Managerial Roles
-
Upload
austin-kirk -
Category
Documents
-
view
294 -
download
5
Transcript of Managerial Roles
Table of Contents
1. Introduction................................................................................................................2
2. First Managerial Role................................................................................................6
3. Second Managerial Role............................................................................................6
4. Third Managerial Role..............................................................................................6
5. Appendices..................................................................................................................7
1
1. Introduction
There are various roles played by managers in an organization. Those managerial roles
organized by Henry Mintzberg (1973), the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at
McGill University are divided into three (3) categories that are Interpersonal Managerial
role, Informational role and Decisional role in which these categories hold different
character of managers. Detailed explanations of managerial roles for each category are as
follows:
i. Interpersonal Managerial roles
Managers with this role mostly spend their time doing public relations
activities. They usually interact with people inside and outside the
organization which include peers, subordinates, superior, suppliers, customers,
government officials, community leader and other related people. Two (2)
major interpersonal roles that falls under this category are further defined as
follows:
a) Figurehead : Act as a symbolic head of an organization. Figurehead
presence will upscale any functions that they attended. Queen Elizabeth is
an example of a highly recognizable figurehead. She is the symbolic head
of United Kingdom which her duties involves attending wedding of a
subordinate, responsible of receiving visitors from other countries,
carrying out social works for world organizations or speaking at selected
high profile functions. All these duties are mostly of ceremonial nature but
are important for the smooth functioning of the organization or functions.
b) Leader : In an organization, leader with the ability to lead is essential as
they will influence their subordinates to perform better. Leaders should
also be able to coordinate, motivate, lead the organization to excellence
and be an example for subordinates to work with respect and much
2
dedication. Former manager of Manchester United Football Club, Sir Alex
Ferguson is an example of a glorious leader. He leads Manchester United
to glory for 27 years since 1986 until 2013. He carries out his duty as
football manager by encouraging and training his players to perform better
for each competition. He increased the players' discipline and organized
Manchester United club, an unknown football club at that point of time to
become the most successful football club in the world.
ii. Informational roles
Managers that hold informational roles will be the source of information about
the various issues concerning the organization. This means, communication is
the focus for this category which two (2) major roles are described as below:
a) Disseminator : Managers will share their interpretation once monitoring
activities are being done internally and externally, collected data and
information had been analyzed and impact had been assessed. By this, the
manager becomes the disseminator of the information. This is to ensure
that related parties that are influenced or affected by the decisions are
being updated. This communication role is essential for effective
managers. For example, a sales manager declared that sales are increasing
for the year and the organization is profitable. Hence, the organization will
share the profit earned with the employees. The sales manager is now
disseminating good news to the employees and indirectly motivating the
employees to perform better.
b) Spokesperson : Managers that shares information publicly is considered as
a spokesperson to the organization. Spokesperson can also be anyone in
the organization as long as that person is representing the organization and
sending information externally. Medium of information can be radio
commercials, newspapers, internet or any other media. A good example
3
for a manager having a role as spokesperson would be none other than
Director of Air Asia Berhad, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes. He comes up with
the tagline ‘Now everyone can fly’, provides information to the media for
promotions held by Air Asia and disseminates information on future plans
and new destination of Air Asia in order to improve and serve everyone
better.
iii.Decisional Roles
A responsibility of a manager includes making the correct decision at the right
time. A skilled manager should have this quality to ensure the smoothness of
the operation in an organization. Two (2) out of four (4) roles in this category
are described as follows:
a) Entrepreneur: As entrepreneur, managers are change makers in their areas
of responsibility. This can be either throughout the whole organization or
just within one department. Managers as entrepreneur bravely ventures
into new business or partnership that can expand and create diversities in
an organization. Other than that, an entrepreneur constantly in the lookout
of new ideas, product innovation and has the determination to make the
innovation happen. Example of a successful Malaysian entrepreneur is
Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary. Starting at a very young age, he started
with selling meats and expands the business to packaging meats and
selling them wholesale. With the great entrepreneur skill that he has, he
now owned several giant organizations in Malaysia as well as overseas.
b) Negotiator: A negotiation skill is needed in a manager in order to
negotiate deals and agreements within and outside an organization. A
negotiator is a representative for an organization which their
responsibilities involves resolving any personal conflicts within involved
parties, facilitates decision making among involved parties, addresses any
concerns that may impact involved parties and establishes contracts
within involved parties. Donald Trump is an example of a well-known
4
negotiator. He wrote a book called ‘Trump: The Art of the Deal’, a
business advice book. One of the quote from the book is ‘Negotiation is an
art. All the arts require discipline, technique, and a dose of imagination to
take them beyond the realm of the ordinary’.
From the description given above, it clearly shows that all the three (3) categories
of manager are interrelated. All these roles are important and a manager must be
able to balance it in order to manage an organization effectively.
5
2. First Managerial Role - Leader
Newspaper article attached in Appendix A- Leader shows the responsibilities of a
quality leader even though he is no longer working with the organization. Former deputy
higher education minister, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah emphasized that in education
system, it is crucial to be innovative. He also did point out that current Malaysian
education system do not encourage the students to be creative by thinking out of the box.
Mostly, teachers and students are being under pressured to complete the curriculum and
prepare for exams. The existing curriculum prepared is no longer valid with current
environment where students are unable to be creative. By this, a new initiative called
National Education Blueprint is being introduced to overcome the issues faced in
Malaysian education system. Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah did highlight that in order to be
innovative; a more conducive environment is needed. A society also plays a role in order
to make the innovation happen by being open to differences of viewpoints and opinion.
As a leader, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah also emphasized that this initiative would require
‘bold leadership’ and it will not happen if there is no cooperation from the Government,
politicians, thought leaders, opinion makers, professionals and public intellectuals. He
also did mention that Malaysian education system should follow Silicon Valley in the
United States where the academic and workplace integrated really well to encourage
innovation and a more conducive learning environment are successfully created. Using
coins as a metaphor, he encourages students, teachers and other responsible parties to be
balance in both academic and curriculum to be able to be innovative and to generate a
better nation.
This shows that Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah is a respectable leader where he is able to
coordinate the National Education Blueprint program to make improvement to the
Malaysian Education System. He also motivates responsible parties to realize the idea of
the changes so that students and teachers embrace the idea of innovation and help the
growth of Malaysian economic.
6
3. Second Managerial Role – Spokesperson
From attached article in Appendix B – Spokesperson, it is clearly shown that Menteri
Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Said is being a spokesperson for Syarikat Air Negeri
Sembilan (SAINS) as he is a trusted source in giving such important information to the
people of Negeri Sembilan. He informed water consumers of Negeri Sembilan especially
those who lived in Rembau and Tampin district to use water wisely as the current water
level at the Gemencheh dam has fallen to the critical level. He also did
4. Third Managerial Role
7
5. Appendices
Appendix A- Leader
8
Appendix B - Spokesperson
9
Appendix C - Entrepreneur
10
Reference
Introductory Management Module - Open University Malaysia
The Nature of Managerial Work - ( Henry Mintzberg )
‘The Facts of Business Life’ by Bill Mcbean
http://www.managementstudyhq.com/managerial-roles.html
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/management-roles.htm
http://management.atwork-network.com/2008/04/15/mintzberg%E2%80%99s-10-
managerial-roles/
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/henry-mintzbergs-managerial-
roles.html#lesson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mintzberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Mokhtar_Al-Bukhary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Ferguson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fernandes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II
11