There are many management theories. However, Henry Mintzberg was one of the few researchers who succeeded to convey the manager’s daily roles in a variety of sectors and positions.

1. The Manager’s Roles as Defined by Henry
Mintzberg
2nd February, 2021
There are many management theories. However, Henry Mintzberg was one of the few researchers who
succeeded to convey the manager’s daily roles in a variety of sectors and positions. Mintzberg proposed
in his research and particularly in his two books: “The Nature of Managerial Work” (1973) and “Inside our
Strange World of Organizations” (1989), that a manager must play ten diverse roles switching between
them whenever it is needed. The ten roles as per Mintzberg (1973) are: “figurehead, leader, liaison,
monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and
negotiator”. These different roles were also divided into three main categories: “interpersonal,
informational, and decisional”. These 10 roles reflect the complexity of the managerial position, where any
given manager has many duties vis-à-vis his organization, his subordinates, his superiors, the
shareholders, and the stakeholders.

2. 1- A brief historical review about the development of management
concepts:
Historically, studies related to management have passed through three eras. The first era was before the
industrial revolution, between 1820 and 1840, where management activities were restricted to the owners
who had rigorous control over all the resources. However, this primitive management practice contained
some similarities with today’s management roles such as coordinating, planning, and controlling. The
second period started within the industrial revolution where the comprehensive theories and functions of
management such as planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling appeared
especially with Henri Fayol (1916). Afterwards, and once the industrial revolution era had ended, the
second industrial revolution started. This new epoch is also known as the technological revolution as it
was a stage of fast standardization and automation reaching the early 20th century. Out of many
researchers in this period, Professor Henry Mintzberg piloted a thorough experiential research about
managers’ regular activities through a large variety of organisations and positions. Mintzberg’s managerial
theory (1973) recommended managers to play a selection of ten roles divided into three main categories
based on situational needs as shown in the below image (1).

3. Image (1) source: ("Mintzberg Model: 10 Different Roles of a Successful Manager", 2020)
2- The different manager’s roles as per Mintzberg (1973):
Mintzberg’s managerial theory is founded on the idea that managers are involved in ten roles, divided into
three main clusters: interpersonal, informational, and decisional. Furthermore, Henry Mintzberg defines
the operating effort of managers in each role. The behaviours of those managers are crucial components
for their success. Of course, the ten roles are inspired by personal and situational considerations.

4. A) Interpersonal cluster includes:
1- Figurehead role, where a manager plays officially the role of a professional representing his
organization in social activities and events.
2- The second role is leadership. This role is related to people’s motivation and inspiration. As a leader, a
manager must coach, support, and guide his/her subordinates.
3- The last role requested from a manager in the interpersonal cluster is to be a liaison and to build
contacts with all stakeholders. Managers should oversee networking even beyond their organization
boundary.
B) Informational cluster includes also very critical roles. Based on these roles, the manager is supposed
to communicate, monitor, manage, and distribute the information at all levels. Therefore, the detailed roles
in this cluster are the following:
4- Monitor: managers should ask for information inside and outside the workplace. This will help them to
evaluate their department from internal and external viewpoints, discover related problems, and address
them in due time.
5- Disseminator: managers must delegate more when it is appropriate and convey important information
especially to their employees.
6- Spokesperson: as a manager one ought to transmit information outside the workplace taking the role of
a brand ambassador.
C) Decisional part encompasses the following roles:
7- Entrepreneur: behaving as an entrepreneur, managers should encourage change and creativity by
leading the implementation of new ideas.
8- Disturbance-handler: managers are responsible for avoiding any disruptions that can prevent achieving
the needed outcomes.

5. 9- Resource-allocator: managers need to assign and administer a variety of financial, technological, and
human resources activities.
10- Negotiator: surely a manager is responsible to carry out important negotiations within his department
and organization.
In a nutshell, a successful manager knows when to play every role separately or a combination of roles to
achieve success. The manager’s profession can be defined as playing several roles or planned sets of
actions linked to his position (Mintzberg, 1975). However, with time and after the learning organization
concept by Garvin et al (2008) was well recognized, a manager’s role evolved, and it needs a new set of
skills to empower employees to achieve their goals as well as the organizational goals. Managers need to
focus on goals, relations, and participation (Yukl, 2001). To do so, a manager needs to play more the
leadership role to inspire people and share with them the necessary information to work together as a
team, cooperate, and learn from each other.
Managers are always comfortable in their organizational setting. However, they can always benefit
themselves as well as their employees from adopting positive change, training, and development. The
roles of managers as defined by Mintzberg are considered essential guidelines for good managers,
though, adding new skills and competencies can always uplift a manager to a higher level. A level of
exploration and people understanding that helps in improving the overall performance of the
organization.If you are interested in learning more about leadership and management, check out our
Certified Leadership and Management courses.