Management Roles
Mintzberg proposed ten managerial roles a typical manager has to perform in discharging his day-to-day activities. Mintzberg’s ten managerial roles can be grouped as those concerned with interpersonal relationships, those concerned with transfer of information, and those concerned with decision- making.
Interpersonal Roles:
This refers to those types’ of managerial roles that involve people and other duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. There are three types of interpersonal roles:
. i) Figure head Role: Manager performs a role as symbolic head and accordingly he is obliged to perform a number of routine duties of a legal or social nature. The typical activities include greeting visitors, signing legal documents etc.
. ii) Leader Role: As a leader of the department, manager gives direction to his employees and other subordinates to fulfill the assigned goals and objectives. He is responsible for the motivation and activation of subordinates. Also he is response for staffing, training and associated activities. Some of the typical activities include goals setting, providing guidance, review the progress of work etc.
. iii) Liaison Role: The manager is required to maintain contact with external sources that provide valuable information. These sources are individual or groups outside the managers unit and may be inside or outside the organization. For this he as to maintain self-developed network of outside contacts and informers who provide favors and information, for example, acknowledging mail, doing external board work etc.
Informational Roles:
This refers to those types of managerial roles that involve receiving, collecting and disseminating information. There are three types of informational roles:
. iv) Monitor: Typically, manager is spanning the boundaries of the organization and trying to get information from outside though various sources such as reading magazines, taking with other to learn current developments, movements of competitors planning, program etc. Manager seeks and receives variety of special information (much of it current) to develop thorough understanding of organization and environment. He emerges as nerve centre of internal and external information about the organization.
. v) Disseminator: M anager acts as conduits of information to organizational members. He is expected to transmit information received from outside or from subordinates to member of the organization. Some information is factual and some may involve interpretation and integrating of diverse value positions of organizational influencers. Some of the typical activities of this role include holding informational meetings, making phone calls to relay information etc.
vi) Spokesman: Manager represents the organization to outsiders by performing the role as spokesman. In this context, the manager transmits information to outsiders on organization’s plans, policies, results, achievements, serves as expert on the chosen field by giving value suggestion to the community etc. As mentioned earlier, he holds board meeting periodically and gives information to the media.
Decisional Roles:
This refers to those types of managerial roles that revolve around making decision. There are four types of decisional roles.
. vii) Entrepreneur: As entrepreneur, manager initiates and oversees new projects that will improve their organization’s performance. He thoroughly analyses the strengths of the organization and the opportunities available in the environment and takes initiative to implement improvement projects to bring about worthwhile changes with in the organization and continuously supervise designing new developmental projects. Some of the typical activities include organizing strategy and review sessions to develop new programs, instrumental in venturing novel projects etc.
. viii) Disturbance Handler: As disturbance handler, managers take corrective action in response to unforeseen problems within as well as outside the organization. Whenever any conflicts occur among the subordinates regarding the sharing of resources, allocation of funds etc, and the manager intervene appropriately and resolve those issues. He is responsible for corrective action when organization faces important, unexpected disturbances.
. ix) Resources Allocator: Manager is responsible for the allocation of organizational resources – physical, human, monetary resources of all kind and in effect, the making or approval of all significant organizational decision. In order to perform this activity, he will be schedule meetings, requesting authorization, and performing any activity that involves budgeting and the programming of subordinates work.
. x) Negotiator: Manager also performs as negotiators when they discuss and bargain with other groups to gain advantage for their own units. Manager will negotiate with business partners in case the organization is seeking alliances to venture projects or extend their operation in new marketing.
