Managerial Roles by Mintzberg - The Social Aspect of Leadership

Management expert Professor Henry Mintzberg has argued that a manager’s work can be boiled 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).

1. Informational Roles. By virtue of interpersonal contacts, both with subordinates and with a network of contacts, the manager emerges as the nerve center of the organizational unit. The manager may not know everything but typically knows more than subordinates do. Processing information is a key part of the manager's job. As monitor, the manager is perpetually scanning the environment for information, interrogating liaison contacts and subordinates, and receiving unsolicited information, much of it as a result of the network of personal contacts. As a disseminator, the manager passes some privileged information directly to subordinates, who would otherwise have no access to it. As spokesperson, the manager sends some information to people outside the unit.

♦ Monitor -gathers internal and external information relevant to the organization;
♦ Disseminator - transmits factual and value based information to subordinates;
♦ Spokesperson - communicates to the outside world on performance and policies.

2. Decisional Roles. Information is not an end in itself; it is the basic input to decision making. The manager plays the major role in a unit's decision-making system. As its formal authority, only the manager can commit the unit to important new courses of action; and as its nerve center, only the manager has full and current information to make the set of decisions that determines the unit's strategy. As entrepreneur, the manager seeks to improve the unit, to adapt it to changing conditions in the environment. As disturbance handler, the manager responds to pressures from situations. As resource allocator, the manager is responsible for deciding who will get what. As negotiator, the manager commits organizational resources in real time.

♦ Entrepreneur - designs and initiates change in the organization;
♦ Disturbance Handler - deals with unexpected events and operational breakdowns;
♦ Resource Allocator - controls and authorizes the use of organizational resources;
♦ Negotiator - participates in negotiation activities with other organizations and individuals.

3. Interpersonal Roles. As figurehead, every manager must perform some ceremonial duties. As leader, managers are responsible for the work of the people of their unit. As liaison, the manager makes contacts outside the vertical chain of command.

♦ Figurehead - performs ceremonial and symbolic duties as head of the organization.
♦ Leader - foster a proper work atmosphere and motivates subordinates
♦ Liaison - develops and maintains a network of external contacts to gather information;

REFERENCES:

http://management.atwork-network.com/2008/04/15/mintzberg%e2%80%99s-10-managerial-roles.htm

csdl2.computer.org/comp/proceedings/hicss/2000/.../04937055.pdf