by axo's

Created on: December 24, 2008

The classical model of management started by Henry Fayol 70 years ago has been the basic foundation of management roles. According to him, the five basic functions of managers are as in this order; planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding and controlling. While all these basic functions are still relevant to today's business management, they however are unsatisfactory as a description of what managers actually do and should be doing especially in the era of Internet technology.

According to Henry Mintzberg, a renowned academic and scholar on business and management, managerial roles could be classified into 3 roles; interpersonal, informational and decisional.

The first role of managers is to be the chief to their organization. Basically, managers are the best representative for their companies. When delivering speeches at seminars or forums, or giving out employee awards, managers are looked up to as the figurehead of that company, thus making them symbolic. For instance, Bill Gates was long associated with the Microsoft Company while Jack Welch is synonym to the General Electric even years after his retirement.

Furthermore, they also act as leaders to their employees by motivating, counseling, controlling, coordinating and supporting. Many scholars agreed that this interpersonal role is the basic of managerial roles that all managers should be doing in order to gain recognition from their employees as the figurehead of the company. They also act as a liaison between various organizational levels in which they provide time and favors. By doing this, other than to facilitate normal business procedures, they spend significant time establishing personal agendas.

The next role of managers is to disseminate information to those who need the information in order to get the job done. Managers as the nerve centers of their company have to keep current at all times. Their job is to receive the most concrete, instead of just hearsay or gossip, up-to-date information and redistribute to their employees. Therefore, managers also act as spokesperson for their organization.

The final role and perhaps the most vital role of managers is to make decisions for the company's best interest. Decision making, therefore, is a manager's most challenging task. The basic tasks under decision making role include allocating, negotiating, implementing, designing and many more others.

On the interesting note, further research by Mintzberg found that managers' real activities are highly fragmented and brief in duration. From his observations, managerial roles could be summarized into three critical roles; interpersonal, informational and decisional roles.

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