State and explain three managerial roles as identified by Henry Mintzberg. Clearly identify how each is subdivided.
- INTERPERSONAL ROLES:
These roles relate to how a manager interacts with others i.e. subordinates, peers, supervisors and outsiders. They include the roles of:-
- Figurehead: - As a figurehead, the manager performs certain ceremonial roles, which are of a legal nature. Typical example include welcoming visitors, attending subordinates’ weddings and performing ribbon-cutting ceremonies as well as taking customers to lunch. In this case, managers are symbols and as such personify an organisation’s successes and failures.
- Leader: - Managers are accountable for the actions of their subordinates as well as their own. It therefore follows that by showing subordinates how to perform under pressure, what hours they should work, promoting, etc, managers will be performing the role of leader.
- Liaison: - In the liaison role, managers must learn to work with everyone both within and outside the organisation who can help them achieve their goals. This role necessitates establishing networks of contacts and creating obligations among the people with whom the manager interacts. In this instance, managers also act as a contact person and his activities include those of writing correspondences, replying customer enquiries, etc. Thus liaison role enables the manager to win support for his/her proposal.
b) INFORMATIONAL ROLES
These relate to the manager’s tasks of receiving and communicating information. Managers need information to make quality and informed decisions.
Similarly other people, both within and outside the organisation rely on information received from and / or transmitted through the manager. Mintzberg identifies the following three informational roles that managers have to undertake:-
- Monitor: - Managers are constantly and actively seeking for information from both inside and outside the organisation that may be useful to the organisation. They establish a network of contacts through which they get In addition they ask subordinates for information where the subordinates are more informed.
Where possible, they also obtain information from unsolicited sources. It is because of this role, therefore that managers are often said to be the most informed people in an organisation
- Disseminator: - Here managers will be responsible for contributing important information to subordinates. The manager has to make sure that subordinates have all the information to ensure that they carry out their duties efficiently and effectively. This role may also be thought of as a communication role, especially combined with the role of monitor.
- Spokesperson: - Managers in this instance are responsible for transmitting information to the outside world. Literally put, managers are said to be the organisation public relations managers (officers). Typical activities include, among other things, replying letters from customers, giving speeches on behalf of the organisation etc
c) DECISIONAL ROLES
According to Mintzberg, information is the basic input for managerial decision-making. The following are four decisional roles:-
- Entrepreneur: - Managers try to improve performance of their sub-units as if they are the actual entrepreneurs. Examples include situations when managers make decisions that will maximise shareholders’ wealth and add value to the organisation, thus, managers act as entrepreneurs whenever they act in the best interest of the providers of They make decisions that will minimise costs and maximise returns.
- Disturbance Handler: - This is the role of problem-solving. In this case the manager is expected to take care of ‘sticky’ situations. Thus the manager is expected to come up with solutions to difficult situations. The role of disturbance handler requires both the analytical and conceptual skills. Good examples of disturbance handlers (which the manager has to deal with) could be industrial actions (strikes), low performance, high employee turnover etc.
- Resource Allocator: - The role of the resource allocator entails all the activities that the manager undertakes to minimise revenue and minimise costs. It is primarily concerned with the activities relating to allocating resources (human physical or otherwise) among the organisational members.
For instance, a manager is expected to make decisions, say, on the best way of utilising resources such as that the revenue of the organisation reaches the desired targets.
- Negotiator: - As negotiators, managers spend a lot of time bargaining for a better deal for their sub-units or for the organisation as a whole.
Typical examples include bargaining with workers for salary increases, bargaining with suppliers for cheaper materials etc. Thus, negotiating requires the application of various managerial skills such as interpersonal, diagnostic, technical, etc
