Managerial Role Henry Mintzberg
What is a managerial role?
Managerial roles are behaviors adopted to perform various management functions, like leading and planning, organizing, strategizing, and solving problems. Within an organization, managers of different levels have different responsibilities that may overlap.
Henry Mintzberg classified managerial roles based on their purpose. He developed 10 managerial roles and divided them in 3 categories, grouping the roles that share similar features. Some of these features can be applied to two or more roles at the same time.
What are the 3 categories of managerial roles?
According to Mintzberg’s typology, managerial roles fall into three basic categories:
Interpersonal roles. This category includes the roles which concern interactions with people working inside and outside the organization. Basically, the majority of managers’ time is spent on interpersonal communication through which things get done.
The managerial roles in this category are figurehead, leader, and liaison.
Informational roles. The informational category involves creating, receiving, or sharing information with coworkers. The manager collects information from sources both inside and outside the organization, processes it, and delivers it to those who need it.
The managerial roles in this category are monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.
Decisional roles. Interpersonal roles are about dealing with people, and informational ones are about dealing with knowledge. Decisional roles are about action. By communicating with people and using information, managers make decisions that lead the organization to its goals.
The managerial roles in this category are entrepreneur, disturbance-handler, resource-allocator, and negotiator.