Instead of theorizing about what managers should do, Mintzberg studied what managers actually do during their working days.
Interpersonal Roles
Interpersonal roles concern your relationships with others as a manager.
- Figurehead.
- You are responsible for performing ceremonial duties.
- Examples:
- Taking a customer out to lunch.
- Attending an employee’s wedding.
- Giving an award to an employee.
- Leader.
- You are responsible and accountable for your team’s work.
- You must lead your team to perform great work.
- This role involves both leading and managing your team.
- Examples:
- Coaching a team member.
- Encouraging your team.
- Giving feedback.
- Defining a team member’s responsibilities.
- Delegating tasks.
- Liaison.
- You have to connect your team to others outside of the vertical chain of command on behalf of your organization.
- This can mean working with both internal and external contacts.
- Examples:
- Working with a customer.
- Meeting with a supplier.
- Working with a recruitment specialist.
Informational Roles
The roles within this category concern how you collect and share information.
- Monitor.
- You need the monitor the work of your team.
- You need to monitor what’s going on elsewhere in your organization.
- You must identify which information is important and which is not.
- This information doesn’t just have to be factual; you can also monitor gossip and speculation.
- Examples:
- A conversation with a member of your network.
- Online research.
- Reading reports.
- Disseminator.
- You communicate information, in either written or verbal format.
- Examples:
- You share your annual plan with your team.
- You inform your team of how you will restructure it to implement your organization’s new strategy.
- Spokesperson.
- You share information outside of your team.
- Written or verbal communication.
- Examples:
- You give a media interview.
- You share your organization’s plans with a supplier.
- You speak at a conference.
Decisional Roles
The roles within this category concern how you, as a manager, make decisions. These roles as the most important for a manager.
- Entrepreneur.
- You have to develop new and innovative ideas to improve your organization’s products, services, and processes.
- You also have to react to changing circumstances and market conditions quickly.
- Examples:
- You identify an opportunity to improve a process.
- You identify an opportunity to cut costs.
- You solve a long-running problem.
- Disturbance Handler.
- You react to problems, issues, conflicts, disputes, or roadblocks that occur.
- These disturbances or crises could be external or internal to your team.
- Examples:
- You mediate a disagreement between two team members.
- You quickly help your team switch to remote working during a pandemic.
- Resource Allocator.
- You have to decide where to allocate your people and budget.
- This will involve planning, scheduling, and budgeting.
- Examples:
- You decide to allocate 70% of your budget to short-term projects and 30% to longer-term projects.
- You manage a startup and decide to commit 90% of your team to research and development (R&D) and just 10% to operations.
- Negotiator.
- You engage in a negotiation.
- This could be with customers, suppliers, or new hires, amongst others.
- Examples:
- You negotiate the salary of a newly hired team member.
- You negotiate a contract with a supplier.