People in

Organisations
Managerial roles and
authority

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 Managerial roles
‘A role from which some work has
to be delegated to subordinate
roles but for which occupant
remains accountable to a higher
authority for manner in which all of
this work is carried out’

Mullins
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 Henry Mintzberg
 Managers don’t spend scheduled
chunks of time planning, controlling
 Disjointed, fragmented
 Often on day-to-day basis
 Different hats depending on what is
going on

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 Henry Mintzberg
Defined 10 x managerial roles,
divided into 3 x categories which
would be taken appropriately by a
manager according to his/her
personality, that of their staff and
the nature of the task in hand

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 Interpersonal roles

 Figurehead

– organisation’s representative

– Perform ceremonial and symbolic duties e.g.

attending weddings, funeral and reassuring

parents of female staff.

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 Leader

– selecting, training, inspiring

– Guide and supervise subordinates

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 Liaison
– communicating outside, building up
information exchange system

– Maintain information links in and beyond

the organization.

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 Informational roles

 Monitor

– wider network of contacts

– Collect information from inside and

outside of an organization.

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 Disseminator

– passing on info internally & externally

– Regular meetings for the exchange of

information

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 Spokesman

– Transmitting information to
stakeholders

– Accountable to GM

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 Decisional roles
 Entrepreneur
– Seize opportunities, get things done, fixer
– Initiate ideas to bring in innovation &
improvement.
– E.g. upgrade service & review new design of
restaurant

 Disturbance-handler
– Cope with unexpected, rectifying mistakes
– Take remedial actions
– E.g. restaurant remained closed during the riots
for security measures.
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 Resource allocator
– Distributing limited resources efficiently
– Budget allocation
 Negotiator
– Bargaining for resources, influence
– Handle customers complaints
– Dealing with suppliers for better prices

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 Authority & responsibility
Authority is right to do something, or
get others to do it

Responsibility is liability of a person to

be called to account for way he has
exercised authority given to him. It is
an obligation to do something, or to
get others to do it

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 Delegation
 Delegationis not just a case of getting
other people to do the work for you

 Ultimatelyyou will remain responsible

for the work, so delegating can be a
tough task and involves a level of trust
in employees

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 Accountability

Duty of individual to report to his

superior to account for how he has
used his delegated authority and
fulfilled his responsibilities

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 Delegation
 Limitations of work load

 Frees boss to concentrate on important

aspects

 Satisfies expectations of participation in

decision making

 Grooming for promotion

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 Why reluctant to delegate?
 Low confidence in abilities of subordinates
 Responsibility for mistakes

 Stay in touch

 Unwilling to admit capable subordinate

 Poor control, feel have to do everything or

lose track
 Lack of understanding ‘delegation’

 Doing ‘easy’ jobs, avoiding difficult tasks

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 Exercise 1

Suggest four ways in which senior

management could encourage

managers to delegate more

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 Power

Power is the ability to do something,

or get others to do it

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 Power
 Physical power
 Personal power
– Access to information
– Access to other powerful people
– Control over rules & procedures

 Resource power
 Expert power

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