Managerial roles

Management expert Professor Henry Mintzberg has argued that a manager’s work can be bring down to ten common roles. According to Mintzberg, these roles, or expectations for a manager’s behavior, fall into three categories: informational (managing by information), interpersonal (managing through people), and decisional (managing through action).

This chart summarizes a manager’s ten roles:

Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

Category Role Activity Examples

Informational

Monitor Seek and acquire work-related information

Scan/read trade press,  periodicals, reports; attend seminars andtraining; maintain personal contacts

 Disseminator

Communicate/ disseminate information to others within the organization

Send memos and reports; inform staffers and subordinates of decisions

 Spokesperson

Communicate/transmit information to outsiders

Pass on memos, reports and informational materials; participate inconferences/meetings and report progress

       

Interpersonal Figurehead Perform social and legal duties, act as symbolic leader

Greet visitors, sign legal documents, attend ribbon cutting

ceremonies,host receptions, etc.

 Leader Direct and motivate

subordinates, select and train employees

Includes almost all interactions with subordinates

 Liaison Establish and

maintain contacts within and outside the organization

Business correspondence, participation in meetings with representativesof other divisions or organizations. 

       

Decisional Entrepreneur

Identify new ideas and initiate improvement projects

Implement innovations; Plan for the future

 Disturbance Handler

Deals with disputes or problems and takes corrective action

Settle conflicts between subordinates; Choose strategic alternatives; Overcome crisis situations

 Resource Allocator

Decide where to apply resources

Draft and approve of plans, schedules, budgets; Set priorities

 Negotiator Defends business

interestsParticipates in and directs negotiations within team, department, and organization

In the real world, these roles overlap and a manager must learn to balance them in order to manage effectively. While a manager’s work can be analyzed by these individual roles, in practice they are intermixed and interdependent. According to Mintzberg: “The manager who only communicates or only conceives never gets anything done, while the manager who only ‘does’ ends up doing it all alone.”

1. Interpersonal roles:

Figurehead:

Manager is often asked to serve as a figurehead. Taking visitors to dinner, attending ribbon- cutting ceremony and

the like. More ceremonial and symbolic in nature.

Leader:

Hiring training and motivating employees. A manager who formally or informally shows sub ordinates how to

do things and how to perform under pressure is leading.

Liaison:

It often serves as a coordinator or link among people, groups or organizations.

For eg: companies in the computer industry may use liaisons to keep other companies informed about their plans.

2. Informational roles:

The process of carrying out these roles places the managers at the strategic point to gather and disseminate information. The three roles under it include:

Monitoring:

One who actively seeks information that is of value. The manager questions subordinates, is receptive to unsolicited

information, and attempts to be as well informed as possible.

Disseminator:

The manager is also a disseminator of information, transmitting relevant information back to others in the workplace.

When the roles of monitor and disseminator are viewed together, the manager emerges as a vital link in the organization’s chain of communication.

Spokesperson:

Formally relays information to people outside the unit or outside the organization.

3. Decisional roles: An informational role leads to the decisional roles. The information roles acquired by the manager as a result of performing the informational roles has a major bearing on important decisions that he or she makes. The decisional roles includes:

Entrepreneur:

Manager has to play the role of entrepreneur, the voluntary initiator of change.

Disturbance handler:

Handles the problem such as strikes, copyright infringements, or problems in public relations or corporate image.

Resource allocator:

As a resource allocator, manager decides hoe resources are distributed and with whom he or she will work most closely.

Negotiator:

The manager enter into negotiations with other groups or organizations as a representative of the company