Mintzberg’s 10 Managerial Roles

Apr 15th, 2008 by MAW editor

Management expert Professor Henry Mintzberg has argued that a manager’s work can be boiled down to ten common roles. According to Mintzberg, these roles, or expectations for a manager’s behavior, fall into three categories: informational (managing by information), interpersonal (managing through people), and decisional (managing through action).

This chart summarizes a manager’s ten roles:

Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
Category	Role	Activity	Examples
Informational	Monitor	Seek and acquire work-related information	Scan/read trade press, periodicals, reports; attend seminars and training; maintain personal contacts
	Disseminator	Communicate/ disseminate information to others within the organization	Send memos and reports; inform staffers and subordinates of decisions
	Spokesperson	Communicate/transmit information to outsiders	Pass on memos, reports and informational materials; participate in conferences/meetings and report progress

Interpersonal	Figurehead	Perform social and legal duties, act as symbolic leader	Greet visitors, sign legal documents, attend ribbon cutting ceremonies, host receptions, etc.
	Leader	Direct and motivate subordinates, select and train employees	Includes almost all interactions with subordinates
	Liaison	Establish and maintain contacts within and outside the organization	Business correspondence, participation in meetings with representatives of other divisions or organizations.

Decisional	Entrepreneur	Identify new ideas and initiate improvement projects	Implement innovations; Plan for the future
	Disturbance Handler	Deals with disputes or problems and takes corrective action	Settle conflicts between subordinates; Choose strategic alternatives; Overcome crisis situations
	Resource Allocator	Decide where to apply resources	Draft and approve of plans, schedules, budgets; Set priorities
	Negotiator	Defends business interests	Participates in and directs negotiations within team, department, and organization

In the real world, these roles overlap and a manager must learn to balance them in order to manage effectively. While a manager’s work can be analyzed by these individual roles, in practice they are intermixed and interdependent. According to Mintzberg: “The manager who only communicates or only conceives never gets anything done, while the manager who only ‘does’ ends up doing it all alone.”

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