A manager occupies different positions in an organisation. He plays different roles depending upon the situation. The Henry Mintzberg in his book ‘The Nature of Managerial Work’ describes the ten roles of a manager in an organisation which are broadly divided into three categories:
- Interpersonal Roles
- Informational Roles
- Decisional Roles
Interpersonal Roles of a Manager in an Organisation
In their interpersonal roles, manager act as figurehead, lead, and interact with members of the organisation, within the department or outside the department.
- Figurehead
A manager is the symbolic head of a firm. Every manager has to perform various regular duties which are of legal or social nature.
- Leader
In the leader role, every manager must motivate and encourage his employees. He must try to align the needs of individuals with the goals of organisation
- Liaison
Every manager must maintain a network of outside contacts that can provide information useful for the organisation
Informational Roles
In their informational roles, managers seek information from others, provide information to others, and provide information to people outside the organisation, in the capacity of representative of the organisation
- Monitor
A manager receives a wide variety of information and utilizes such information appropriately.
- Disseminator
A manager transmits some of the privileged information directly to the members of the organisation who otherwise has no access to it. Through meeting, e-mail, circular, notice, office order etc. a manager acts as disseminator of information particularly to subordinates.
- Spokesman
A manager transmits information about the organisation to various outside stakeholders. These stakeholders can be government officials, labour unions, customers, suppliers etc. The information can be organization’s plans, policies, actions, and results; serves as expert on organization’s industry.
Decisional Roles
In their decisional roles, managers take proactive actions, sort out differences in opinion amicably, allocate resources to various departments in optimum way, and negotiate implementation of new projects.
- Entrepreneur
In this role the manager searches for innovative opportunities to bring about positive change in organisation.
- Disturbance Handler
In this role, the manager works to seek solutions of various unanticipated problems. He is responsible for corrective action when organization faces important, unexpected disturbances
- Resource Allocator
In this role, the manager divides the work and delegate authority among his subordinates.
- Negotiator
A manager is responsible for representing the organization at major negotiations. He may have to negotiate with union leaders for a strike issue, negotiate with workers for addressing their grievances and so on.
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