Mismanagement Styles

by Ichak Adizes


  PDF
 

Abstract

This article describes several styles of mismanagement that can be discerned in the extreme cases in which one or more, but not all, of the roles is performed. Several recommendations are made on how to use these findings in organizational staffing and in carrying out organizational change. A manager is one who manages and managing is getting the job done by working with or through people or by managing the process necessary for accomplishment. Thus, while the production manager is engaged in achieving tangible results working with and through people, the staff specialist can also be considered a manager attending to the intangible processes. In a changing environment a manager must use his judgment and have the discretion to change goals and change the systems by which they are implemented. A manager who performs the entrepreneurial role has to be sufficiently creative to identify possible courses of action and he should be willing to take risks. In an organization that is mismanaged by the loner there is a significant imbalance in the work load; while he is overburdened, the rest of the organization is underworked.

California Management Review

Berkeley-Haas's Premier Management Journal

Published at Berkeley Haas for more than sixty years, California Management Review seeks to share knowledge that challenges convention and shows a better way of doing business.

Learn more
Follow Us