Managers perform four major functions such as planning, organizing, directing and controlling. In addition to these functions there are ten managerial roles, which can be defined as organized set of behaviors identified with the position. These roles are developed by Henry Mintzberg in 1960s after a careful study of executives at work. All these roles, in one form or other deal with people and their behavior. These ten managerial roles are divided into three categories. The first category called the interpersonal roles arises directly from the manager's position and the formal authority given to him. The second category, the informational role arises as a direct result of the interpersonal roles and these two categories give rise to the third category called decisional roles.
The roles, in the context of
organizational behavior, are as follows:
Interpersonal Roles
In every organization managers spend a
considerable amount of time in interacting with other people both within their
own organizations as well as outside. These people include peers, subordinates,
superiors, suppliers, customers, government officials and community leaders.
All these interactions require an understanding of interpersonal behavior.
Studies show that interacting with people takes up nearly 80% of a manager's
time. These interactions involve the following three major interpersonal roles:
- Figure/lead Role: Managers act as symbolic
figureheads performing social or legal obligations. These duties include
greeting visitors, signing legal documents, taking important customers to
lunch, attending a subordinate's wedding and speaking at functions in
schools and churches. All these, primarily, are duties of a ceremonial
nature but are important for the smooth functioning of an organization.
- Leadership Role:
The influence of the manager is most clearly
seen in the leadership role as a leader of a unit or an organization.
Since he is responsible for the activities of his subordinates therefore
he must lead and coordinate their activities in meeting task-related goals
and motivate them to perform better. He must be an ideal leader so that
his subordinates follow his directions and guidelines with respect and
dedication.
- Liaison Role: The managers must maintain a
network of outside contacts. In addition, they need to have a constant
contact with their own subordinates, peers and superiors in order to
assess the external environment of competition, social changes or changes
in governmental rules and regulations. In this role, the managers build up
their own external information system. This can be achieved by attending
meetings and professional conferences, personal phone calls, trade
journals and informal personal contacts with outside agencies.
Information Roles
A manager, by virtue of his
interpersonal contacts, emerges as a source of information about a variety of
issues concerning an organization. In this capacity of information processing,
a manager executes the following three roles.
- Monitor Role: The managers are constantly
monitoring and scanning their internal and external environment,
collecting and studying information regarding their organization. This can
be done by reading reports and periodicals, interrogating their liaison
contacts and through gossip, hearsay and speculation.
- Information Disseminator Role: The managers must
transmit the
information regarding changes
in policies or other
matters to their subordinates, their peers and to
other members of an organization. This can be done through memos, phone
calls, individual meetings and group meetings.
- Spokesman Role: A manager has to be a spokesman
for his unit and represent his unit in either sending relevant information
to people outside his unit or making some demands on behalf of his unit.
Decision Roles
A manager must make decisions and solve
organizational problems on the basis of the environmental information received.
In that respect, a manager plays four important roles.
- Entrepreneur Role: Managers, as entrepreneurs are
constantly involved in improving their units and facing the dynamic
technological challenges. They are constantly on the lookout for new ideas
for product improvement or product addition. They initiate feasibility
studies, arrange capital for new products
and ask for suggestions from
the employees to
improve organization. This can be achieved through suggestion
boxes, holding strategy meetings with project managers and R&D
personnel.
- Conflict Handling Role: The managers are constantly
involved as judge in solving conflicts among the employees and between
employees and management. Mangers must anticipate such problems and take
preventive action and take corrective action once the problem arises.
These problems may involve labor disputes, customer complaints, employee
grievances, machine breakdowns, cash flow shortages and interpersonal
conflicts.
- Resource Allocation Role: The managers establish priorities
among various projects or programs and make budgetary allocations to
different activities of an organization based on these priorities.
- Negotiator Role: The managers in their negotiator
role represent their organization in negotiating deals and agreements
within and outside of an organization. They negotiate contracts with the
unions. Sales managers may negotiate prices with prime customers. Purchasing
managers may negotiate prices with vendors.
All these ten roles are important in a
manager's job and are interrelated, even though some roles may be more
influential than others depending upon the managerial position. For example,
sales manager gives more importance to interpersonal roles, while the
production manager may give more importance to decisional roles.