How Managers Play An Organization And The Way It Is Correlated With Mintzberg 's Informational Role

After comparing Ch.2, 3, and 4 of Mintzberg’s novel, Simply Managing with Lussier’s textbook, Management Fundamentals, as well as the material covered in class, and my own personal experiences a few connection have been brought to mind regarding each chapter. In the paragraphs below, I will explain the connections I found related to each chapter.

According to our text, Henry Mintzberg created three managerial roles. These roles include interpersonal, information, and decisions roles. The interpersonal role requires a figurehead, leader, and a liaison. Informational roles require monitor, disseminator, and a spokesperson. Or in other words, informational roles involve "collecting, receiving, and disseminating information" (Pg 11). Decision roles need an entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiators. According to Mintzberg, decisional roles should involve thinking and doing.

Robbins (2001) wrote, "Mintzberg (1973) concluded that managers perform 10 different, highly interrelated roles, or sets of behaviors attributable to their jobs. These 10 roles are primarily concerned with interpersonal relationships, the transfer of information, and decision-making."

(Chapter 5) “Fundamental Management Skills”. Using each of the seven management skills, discuss in three or more sentences for each of the seven skills, how a manager might find a way to develop each of

Effective managers must display many different skills, fill multiple rolls, and fulfill multiple functions. These skills and abilities all work together to allow a manager to be a successful leader. Three skills great managers possess are technical skills, conceptual skills, and human skills (Kinicki & Williams, 2012). In my opinion, I have excellent technical skills, and I have very good human skills, but conceptual skills would be the skill which describes me most effectively.

The world of business has undergone radical and dramatic changes in the last decade changes that present extraordinary challenges for the contemporary manager. A manager is an organizational member who is responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities of the organization so that the goals can be achieved. According to a widely referenced study by Henry Mintzberg, managers serve three primary roles: interpersonal, informational, and decision-making. Management is process of administrating and coordinating resources effectively and efficiently in an effort to achieve the goals of the organization.

Basically speaking, the skills involved in managerial jobs include technical subject skills, general management an organisation skills, analytical subject skills, social and cultural skills, management of people, communication and leadership skills, and political skills (Milan Kubr,1989). We can also look at the McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor 1957) where the theory X suggest that people have an inherent dislike for work and will avoid it whenever possible. It also states that people prefer to be directed, do not want responsibility, and have little or no ambition and also seek security above all else. These, specially the theory X suggest how the attitude and assumption can influence managerial behaviour at the end of the day. Applying and controlling through these factors will give a positive grip on managerial behaviours in workplace.

The role of a manager is not as easy to define as the role of a leader. Researchers use descriptive methods such as interviews, diaries, and observations to discover the roles and responsibilities of a manager (Yukl, 2006, p. 23). The research results indicate managers work long hours, give and receive large amounts of information, and spend a substantial amount of time with people other than direct subordinates (Yukl, 2006, p. 23). Research also indicates the common practice of making important decisions with the support and authorization of different people at different management levels in different subunits of the organization (Yukl, 2006, p. 26). In contrast, Ebbers and Sullivan established a “corporate culture in which leaders and managers were not to be questioned or second-guessed” (Zekany, 2004, p. 103). As a result, no single leader or manager was held accountable for his or her decision to falsify documents, commit fraud, and conspiracy.

In the operation of any sizeable company, different levels of management are responsible for maintaining successful production and development of the business. Over the course of this discussion, I will define management, three different levels of management, and address skills required at each level for effective performance. I will critique my own strengths and areas requiring improvement in order to be a successful first-line manager.

Mintzberg doesn’t just look at the internal factors that influence managers but he also looks at the external influences as he uses the systems approach. Managers do not just spend their time planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling, they also do other important task such as dealing with customers, going to meetings and

Similarly, Mintzberg’s view also has some weaknesses. He defines management as what managers actually do and summarized 10 roles theory (Mintzberg, 1973). However, it is not certified what managers actually do is what managers should do. The aim of management studying is to find the best way to manage and organise organizations. In Mintzberg’s study (1973), his research object is five American chief-executive officers. These managers may have very successful career and good reputation, but it does not mean their behaviours of managing businesses are the best; maybe there are any other methods which can reach higher achievement. In addition, it is also not certified that what CEOs do is same as what managers do. There are three different levels of managers in organizations: top-level managers such as CEO, middle-level managers and first-level managers. They are all responsible for different areas, which means their roles should not be identical. Therefore, these make Mintzberg’s administrative theory not perfect.

The Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University, Henry Mintzberg revolutionized our understanding of what managers do in his landmark book “The Nature of Managerial Work” published in 1973.Known as the guru of bottom-up management, Mintzberg broke with convention by actually going inside companies to witness the business of business. Revealing how strategy is really formulated, he shows here that successful strategy is rarely, if ever, born in solitary contemplation; rather, the elements usually come together in the heat of battle. In addition, Mintzberg identifies the keys to outstanding management. He begins by describing the good manager who successfully combines interpersonal (1, 2, 3), informational (4, 5, 6), and decision-making roles (7, 8, 9, 10).Each role defined as an organized collection of behaviors belonging to an identifiable function or position.

A key limitation of Mintzberg’s model is its difficulty to apply to non-corporate organisations. However Ten Have (2003) claims that Mintzberg’s roles are intended to “serve as a looking glass” and not to be followed prescriptively. Mintzberg’s theory of the roles of management is much less rigid than that of Fayol’s or Katz and thus more appropriate in modern engineering organisations.

The purpose of this essay is to understand and discuss the importance of human skills that was first introduced by Robert Katz as well as the significance of customers and social media in a management organisation. Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are completed efficiently and effectively (Robbins & Coulter, 2014). In his book Principles of Management with Cyril J. O’Donnell, Harold Koontz said management is the art of getting things done through others and with formally organised groups. In a classic article in the Harvard Business Review (1974), Katz came up with a theory that all the necessary skills required in a modern organisation can be categorized into three divisions;

The paper will explore different theories of Management, include Henri Fayol and Henry Mintzberg. This section of this paper provides an overview of functions, roles and skills required of a manager. What is Management? Management can define as the process of reaching organisational goals by working with and through people and other organisational resources. (Management Innovation, 2008).