Written speech: an academic degree in management does not teach how to manage

Like many other professions, management is also a profession studied in academic institutions. A person who wants to become a manager, enrolls in one of these institutions and after several years of study leaves with a degree in management. But is this what gives him the ability to manage? Will that person be able to be a good manager thanks to the degree?                                                                                                                 
I claim that good management can develop as a result of two main situations:

• One - management based on innate personality traits, on something existing
• And the second - the plant manager from below, a manager who understands and knows the system inside out.

What are the things that a degree in management cannot impart? If so, I will turn to the first argument:

Management ability is based on innate qualities

In my opinion, good management ability is in many cases innate. This ability is based on something existing, on a combination of personal traits and innate skills. From studies conducted in the field it appears that leadership, which is also a certain type of management, is mainly an acquired skill based on existing qualities. The leader needs intelligence, a positive attitude and a combination of the qualities of courage, open-mindedness and logic so that he knows how to process everything that is happening around him. Other studies have characterized a number of basic personality traits that characterize leaders in a variety of situations. In general, leaders are more intelligent than those they lead, leaders also tend to adapt better, be more dominant and extroverted than others. According to Weber's leadership theory, charismatic leadership is an innate quality. The charismatic leader relies on his aura, personality and inspirational qualities. What are natural characteristics inherent in man.

From the studies and theories I presented, it can be concluded that a degree in management can teach principles in management, various theories, applied practices, and even impart relevant knowledge, but not produce managerial qualities. I would like to quote from the words of a management expert named Professor Henry Mintzberg: "The MBA programs (master's degree in business administration) do not succeed in producing managers but at most produce 'analysts' of financial statements". Also, there is a whole literature that deals with the biographies of great leaders from the concept that it is the personality traits, childhood and past experiences that led that person to become the leader that he is, and through them it is possible to analyze his leadership ability. Those leaders are built on the basis of these innate skills, and as they gain experience, they develop a wide range of other skills required of them.

So as David Ben-Gurion said 40 years ago, in a speech he gave to the army commanders: "...only a model man... is the one who will shape the image of his apprentices. Not by the force of discipline, routine, technique... but by the power of his great personality".

Management is knowledge acquired from practical work

But there is another type of managers - those who have grown from the bottom and this actually leads me to my next argument which says that in many cases a good manager is the one who grows from the bottom, the one who has professional knowledge in the company's field of activity.

To be a manager, you need broad and specific organizational knowledge for that organization or company. The person who becomes a manager is a person with experience in the business and professional world, not necessarily someone who studies management. These are usually people who have grown in their field, such as accountants and economists who become CEOs of financial companies. Managers who grow from the bottom already know the corporate language, while a new manager who needs to adapt to a new language will not always do so successfully.
The principle of the growth of a manager from the bottom up is sometimes one of the characteristics of a company's organizational culture, take the "Ishkar" company for example: "Ishkar" company is the leading company in the world in the production of machining tools. I would like to quote the words of the company's president, Eitan Wertheimer, who said that "the conditions for acceptance to manage the company are great patience to advance in the organizational hierarchy from the bottom up.... Progress in the company is slow, the employees who start with us need to know the business from the production floor and only after they have proven themselves, they can advance in the authority hierarchy ".

Ari Manor, CEO of a consulting and training company, says that today more and more CEOs, owners of chains and businesses say that they prefer to hire a person who came from the bottom even if he is not equipped with university certificates. "The investment in someone who comes from the field is much greater than investing in a manager who comes through the academy, but the fruits you reap are much riper and better."

In conclusion

You can acquire, you can develop, and you can improve management skills, but in many cases, a manager is a person with an innate talent for this, or the one who grows from the bottom, gains experience and acquires professional knowledge and through all these - reaches the top.