Managers perform 10 roles which fall under the following three groupings:
Interpersonal roles: figurehead, performing ceremonial duties, e.g. receiving visitors. He / she also have a leader role, e.g. hiring, training, motivating staff, and a liaison role dialing with others outside the organization, e.g. clients and suppliers;
Informational roles include monitoring and disseminating information obtained in numerous ways. As a company representative he / she transmit some information to others outside his / her area or organization. An important part of this work is to keep superiors well informed. Mintzberg thought that this was the most important and classified this aspect into three subroles: disseminator, company representative or spokesman role, and monitor role.
Decisional roles can be of four types:
Entrepreneur: to launch a new idea.
Disturbance handler of strikes among other things.
Resource allocator: choosing from among competing demands for money, equipment, personnel and management time.
Negotiator: managers have information and authority and they may be engaged in heavy negotiations drawing up contracts with suppliers.
The real impact of Mintzberg's research is to put the spotlight on the changing, uncertain environment in which the manager operates. Many things occur which cannot be predicted or controlled. The manager has little time to reflect and must cope with numerous challenges each day.
So although the functions of planning, organizing, decision making and controlling are useful in analyzing the work of the manager, the work is more involved than this. Managers spent 66 to 80 percent of their time in oral communication. The manager's job is complicated and difficult. They cannot easily delegate, as they keep most of the important information in their heads because it comes to them mainly in verbal form. Brevity, fragmentation of work and verbal communication are features of their work.
Today pressures are becoming greater and they now need to respond not just to owners and directors, but to subordinates (who no longer tend to accept unexplained orders ), to consumer groups and outside agencies.
In the future, a manager may need to consider the following questions:
- How can I deal adequately to change and conflict? Changes must be confronted and flexibility handled
- How can I make better judgments in uncertainty?
- How can I improve my diagnostic and analytical skills and broaden my education?
- How can I manage in an open environment and become more socially responsible?
- How can I become aware of changing human social values, especially higher-level human needs?
