Read Management as a Profession (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and Management and the Beatitudes (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., both on the Course Handouts website, and Critical Management Studies (in Week 8). Reflect here on how the principles of management we have been studying can be used to make management more of a profession. Use Flexners and Shein’s list of attributes of a profession in Management as a Profession and suggest principles that could be used within each attribute to improve management professionalism. For example, who is the “client” in the management profession (Shein’s fourth attribute), and how does your definition suggest goals for management decision making? Hint: There is more than one type of client. (Can management be an altruistic profession as Schein suggests?) Consider, too, how the Beatitudes in Business might be incorporated to improve professional management, and how they apply to Catholic social teaching on work, i.e., that workers have rights and are entitled to dignity in their work. And, consider how societal and organizational structures (critical management theory in Week 2) affect individual managers’ ability to move toward a more professional management practice. Reflections on Reflecting (Reflection is not merely a summary of the main management principles.)
Reflection requires struggle in order to find meaning in the experience (Mintzberg, 2004, p. 254). “Reflecting does not mean musing, and it is not casual. It means wondering, probing, analyzing, synthesizing, connecting–‘to ponder carefully and persistently [the] meaning [of an experience] to the self.’ An not just about what you think happened but ‘why you think it happened?’ and “how is this situation similar and different from other problems?’ (Daudelin 1996:41: as quoted in Mintzberg, 2004, p. 254).”
“Mangers need time to reflect alone on what they have been through. In the classroom, they can just be allowed quiet time to think, perhaps supported by writing in a journal,” (McCall 1988:8: as quoted in Mintzberg, 2004, p. 255).
Mintzberg, H. (2004). Mangers not MBAs: A hard look at the soft practice of managing and management development. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Inc.
USE THESE TWO SOURCES haps://sites.google.comisite/sfuhandouts/management-and-the-beatitudes haps://sites.google.comisite/sfuhandouts/professional-managers
