Managing

By
Keshav kansana
 Myth

The manager depends on aggregated

information, best supply by a formal system
(MIS)
 Fact
Managers tend to favor informal media of
communication, especially the oral ones of
telephone calls and meetings, also the
electronic one of e-mail.
 Supporting studies
Carlson on the Swedish managing directors:
The only complaint heard from some of the chief
executives (about the system of internal reports
they received) was that the no. or size of the reports
had a tendency to grow more and more, and that it
had become impossible to read them all…These
reports…. Form a part of that paper ballast on the
executive's desk or in his briefcase, which is the
cause of so much mental agony.(1951:89)
• Mintzberg……found that chief executive
officers placed little reliance on formal
information sources.

“Talk is the technology of leadership”

 According to Mintzberg
Managers rely on……
Oral communication
Soft information
Personal access
The real data bank
 Myth
• Managing is mostly about hierarchical
relationship between a “superior” and
“subordinates”.
 fact
• Managing is as much relationship about lateral
relationship among colleagues and associates
as it is about hierarchical relationships.
 Myth

• Managers maintain tight control of their time,

their activities, their units.
 Fact
• Manager is neither conductor nor puppet:
control to the extent possible tend to be
covert more than obvious, by establishing
some obligations to which the manager must
later attend and by turning other obligations
to the manager’s advantage.
 Conclusion
• Characteristic of managing are……..
The pace, Brevity, Variety, Fragmentation
The interruption
The orientation to action
The oral aspect of the information
The lateral nature of much of communication
The tricky problem of exercising control without
quite being in control