General managers have to bring an organization and its members into harmony. The idea of ‘the form’ also needs to be rethought.
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It is interesting to note that many management textbooks ‘start at the bottom and work up‘. The emphasis is on the lower and middle managers who are often functional specialists, and works up to include chapters on top management at the end, describing what it is that top managers do that is ‘different’. Perhaps we should be looking at describing management the other way around, starting with the general management concept and then working down to find out what specialists do differently!
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