Management roles and skills - Management Process

Managerial Roles



According to Mintzberg (1973), managerial roles are as follows:


1. Informational roles


2. Decisional roles


3. Interpersonal roles


1. Informational roles: This involves the role of assimilating and disseminating information as and when required. Following are the main subroles, which managers often perform:


a. Monitor—collecting information from organizations, both from inside and outside of the organization


b. Disseminator—communicating information to organizational members


c. Spokesperson—representing the organization to outsiders


2. Decisional roles: It involves decision making. Again, this role can be subdivided in to the following:


a. Entrepreneur—initiating new ideas to improve organizational performance


b. Disturbance handlers—taking corrective action to cope with adverse situation


c. Resource allocators—allocating human, physical, and monetary resources


d. Negotiator – negotiating with trade unions, or any other stakeholders



3. Interpersonal roles : This role involves activities with people working in the organization. This is supportive role for informational and decisional roles. Interpersonal roles can be categorized under three subheadings:


a. Figurehead—Ceremonial and symbolic role


b. Leadership—leading organization in terms of recruiting, motivating etc.


c. Liaison—liasoning with external bodies and public relations activities.


Management Skills


Katz (1974) has identified three essential management skills: technical, human, and conceptual.


Technical skills: The ability is to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require some specialized expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job. Vocational and on-the-job training programs can be used to develop this type of skill.


Human Skill : This is the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people (both individually and a group). This requires sensitivity towards others issues and concerns. People, who are proficient in technical skill, but not with interpersonal skills, may face difficulty to manage their subordinates. To acquire the Human Skill, it is pertinent to recognize the feelings and sentiments of others, ability to motivate others even in adverse situation, and communicate own feelings to others in a positive and inspiring way.


Conceptual Skill : This is an ability to critically analyze, diagnose a situation and forward a feasible solution. It requires creative thinking, generating options and choosing the best available option.