignore the importance of the individual rights revolution.

Yet, many public managers have viewed constitutional torts risk management only as something which the courts and lawyers have forced upon them. They argue that the world of public management was a great deal simpler when federal judges did not so closely scrutinize the day- to-day operations of public organizations for constitutional torts. The constitutional rights revolution, from this per- spective, has had a chilling effect on public management.

It is refreshing, therefore, to read Toward Constitutional Competence: A Casebook for Public Administrators. The book takes a positive approach toward the broad subject of preventing constitutional torts

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1990

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