Managerial Roles
Literature Review
THE MANAGER’S ROLE IN ORGANIZATIONS
Introduction
Managers must wear many different hats in formulating and implementing task activities related to their positions. In an attempt to understand the diversity of hats managers must wear, many author examined managerial activities on a daily basis. Their study enabled them to identify ten different but, coordinated sets of behavior, or roles, that managers assume. These ten roles can be separated into three general groupings: interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles.
According to Mintzberg (1980:57), managers at all levels perform ten interrelated roles. These roles fall into three groupings, namely:
• Interpersonal roles – which derive from the manager 's status and authority.
• Informational roles – which derive from the interpersonal roles and the access they provide to information; and
• Decisional roles – which derive from the managers authority and information.
In Mintzberg (1980:182) it can be learnt that although managers are required to perform all of the basic managerial roles, most managers must give attention to certain roles at certain situations.
A variety of factors determines what roles managers must emphasise at a particular time (Mintzberg, 1980:182). These factors are the following:
• The type of industry an organisation is in
• The size of an organisation
• The level of the particular manager in the organisation
• The function supervised
• The situation at the moment
• The job itself and
• The environment of the organisation.
1 Management viewpoints and thinking of role
According to Hellriegel et al (1999: 45), management viewpoints can be divided into the following:
1.1 The Traditional Viewpoint
This is the oldest viewpoint, and it stresses the manager’s role in a strict hierarchy and focuses on the consistent and efficient job performance (Hellriegel et al, 1999: 440). From Hellriegel et al (1999:54), it can be learnt that the
THE MANAGER’S ROLE IN ORGANIZATIONS
Introduction
Managers must wear many different hats in formulating and implementing task activities related to their positions. In an attempt to understand the diversity of hats managers must wear, many author examined managerial activities on a daily basis. Their study enabled them to identify ten different but, coordinated sets of behavior, or roles, that managers assume. These ten roles can be separated into three general groupings: interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles.
According to Mintzberg (1980:57), managers at all levels perform ten interrelated roles. These roles fall into three groupings, namely:
• Interpersonal roles – which derive from the manager 's status and authority.
• Informational roles – which derive from the interpersonal roles and the access they provide to information; and
• Decisional roles – which derive from the managers authority and information.
In Mintzberg (1980:182) it can be learnt that although managers are required to perform all of the basic managerial roles, most managers must give attention to certain roles at certain situations.
A variety of factors determines what roles managers must emphasise at a particular time (Mintzberg, 1980:182). These factors are the following:
• The type of industry an organisation is in
• The size of an organisation
• The level of the particular manager in the organisation
• The function supervised
• The situation at the moment
• The job itself and
• The environment of the organisation.
1 Management viewpoints and thinking of role
According to Hellriegel et al (1999: 45), management viewpoints can be divided into the following:
1.1 The Traditional Viewpoint
This is the oldest viewpoint, and it stresses the manager’s role in a strict hierarchy and focuses on the consistent and efficient job performance (Hellriegel et al, 1999: 440). From Hellriegel et al (1999:54), it can be learnt that the
References: 1) Greenberg, J. and Baron, R. 1997. Behaviour In Organizations: Understanding and Managing The Human Side of Work. 6th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 2) Griffin, R.W. 1987. Management.2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 3) Hellriegel, D., Jackson, S.E. and Slocum, J.W. 1999. Management. 8th Edition. Boston: South Western College Publishing. 4) Minzberg, H. 1980. The Nature of Managerial Work. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 5) Plunkett, W.R. 1996. Supervision. Diversity and Teams in the Workplace. 8th Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.