Understanding Organizations...Finally!: Structuring in Sevens

  • 3h 46m
  • Henry Mintzberg
  • Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • 2023

The iconic Henry Mintzberg provides a crystal-clear map to the forms and forces that shape all human organizations, synthesizing his fifty years of research.

We live in a world of organizations, from our birth in hospitals until our burial by funeral homes. In between, we are educated, employed, entertained, and exasperated by organizations. We had better understand how these strange beasts really work. But where can we go to find out?

Welcome to Understanding Organizations . . . Finally! For half a century, Mintzberg has been observing organizations, advising them, engaging them, and escaping them. Here he offers a masterful update and revision of his 1983 classic, Structure in Fives.

Believing there is one best way to structure organizations is the worst way to do so. A better place to start is by recognizing different species of organizations. Mintzberg identifies seven-personal enterprises, programmed machines, professional assemblies, project pioneers, and others. He explores these forms and the seven forces that drive them toward hybrids and across their life cycles.

You will find no better guide to the care and feeding of these extraordinarily varied and vital creatures than this book

About the Author

Henry Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, the winner of awards from the most prestigious academic and practitioner institutions in management (Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management, Association of Management Consulting Firms, and others), and the recipient of twenty honorary degrees from around the world. He is the author or coauthor of fifteen books.

In this Book

  • Our World of Organizations
  • The Players and the Parts
  • The Art, Craft, and Science of Organizing
  • The Mechanisms to Coordinate
  • The Elements of Design
  • Design in Context
  • The Personal Enterprise
  • The Programmed Machine
  • The Professional Assembly
  • The Project Pioneer
  • The Four Together
  • A Force for Each Form
  • Three Forces for All the Forms
  • The Divisional Form
  • The Community Ship
  • The Political Arena
  • In Praise of the Anchored Form
  • Hail to the Hybrids
  • Riding the Life Cycle Across the Forms
  • Organizations Outward Bound
  • Opening up Organization Design
  • Notes
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