Handout 2 MANAGEMENT ROLES The term management role refers to specific categories of managerial behavior.

Henry Mintzberg studied actual managers at work. His studies allowed him to conclude that managers perform 10 different but highly interrelated management roles. Mintzbergs 10 management roles can be grouped into interpersonal roles, informational roles and decisional roles. The interpersonal roles are roles that involve people (subordinates and persons both inside and outside the organization) and other duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. The three interpersonal roles include being a figurehead, leader and liaison. A manager is a symbol or a figurehead. As a symbolic head he is obliged to perform a number of routine duties of a legal or social nature. This role is necessary because of the position occupied and consists of such duties as signing legal documents or officially receiving visitors. A manager serves as a leader as he is responsible for the motivation of subordinates, responsible for staffing, training and associated duties. The third role is that of serving as liaison between outside contacts- such as the community, suppliers and others- and the organization. A manager maintains a selfdeveloped network of outside contacts and informers (peers and people outside organization) who provide favors and information. For e.g. becoming members of professional bodies and social clubs. The informational roles involve receiving, collecting, and disseminating information. The three informational roles include monitor, disseminator and spokesperson. As monitors, managers gather information in order to be well informed. The information collected, by scanning the environment facilitates managerial decision making function. For e.g. reading periodicals and reports. Managers are disseminators of information flowing from both external and internal sources. In the role of a disseminator, the manager transmits special information in the organization. For e.g. holding meetings and making phone calls to relay information. Managers are spokespersons or representatives of the organization. They speak for subordinates to superiors and represent upper management to subordinates and even disseminates the organizations information into its environment. The manager informs and satisfies various people who influence organizations goal. For e.g. holding board meeting, giving information to the media. Finally, the decisional roles revolve around making choices. The four decisional roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. A manager as entrepreneurs searches the organization and its environment for opportunities and initiate improvement projects to bring about changes. The manager initiates change and is also involved in the development and implementation of change strategy.

As disturbance handlers a manager is responsible for corrective action when organization faces important, unexpected disturbances. The manager must seek solutions to various unanticipated problems like strike, accidents and so on. As resource allocator, a manager is responsible for allocation of organizational resources of all kinds. The manager chooses as to where the organization will expend its efforts. As a negotiator, a manager is responsible for representing the organization at major negotiations. For e.g., a manager might represent the corporation to negotiate a trade union contract, a joint venture and so on. MANAGEMENT SKILLS A managers job is varied and complex. Managers need certain skills to perform the duties and activities associated with being a manager. Robert L. Katz found that managers needed three essential skills: Technical skills: include knowledge of and proficiency in a certain specialized field, such as engineering, computers, accounting or manufacturing. Technical skill is thus, the managers understanding of the nature of job that people under him have to perform. These skills are more important at lower levels of management since these managers are dealing directly with employees doing the organizations work. But in the higher positions, the conceptual component becomes more important than the technical component. Human skills: involve the ability to work well with other people both individually and in a group. Because managers deal directly with people this skill is crucial. Managers with good human skills are able to get best out of their people. They know how to communicate, motivate, lead, and inspire enthusiasm and trust. This helps the manager to recognize the feelings and sentiments of others, to judge the possible reactions, and to examine his own concepts and values which may enable him to develop more useful attitudes about himself. This type of skill remains consistently important for managers at all levels. Conceptual skills: are the skills managers must have to think and to conceptualize about complex situations. It refers to the ability of a manager to take a broad and farsighted view of the organization and its future, hid ability to think in abstract, his ability to analyze the forces working in a situation, his creative and innovative ability and his ability to assess the environment and the changes taking place in it. SUCESSFUL VS EFFECTIVE MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES Fred Luthans and his co-researchers, Richard M. Hodgetts, and Stuart Rosenkrantz used trained observers to freely observe and record in detail the behaviors and activities of 44 "real" managers. From this study they concluded that the activities done by real managers are as follows:

1. Communication: It includes answering procedural questions, receiving and disseminating requested information, conveying the results of meetings, giving or receiving routine information etc. 2. Traditional Management: Consists of planning, decision making, and controlling. It includes setting goals and objectives, defining tasks needed to accomplish goals, assigning tasks, handling day-to-day operational crises, inspecting work etc. 3. Human Resource Management: This activity contains: motivating/reinforcing, disciplining/punishing, managing conflict, staffing, and training/developing. 4. Networking: Consists of socializing/politicking and interacting with outsiders. The observed behaviors include non-work-related "chit chat"; discussing rumors, hearsay and the grapevine; complaining, and putting others down; politicking and gamesmanship (Networking is different from communication by the way it is defined or conceptualized). In their research study, Luthans et al. defined success operationally in terms of the speed of promotion within an organization. A success index was calculated by dividing a manager's level in his or her organization by his or her tenure (length of service) there. Effective managers were determined on the basis of two criteria. (1) getting the job done through high quantity and quality standards of performance, and (2) getting the job done through people, which requires their satisfaction and commitment. Surprising Finding Many managers who are the upper third of effective managers are not in the upper third of successful managers. This means effective managers are not progressing rapidly in their organizations. The managerial implication is that senior managers need to be careful at the promotion time. The subordinates who spend time in networking activities are getting undue preference in promotions. This will be detrimental to the organization in the long run.