What Effective Managers Really Do
An individual study on the article:
WHAT EFFECTIVE
MANAGERS REALLY DO (KOTTER, 1982)
11 12 1 2 10 9 3 8 4 7 6 5
MBA Public Governance 4 Management & Organization Dynamics Hugo Hendriks April 2004 Nijenrode University
Management & Organization Dynamics
April 9, 2004
What effective managers really do (Kotter, 1982)1
This paper is part of my exam of Management & Organization Dynamics at Nijenrode University. This paper starts with a summary of Kotters 1982 article What effective managers really do , by an experimental mind map (studying the background of this article, I ran in to the theory of mind mapping2 which I immediately would try to apply). After the summary I give my opinion on this article and try to adapt the theory to a problematic situation in my own organization. I conclude my paper with some critical notes on this article. Summary (applying the theory of mind mapping)
Figure 1: Summary of What effective managers really do
Why did I select this article? Triggered by a self-study course on time management, I ve made notes on my time spending from minute to minute for three days on a row in the summer of 2003. I noticed that on any particular day, I had several, not planned contacts with some of my colleagues, my employees and my (internal) customers. At that time I stipulated these contacts as a disturbance of my planned activities. Reading the article of Kotter, I wondered if maybe, my former conclusion was perhaps untrue. Importance of this article John Kotter3 is professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. He wrote several books and articles about management and leadership. One of his best-known books is What effective leaders really do (Kotter, 1999)4. This article seems to be one of his earlier thoughts on this subject, although he doesn t mention the term leaders here, only managers. Also in 1999, a reprint of this article was published in Harvard Business Review, where Kotter added his own commentary on his
WHAT EFFECTIVE
MANAGERS REALLY DO (KOTTER, 1982)
11 12 1 2 10 9 3 8 4 7 6 5
MBA Public Governance 4 Management & Organization Dynamics Hugo Hendriks April 2004 Nijenrode University
Management & Organization Dynamics
April 9, 2004
What effective managers really do (Kotter, 1982)1
This paper is part of my exam of Management & Organization Dynamics at Nijenrode University. This paper starts with a summary of Kotters 1982 article What effective managers really do , by an experimental mind map (studying the background of this article, I ran in to the theory of mind mapping2 which I immediately would try to apply). After the summary I give my opinion on this article and try to adapt the theory to a problematic situation in my own organization. I conclude my paper with some critical notes on this article. Summary (applying the theory of mind mapping)
Figure 1: Summary of What effective managers really do
Why did I select this article? Triggered by a self-study course on time management, I ve made notes on my time spending from minute to minute for three days on a row in the summer of 2003. I noticed that on any particular day, I had several, not planned contacts with some of my colleagues, my employees and my (internal) customers. At that time I stipulated these contacts as a disturbance of my planned activities. Reading the article of Kotter, I wondered if maybe, my former conclusion was perhaps untrue. Importance of this article John Kotter3 is professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. He wrote several books and articles about management and leadership. One of his best-known books is What effective leaders really do (Kotter, 1999)4. This article seems to be one of his earlier thoughts on this subject, although he doesn t mention the term leaders here, only managers. Also in 1999, a reprint of this article was published in Harvard Business Review, where Kotter added his own commentary on his