10 roles
key to managerial effectiveness, March 11, 2006, 2D.
Because
all organizations are dependent on effective management and
organization to survive and prosper, great care should be
taken choosing and training people for management jobs. In
many cases, long-time and responsible employees, and those
who are experts in their jobs get promoted into management
positions. While loyalty, length of service, and
job-specific expertise are admirable qualities for
organizational leaders, they are not enough.
Higher-level managers, employees, co-workers, owners and
shareholders, customers, competitors, suppliers,
governments, and interest groups all place different demands
on organizational managers. This wide variety of
stakeholders and constituencies who have influences on
organizations requires that those filling management
positions to be versatile and able to diplomatically appease
the demands of the various groups. To successfully meet
such a diverse set of professional demands, managers must be
able to switch between different role responsibilities.
The
skills and competencies needed to successfully coordinate
and direct the work of others are diverse and
multi-faceted. A proper balance of analytical and intuitive
decision making styles and task and people behaviors are
necessary to solve organizational problems and to get the
best out of the workers. Goal setting and strategy
formulation and execution are just as important as attending
to the personal and professional needs of the workers.
The
manager痴 job is much more complex and detailed than it
first seems. In fact, Henry Mintzberg identified a set of
10 managerial roles that managers and organizational leaders
must regularly perform and assume to function effectively in
their positions. He described those roles as:
-
Figurehead葉he manager serves as the symbolic head of
the organization and performs obligatory social or legal
duties.
-
Leader葉he manager provides vision, direction, and
motivation for workers to achieve organizational goals.
-
Liaison葉he manager serves as a bridge between outside
supporters and the organization.
-
Monitor葉he manager seeks and receives internal and
external information of importance to the organization.
-
Disseminator葉he manager transmits received information
to members of the organization.
-
Spokesperson葉he manager transmits information about the
organization to parties outside the organization.
-
Entrepreneur葉he manager seeks out productive
opportunities and initiates efforts to bring about
changes.
-
Disturbance handler葉he manager is responsible for
corrective actions to remedy disturbances and crises.
-
Resource allocator葉he manager is responsible for the
allocation of all kinds of organizational resources.
-
Negotiator葉he manager bargains with other groups to
gain advantages for his or her own group or
organization.
To
effectively perform role responsibilities, managers should
be proficient to some degree in all ten of Mintzberg痴
roles預lthough research findings show that the emphasis
given to the various roles changes with organizational
level. Different combinations of these interpersonal,
informational, and decisional roles are required across all
levels of management. Individuals should be chosen for
management positions based on their abilities to learn and
perform the complex and varied requirements of the job.
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