Introduction

This book explores management praxis, that is, the art of acting in an organizational context in order to change that context, changing personally in the process. My central concern is to explore how accounting for and reflecting upon my management experience may help other practicing managers to make sense of their own experience. In my search for accounts and explanations of actual management experience, I have encountered two approaches. On the one hand, there are subjective accounts taking the form of biographies and autobiographies of masterful, charismatic leaders and entrepreneurs (for example, Grove, 1996; Tichy and Sherman, 1995). These are stories about the actual experience of successful business leaders who realize visions and fulfill the ambitions of their companies, getting it “right” in a rather rational, orderly way. On the other hand, academic researchers report on management practice, taking the position of objective observers, interviewing, questioning and tape recording conversations with managers. Some adopt a descriptive approach and point to the piecemeal nature of actual management practice (Mintzberg, 1973). They talk about the co-existence of both deliberate and emergent strategies (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Others describe the messiness of management practice, labeling it “muddling through” (Lindblom, 1959) or “garbage can” decision making (March and Olsen, 1976). Mostly, however, writers on management are more concerned with prescribing what ought to happen rather than describing what actually does. The more conscientious of these observe what managers are doing, analyze their observations and then produce propositions and hypotheses to be tested in the work environment, as potential prescriptions for success. These prescriptions are invariably a sequence of rational steps to do with measuring, planning and monitoring, which are supposed to enable the manager to stay “in control.”