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What Do Managers Do?

Although nearly all aspects of modern life are touched at least indirectly by the work of managers, many people do not really understand what the management process involves. Management is much more, for example, than the familiar activity of telling employees what to do. Management is a complex and dynamic mixture od systematic techniques and common sense. As with any complex process, the key to learning about management lies in diving it into readily understood subprocesses. Historically, there have been two different approaches to dividing the management process for study and discussion. One approach, dating back to the early part of this century, is to identify managerial functions. A second, more recent approach focuses on managerial roles.

Managerial functions are general administrative duties that need to be carried out in virtually all productive organizations. Managerial roles are specific categories of managerial behavior. A British management scholar clarified this distinction by pointing out that managerial functions involve “desired outcomes”. Those outcomes are achieved through the performance of managerial roles (actual behavior). Stated another way, roles are the means and functions are the ends of the manager’s job.

Managerial Roles

During the 1970s, a researcher named Henry Mintzberg criticized the traditional functional approach as unrealistic. From his firsthand observation of top-level managers and similar studies by others, he concluded that functions “tell us little about what managers actually do. At best they indicate some vague objectives managers have when they work”.

Mintzberg and his followers have suggested that a more fruitful way of studying what managers do is to focus on the key roles thay play. Using a method called ‘ structured observation’, which entailed recording the activities and correspondence of five top-level executives, Mintzberg isolated ten roles he believes are common to all managers. These roles have been grouped into three major categories: interpersonal, informational and decisional roles.

Interpersonal Roles. Because of their formal authority and superior status, managers engage in a good deal of interpersonal contact with people who report to them. They also interact with other managers. The three interpersonal roles managers play are those of figurehead, leader and liaison.

Informational Roles. Every manager is a clearinghouse for information relating to the task at hand. Informational roles are important because information is the lifeblood of organizations. Typical roles include acting as nerve center, disseminator and spokesperson.

Decisional Roles. In their decisional roles, managers balance competing interests and make choices. Through decisilnal roles, strategies are formulated and put into action. Four decisional roles are those of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator.

Grammar