The dictionary meaning of Manager is, a person who has control or direction of an institution, business, etc., or of a part, division, or phase of it. A Manager is a person who plans and directs the work of a group of individuals and also monitors their work to take-up corrective actions when necessary.
To meet these challenges a manager assumes several roles according to the requirements. A role can be defined as an organized set of behaviours. Henry Mintzberg has identified ten roles common to any manager and classified these ten roles under three groups. They are:
Interpersonal:
- Figurehead: As a head of the organization the manager performs ceremonial and symbolic duties.
- Leader: Motivates and develops subordinates and Promotes a proper work atmosphere.
- Liaison: The main focus is to develop and to maintain a network of external contacts to gather the information.
Informational:
- Monitor: Gathers internal and external information relevant to the organization.
- Disseminator: Transmits relevant and value based information to subordinates.
- Spokesperson: Communicates to the external environment on performance and policies.
Decisional:
- Entrepreneur: Designs and initiates change in the organization.
- Disturbance handler: Deals with contingencies and operational breakdowns in the organization.
- Resource allocator: Controls and authorizes the usage of organizational resources.
- Negotiator: Deals with the negotiation activities with other organizations and individuals.