Managerial Roles to fulfill the multifarious functional responsibilities, managers assume multiple roles. A role is an organized set of behaviors. Henry Mints berg has identified ten roles common to the work of all managers. The ten roles are divided into three groups: interpersonal, informational and decisional. The informational roles link all managerial work together. The interpersonal roles ensure that information is provided. The decisional roles make significant use of the information. The requirements of these managerial roles can be fulfilled, or these roles can be played, at different times by the same manager and to different degrees depending on the level and function of management. The ten roles are described individually, but they form an integrated whole (Figure below).
(1) Interpersonal Roles: A manager in order to effective has to assume different roles at different points of time as demanded by the call of duty. The three interpersonal roles are primarily concerned with interpersonal relationships.
(I) Figurehead: Manager performs some duties of a ceremonial nature such as greeting the touring dignitaries, attending the wedding of an employee taking an important customer to lunch and so on.
(ii) Leader: As a leader every manager must motivate and encourage his employees. He must also try to reconcile their individual needs with the goals of the organization.
(iii) Liaison: Every manager must cultivate contact outside his vertical chain of command to collect information useful for his organization.
(2) Informational Roles: The three informational roles listed below are primarily concerned with the information aspects of managerial work.
(i) Monitor : As monitor, manger has to perpect6ually scan his environment for information, interrogate his liaison contact and his subordinate, and receive unsolicited information, much of it as a result of the network of personal contact he has developed.
(ii) Disseminator: The manager passes some of his privilege information directly to his subordinate who would otherwise have no access to it.
(iii) Spokesman: The manager informs and satisfies various groups and people who influence his organization. Thus, he advises shareholders about financial performance, assures consumer group that the organization is fulfilling its social responsibility and satisfies government that the organization is abiding by the law.
(3) Decisional Roles: The unique access to information places the manager at the centre of organizational decision making. There are four decisional roles.
(I) Entrepreneur: The manager constantly looks out the new ideas and seeks to improve his unit by adopting it to changing conditions in the environment.
(ii) Disturbance Handler: The manager has to work like a fire fighter. He must seek solution of various unanticipated problems a strike may loom a major customer may go bankrupt a supplier may renege on his contract, and so on.
(iii) Resource Allocator: The manager must divide work and delegate authority among his subordinate. He must decide who will germ what.
(iv) Negotiator Role: In the negotiator role, the manger negotiates on behalf of the organization. The top level manager makes the decisions about the organization as a whole while the supervisor makes decisions about his or her particular work unit. For example, a manager might represent the corporation to negotiate a trade union contract, a joint venture and so on.
(4) Supervisor's Role: In the role of a supervisor, the manager performs the managerial roles but with different emphasis than higher managers. Supervisory management is more focused and short term in outlook. Thus the figurehead role become less significant and the disturbance handler and negotiator roles increase in importance for the supervisor. Since leadership permeates all activities, the leader role is among the most important of all roles at all levels of management.