The Role and Responsibility of project manager

1. Project management
Roles and responsibilities of project
manager

2. Interduction
The role of project manager is one of the key issues
which has been discussed by many researchers due
its importance and direct effect to the success or
failure of a project. As the project manager is
responsible for the project success and failure, it is
important for any project manager to have certain
skills to be able to guide the project.
Bodepudi (2018) defined the responsibilities of a
project manager through six factors:

3.  Planning: achieving a certain goal by creating a
roadmap beforehand.
 Organizing: giving a structure to the project
team, through assigning roles to team members
with targets to be achieved.
 Leading: the most important as per Bodepudi
(2018). This responsibility includes coordination,
meeting the deadlines, decision making,
knowledge management, and interpersonal skills.

4.  Monitoring: which is done through three steps:
1. Measure: progress
2. Evaluate: causes of deviation
3. Correct: appropriate corrections
 Communicating: as per research mentioned by
Bodepudi (2018), 90% of project manager’s time
is spent in communication.
 Managing risk: through analysing the projects
and defining negative risks and their impact.

5. 1.1 Figurehead: by performing ceremonial
duties such as greeting visits, wedding parties,
and lunch invitations (Zartler, 2016). The project
manager within this role is expected to become a
source of inspiration (MindTools, 2016). In
order to build confidence within this area, the
project manager has to improve his image,
reputation, and empathy (MindTools, 2016).
Both Zartler and MindTools agreed about the
importance of cultivating humility and empathy.
1. Interpersonal role

6. 1.2. Leader: it is about building strong relations with
subordinates, motivation, and coaching. Responsibilities
are at the coronary heart of the manager-subordinate
courting and consist of motivating subordinates,
structuring and overseeing their development, inspiring
their improvement and balancing effectiveness
(Altamony, 2017). Also, leader roles include providing
leadership to the project manager’s team, department, and
the entire organization (MindTools, 2016). To achieve this
role, it is important to improve the leadership skills,
where one of the most important skills is the emotional
intelligence (Zartler, 2016). Leadership is about respect,
and listening (Gervais, 2020).

7. 1.3. Liaison: which is to have the required contact
and communication with external parties. It is
about making contacts outside the vertical chain
of command (Zartler, 2016), and about
networking effectively on behalf of the project
manager’s organization (MindTools, 2016).
Liaison is about being giving rather than taking
(Gervais, 2020). Gervais and Zartler both agreed
that not everyone is comfortable with networking,
but networking should be a decent liaison, where
the project manager should attend small
networking events.

8. 2. Informational roles
2.1 Monitor: it is about scanning the environment for
new information to collect (Zartler, 2016), monitoring
the team in terms of productivity and well-being
(MindTools, 2016), understanding the details, keeping
an eye on “the big picture”, and keeping-up with
industry news (Gervais, 2020). Altamony (2017)
added that monitoring is about seeking internal and
stakeholders’ problems which could affect the
company. Monitoring is about gathering information,
data analysing, and productivity measurement.

9. 2.2. Disseminator: which is about communicating
potential useful information with other colleagues and
team (MindTools, 2016), or passing on privileged
information directly to subordinates (Zartler, 2016). It
is important to understand what to share, how and with
whom (Gervais, 2020). To be effective in this role, it is
advised to improve writing skills, seek help of other
colleagues, or using proofreading. This role shows a
professional attitude by the project manager in having
high communication skills through sharing information
properly with the related parties, written properly with
no mistakes, and shared in a timely manner.

10. 2.3. Spokesperson: it is about public speaking. The
project manager is responsible for transmitting
information about his organization and its goals to the
people outside his organization (MindTools, 2016). The
project manager should have presentation skills, and
ability to overcome his fear of public speaking (Gervais,
2020). Also, spokesperson transmits facts about the
company to stakeholders (Altamony, 2017). The project
manager is the representative of his company to others,
including the client, consultant, suppliers,
subcontractors, and stakeholders. This role is the major
key in transmitting the actual project’s progress and
status to others in proper, clear and trustful way.

11. 3. Decisional role
3.1. Entrepreneur: it is how to improve the unit by
initiating projects (Zartler, 2016), how to create and
control change within the organization, and how to
solve problems, generate new ideas, and implement
them (MindTools, 2016). This role is a creative
behaviour of the project manager through applying
proper solutions to current and expected problems
and seeking new ideas about people and project
management.

12. 3.2Disturbance handler: it is to help mediate
disputes within the organization (MindTools, 2016),
to handle team conflicts to improve conflict
resolution skills (Gervais, 2020), and to take
corrective motion while facing critical and
surprising problems (Altamony, 2017). In order to
apply this role, the project manager should coach
team members, especially those who have high
emotions (Gervais, 2020). To improve this skill, the
project manager should have proper skills in
regards of conflict management either through
training or direct coaching.

13. 3.3. Resource allocator: it is about who gets
what (Zartler, 2016), allocating funding and
assigning staff (MindTools, 2016). To apply this
role, prioritization is the key (Zartler, 2016). The
project manager has to develop his skills in
prioritization and budgeting to apply this role
(Gervais, 2020). The project manager should
have the required skills to allocate his different
resources including staff, equipment, machinery,
and funding as per the project requirements, and
matching the organization strategy within other
projects.

14. 3.4. Negotiator: it is within the team, department,
and organization (MindTools, 2016). The project
manager has to focus on win-win situations
(Gervais, 2020). The project manager has to
improve his negotiation skills, which comes by
experience and real situations which require
flexibility, trust, knowledge, and strong influence
towards others.

15. CONCLUSION
 The role of manager is a key factor for the success or
failure of a project or organization; therefore, a lot of
discussions and theories have been done in this field
to specify what a manager role can be.
 The responsibilities and duties of a project manager
have been discussed, and then the Mintzberg’s
theory of management was detailed to see the
difference in concept between Mintzberg and others
in defining the managerial roles, where Mintzberg
was more effective in specifying the managerial
roles.

16.  Being a manager gives more attention to the required skills
and experience, therefore a manager is expected to have
sufficient skills and desire to do the required research in
order to be updated and competitive.
 People learn best, and more willingly apply what they have
learned, when they do it themselves (O’Brien, 2001), and
they learn most effectively when working on real-time
problems occurring in their own work setting (Raelin,
1997).
 Being a learner without professional experience is not
sufficient to enrich the required skills to overcome
organizations’ repetitive issues. Therefore, for action
researchers, theory informs practice, practice refines
theory, in a continuous transformation (O’Brien, 2001).