Charles Brian Handy

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 25 July 1932) is an Irish author/philosopher specialising in organisational behaviour and management. Among the ideas he has advanced are the " portfolio career" and the " Shamrock Organization" (in which professional core workers, freelance workers and part-time/temporary routine workers each form one leaf of the "Shamrock"). He has been rated among the Thinkers 50, a private list of the most influential living management thinkers. In 2001 he was second on this list, behind

Peter Drucker Peter Ferdinand Drucker (; ; November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business co ...

, and in 2005 he was tenth. When the

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Ma ...

had a special issue to mark their 50th Anniversary they asked Handy,

and

Henry Mintzberg Henry Mintzberg (born September 2, 1939) is a Canadian academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, ...

to write special articles. In July 2006 he was conferred with an honorary

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by Trinity College, Dublin.

Life

Born the son of a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...

archdeacon in

Clane Clane (; ) is a town in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, from Dublin. Its population of 7,280 makes it the eighth largest town in Kildare and the List of towns in the Republic of Ireland by population, 66th largest in Ireland. It ...

, Co. Kildare, Ireland, Handy was educated as a boarder at

Bromsgrove School Bromsgrove School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the Worcestershire town of Bromsgrove, England. Founded in 1553, it is one of the oldest public schools in Britain, and one of the 14 founding members of the Headmaste ...

and Oriel College, Oxford. Handy's business career started in marketing at

Shell International Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

. He left Shell to teach at the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

in 1972 and spent a year in Boston observing the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

's way of teaching business.

Career

* Marketing Executive, Shell International Petroleum Company 1956–65 * Economist, Charter Consolidated 1965–66 * International Faculty Fellow,

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

1966–67 *

1967–95 (professor 1978–94) * Warden, St George's House,

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

1977–81 * Writer and broadcaster, 1981– He was Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts from 1987 to 1989 and was instrumental in persuading Mark Goyder to join which led to the Tomorrow's Company inquiry. He has honorary doctorates from Bristol Polytechnic (now the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

UEA UEA may stand for: Universities * University of East Africa, established in June 1963 and split, in 1970, into: ** Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda ** University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania ** University of Nairobi in Kenya * University of ...

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, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Dublin. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Mary's College, Twickenham, the

Institute of Education IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to ...

City and Guilds The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

and Oriel College, Oxford. He was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various ...

"for services to Personnel Management Education and Practice."

Ideas and style

A feel for Handy's style can be gained from the opening of his autobiography: "Some years ago I was helping my wife arrange an exhibit of her photographs of Indian tea gardens when I was approached by a man who had been looking at the pictures. 'I hear that Charles Handy is here,' he said. 'Indeed he is,' I replied, 'and I am he.' He looked at me rather dubiously for a moment, and then said, 'Are you sure?' It was, I told him, a good question because over time there had been many versions of Charles Handy, not all of which I was particularly proud."

Personal life

He was married to Elizabeth Handy, a photographer, with whom he collaborated on a number of books including ''The New Alchemists'' and ''A Journey through Tea''. Elizabeth (aged 77) died in a car accident in England on 5 March 2018. Their son Scott Handy is an actor who has performed with the RSC and their daughter Kate is an osteopath.

Books

Handy is the author of the following books: *''Understanding Organisations'' (1976) – *''Gods of Management'' (1978) – *''The Future of Work'' (1984) *''Understanding Schools'' (1986) *''Understanding Voluntary Organisations'' (1988) *''The Age of Unreason'' (1989) – *''Inside Organisations'' (1990) *''The Empty Raincoat'' (1994) – , US printing under title ''The Age of Paradox'' (1994) – *''Waiting for the Mountain to Move'' (1995) *''Beyond Certainty'' (1995) - *''The Hungry Spirit'' (1997) – *''New Alchemists'' (1999) – *''Thoughts for the Day'' (1999) – – (first published in 1991 as Waiting for the Mountain to Move) *''The Elephant and the Flea'' (2001) – *''A Journey through Tea'' – with Elizabeth Handy *''Re-invented lives'' (2002) *''Myself and Other More Important Matters'' (2006) – an autobiography and further reflections on life – *''The New Philanthropists'' (2006) *''21 Ideas for Managers'' (2000) *''The Second Curve'' (2015)

References

External links

BBC Biography of Charles HandyBiography at the Thinkers 50 2005

The Handy Guide to the Gurus of ManagementAn Interview with Charles Handy (Part One), by C Honore, Ivey Business Journal, 2000

An Interview with Charles Handy (Part Two), by C Honore, Ivey Business Journal, 2000

An interview with Charles Handy, by Stephen Bernhut, Ivey Business Journal, 2004

"The Shift to Non-Standard Employment" on British Columbia's Workinfonet