By Henry MintzbergThe author offers a sweeping critique of how managers are educated and how management, as a result, is practiced, and makes thoughtful and controversial recommendations for reforming both. Management is a practice that blends a great deal of craft (experience) with a certain amount of art (insight) and some science (analysis). Because conventional MBA programmes are designed almost exclusively for young people with little if any managerial experience, and hence little art and no craft to draw upon, the programmes overemphasize science, in the form of analysis and technique. Graduates leave with a distorted impression that management consists entirely of applying formulas to situations, which has had a corrupting, dehumanizing effect not just on the practice of management, but also on organizations and social institutions. Mintzberg outlines how business schools can transform themselves to become true schools of management.
Kent is a prime location for civil service jobs moved out of London. This is the claim of Locate in Kent, the inward investment and relocation agency given the task of delivering jobs and new business opportunities for the Deputy Prime Minister’s Sustainable Communities programme. Under proposals by Sir Michael Lyons, 20,000 civil service jobs will be moved out of London to different parts of the UK, but Kent was excluded.Locate in Kent’s Chief Executive Paul Wookey said: Our research has shown that relocating to Kent will achieve better cost savings than moving to major centres like Manchester, Bristol and Liverpool but with far less disruption. Kent and Medway is very diverse and not as tied to specific industries as some of these other locations meaning there will also be less competition for labour. Planned improvements to the transport infrastructure and the availability of good quality, affordable office space and housing also make Kent a good location for large-scale moves.”
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Britain’s 9.8 million disabled people can expect better services in health and social care settings from October, when new legislation comes into effect. A joint Framework for Partnership Action on Disability, devised by the Department of Health and the Disability Rights Commission, sets out how the improvements will be delivered.The Framework recognizes that a culture change is needed before disabled service users, carers and the wider disabled community, will be able to influence service design and delivery. In a move to stimulate this change the Department of Health will set up initiatives to better understand the impact of policies and service delivery for disabled people. At the same time methodologies will be devised to monitor progress in implementing new disability legislation in health and social care. There will also be a forum of inspectorates and regulatory bodies to develop approaches to evaluating the quality of services for disabled people.