Is the professional self-managing or is there really a need for professional management?

Mathieu Weggeman

European Management Journal, 1989, vol. 7, issue 4, 422-430

Abstract: Is the professional self-managing or is there really a need for professional management? The answer to that question is in both cases: "Yes". The professional is largely responsible for directing his own activities. Managers must take due account of this by applying rules and procedures on a modest scale and aiming to achieve maximum harmonisation of the objectives of the organisation and the personal objectives of the people working there. If they can do that then there can be said to be professional management. The difficulty in managing professionals is the difficulty in steering the force and the direction of the thinking of others who are -- by nature - often differently-minded: professionals have generally followed a specialised, usually scientific education, enjoy a high social standing, like to "perform solo", have a dislike of management both in the active and the passive sense and the output of their work is difficult for others to evaluate because there is generally no clear consensus on the definition of performance indicators. Managing professionals could be considered as managing brain capacity and that calls for more than just good sense. A manager of a group of professionals can even sometimes experience a great deal of professional pleasure in his work if he is capable of acting as a specialised generalist, pacemaker and coach for his or her team.

Date: 1989
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