管理不是专业.docx

1、管理不是专业No, Management Is Not a Profession管理不是(高等教育)专业Some business skills cant be taught in a classroom. They have to be learned through experience.有些商业技巧课堂中教不了，必须通过经验习得。It is natural to view management as a profession. Managers status is similar to that of doctors or lawyers, as is their obligation

2、to contribute to the well-being of society. Managers can also be formally trained and qualified, notably by earning an MBA. If management is a profession, the business school is a professional school.把管理看做是一项职业是很自然的事情。经理人的地位与医生或律师的地位相似，因为向社会福祉贡献自己的力量是他们的责任。经理人也会受到正式的训练，有严格的要求，尤其是要获得一个工商管理学硕士（以下简称MBA

3、译者）学位。如果管理是一项专业，商学院就是专业培训学校。That perception has fueled criticism of business schools during the recent economic crisis. They have come under fire for allegedly failing in their obligation to educate socially responsible business leaders. The same perception has informed the schools response, which h

4、as been to work toward greater professionalism. Writing in the June 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review Joel Podolny, a former dean of the Yale School of Management, argued, “An occupation earns the right to be a profession only when some ideals, such as being an impartial counsel, doing no harm,

5、or serving the greater good, are infused into the conduct of people in that occupation. In like vein, a school becomes a professional school only when it infuses those ideals into its graduates.”在最近的经济危机中，商学院备受指责，此概念推波助澜。按照批评者的说法，他们没有尽到责任，培养有社会责任的商业领袖，因此而大受挞伐。此类观点激起了日加专业化的商学院的回应。耶鲁大学管理学院前院长，乔尔波多尼（Jo

6、el Podolny），曾经在2009年哈佛商业评论（以下简称评论译者）第六期中著文进行辩解，“只有当诸如成为一位主持正义的律师，不为祸，或者说为更大的善服务这样的理想融入从事某项专业的人的行为之中，这种专业才可以称得上是职业。一所商学院只有把这些理想注入到其毕业生的内心，才可以称之为一所专业学校。”Podolny is in sympathy with Harvard Business School professors Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria, who argued in the October 2008 issue of HBR that it w

7、as time to make management a true profession. In their view, “True professions have codes of conduct, and the meaning and consequences of those codes are taught as part of the formal education of their members.” Yet, they wrote, “unlike doctors and lawyers,” managers dont “adhere to a universal and

8、Enforceable code of conduct.”波多尼与哈佛商学院的拉凯什库拉纳（Rakesh Khurana）和尼汀诺瑞亚（Nitin Nohria）两位教授站在同一阵线。这两位在哈佛商业评论2008年第十期中署名文章中提出，现在是让管理成为职业的时候了。以他们的观点，“真正的职业具有行业规范，这些规范准则的意义以及重要性，应当成为该专业教育中的一部分，深入骨髓。”他们还写道，“与医生或者律师不同”，经理人不“受一般的普世行为规范的约束。”These calls to professionalism are hardly new. Writing in the very first

9、 issue of HBR, in 1922, HBS professor John Gurney Callan claimed, “Business.may be thought of as a profession and we may profitably spend a good deal of time in considering what is the best professional training for those who are to take important executive positions in the coming generation.”这些职业化的

10、呼声并不是什么新鲜事儿。最早在1922年的一期评论中，哈佛商学院的约翰格尼卡伦（John Gurney Callan）教授就提出，“商业人们或许不认为是一种职业,而且我们花了大量时间，考虑对下一代人中，即将接受重要行政管理职务的那些人来说，什么是最好的职业教育，这将大有裨益。”A. Lawrence Lowell, the president of Harvard University, was even more assertive in his 1923HBR essay “The Profession of Business” (adapted from his address to t

11、he in coming class at HBS the previous September). He attributed the very creation of HBS to the emergence of business management as a distinct profession.当时的哈佛大学校长A.劳伦斯洛厄尔（A. Lawrence Lowell）是更加积极。1923年，在评论中发表文章商业职业化（本文选自其1922年9月对哈佛商学院新生的演讲）。他把哈佛商学院的创立归因于企业管理成为一份与众不同的职业。In contrast with these views

12、, I will argue that management is not a profession at all and can never be one. Therefore, business schools are not professional schools. Moreover, laudable and Beguiling though professional standards and ethics may be, and however appealing professional status is, hanging the mantle “professional”

13、on business education fosters inappropriate analysis and misguided prescriptions.我的观点正好相反，我将会说，根本就不是职业，而且永远不会。那么，商学院也就不能称之为职业学校了。此外，尽管职业标准与职业道德广受称道，极具魅惑力，但是，给商业教育披上“职业化”的外衣，会助长分析混乱，误导规划。Lets begin by examining what actually constitutes profession.让我们开始考核，专业真正由什么构成。What Is a Profession?何为专业？Professio

14、ns are made up of particular categories of people from whom we seek advice and services because they have knowledge and skills that we do not. A doctor, for example, can recommend a course of treatment for an illness; a lawyer can advise us on a course of legal action. We cannot make these judgments

15、 ourselvesand often we cannot judge the quality of the advice we receive. The Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow wrote about the medical profession, “The value of information is frequently not known in any meaningful sense to the buyer; if, indeed, he knew enough to measure the value of information, he wo

16、uld know the information itself. But information, in the form of skilled care, is precisely what is being bought from most physicians, and, indeed, from most professionals.”职业是由特定类别的人组成。由于他们掌握我们所没有的知识，具备我们所不具备的技能，我们要从他们那里获得建议与服务。比如，医生会针对一种疾病建议我们进行一个疗程的治疗；律师为我们的法律诉讼提供建议。我们自己不能对这些问题做出判断而且我们常常也判断不出自己所接

17、受建议的质量。诺贝尔和平奖得主肯尼斯阿罗（Kenneth Arrow）就曾经这样谈到医疗事业，“信息的价值到底有多少意义，常常不为消费者所知；事实上，如果一个人掌握足够衡量信息的价值的知识，就会知道信息本身的意义。但是专业护理型的信息，完全就是从大多数医生，而且事实上就是从大多数专业人员那里买来的信息。”It is true, of course, that most nonprofessional providers of goods and services also have knowledge that we dont. We cannot, for instance, manufac

18、ture a computer or operate a train service. Nevertheless, we can judge whether or not our demand has been met: We know what to expect from our computer, and we know if our train is delayed. The difference is that we might act on a lawyers advice and not know its quality, even after the case has been

19、 completed. Perhaps she gave us good advice but the case was lost, or vice versa. The outcome might have been more or less favorable had her advice been different. We are in no position to know, because the professional is the expert and we are not. There is an asymmetry of knowledge.诚然，许多提供商品与服务的人并

20、非职业人，但是确实也有我们我没有的知识。例如，我们不能生产电脑或开火车外出。不过，我们可以判断我们的需求是否得以满足：我们确定要用电脑做什么，知道火车是否会延误。其间的区别就是，我们或许会遵照律师的建议行事，甚至直到案子了解，也不知如此行事是好是坏。也有可能她为我们提出的建议是好的，但是官司还是最终失败了，反之亦然。建议迥异，结果利与弊或许亦会相甚。In some cases the knowledge asymmetry is relatively transient. Ataxic driver in a foreign town provides us with a service, u

21、sing his knowledge of the local geography. Once we arrive at our destination, however, we can ask a local whether the drivers route was the most direct, and thus reduce the asymmetry. But who evaluates legal advice for us? Although we could ask another lawyer, he couldnt offer a second opinion witho

22、ut being informed of the details of our casewhich would amount to hiring two lawyers to do the work of one. Furthermore, the two lawyers might advise us differently, and wed be unable to distinguish the better advice.一些情况下，知识不对称只是暂时现象。在一个外国城市，一位出租车司机会利用自己对当地地理的知识为我们提供服务。但是，我们一到目的地，就可以询问当地人，这位司机所走的路线

23、是否绕路，那么不对称也就降低。但是，谁会为我们评估法律意见呢？尽管可以再去咨询另一位律师，但是假如没有了解案子细节，他就不会给出第二项建议。此外，两位律师的建议或许会大相径庭，我们也无从判断孰优孰劣。In practice, our lawyer herself implicitly assures us that we can rely on the legal advice she is giving. This relatively permanent knowledge asymmetry is the mark of the true profession; as consumers

24、, we have no option but to trust the professionals with whom we transact. Nevertheless, we might be unwilling to transact at all without some guarantee that the services we receive meet a minimum quality threshold. That requires the existence of professional bodies, whose regulatory role enables con

25、sumers to trust their advisers, thereby making a market for professional services feasible.实际情况中，我们的律师自己会含蓄地让我们相信，可以依赖她所提出的建议。真正职业的标志就是知识的不对称性相对持久；作为消费者，除了遵从我们与之交易的职业人员，别无选择。不过，假如没有保证我们所接受的服务满足最低质量要求，我们或许就根本不愿做交易了。这就催生专业就够的出现，使其担当起监管者的角色，使消费者可以相信其建议。从而，专业服务的市场就具有可行性。For a professional body in any gi

26、ven field to function, a discrete body of knowledge for that field must be defined, and the fields boundaries must be established: When, for example, is something medical or legal issue, and when is it not? There must also be a reasonable consensus within the field as to what the knowledge should co

27、nsist of: If physicians cannot agree on how the human body functions or lawyers on the nature of a contract, no discrete body of knowledge can be said to exist. The boundaries and consensus for any profession will evolve over time, but at any given moment they can be definedwhich is what enables for

28、mal training and certification. Certification signals competence to consumers who would benefit from it.对于一个在任何特定领域起到作用的职业机构来说，必须界定该领域内的知识结构，而且要为领域范围划定界限：例如，什么时候是法律问题或医疗问题，什么时候不是？在该领域内，应该包含哪些知识，必须有一个合理的共识：如果医生对人类机体如何运作意见不一，或者律师对合同的本质没有共识，那就可以说没有独立的知识结构存在。Professional bodies hold a trusted position.

29、They have, in effect, a contract with society at large: They control membership in the professions through examination and certification, maintain the quality of certified members through ongoing training and the enforcement of ethical standards, and may exclude anyone who fails to meet those standa

30、rds. Society is rewarded for its trust with a professional quality that it would otherwise be unable to ensure. This is the model for the legal and medical professions and others, including accounting, architecture, and engineering.专业化机构所处的位置受到信任。实质上，它与整个社会有一个协议：他们通过考试与验证，控制各自行业内的从业者；通过持续培训与强化道德标准来维

31、持认证从业者的能力；并且可能会剔除任何不能满足这些标准的人员。社会由其对专业素质的信任而获益，否则将无法保证。这就是法律与医疗行业以及包括财务、建筑和工程在内的其他行业的模式。As I will argue, neither the boundaries of the discipline of management nor a consensus on the requisite body of knowledge exists. No professional body is granted control, no formal entry or certification is requ

32、ired, no ethical standards are enforced, and no mechanism can exclude someone from practice. In short, management is not a profession. Moreover, management can never be a profession, and policies predicated on the assumption that it can are inherently flawed.正如我所阐明的，商业管理中，既不存在分明的管理原则界限，对于必要的知识结构也没有统一的共识。一言以蔽之，管理不是一份职业。此外，管理绝不会成为专业，那种基于可以称其为专业的假设本身即是漏洞百出。Why Not Management?为何拒之门外？One might ask, if medicine can reach agreement on the requisite body of knowledge for becoming a physician, why cant business do the same for management? After all, isnt the MBA a general-