Managerial Roles

Interpersonal Roles!
expected behaviours that have to do with establishing and maintaining interpersonal
relations "

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Figurehead role !
managers serve as symbols of their organization rather than active decision makers"
ex. making a speech to a trade group, entertaining clients, signing legal documents"

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Leadership role"
managers select, mentor, reward and discipline employees"

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Liaison role"
managers maintain horizontal contacts inside and outside the organization"

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Informational Roles!
concern is with the various ways managers receive and transmit information"

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Monitor Role!
managers scan the internal and external environments of the firm to follow current
performance and to keep themselves informed of new ideas and trends"

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Disseminator Role!
managers send information on both facts and preferences to others. ex. email
summary of what they learned at a conference"

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Spokesperson role"
concerns mainly sending messages into the organizations external environment"
ex. interview to press or report to stockholders"

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Decisional Roles!
roles that deal with decision making"

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Entrepreneur role!
managers turn problems and opportunities into plans for improved changes"
ex. suggesting a new product or service"

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Disturbance handler role!

managers deal with problems stemming from employee conflicts and address threats
to resources and turf"

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Resource allocation Role!

managers decide how to deploy time, money, personnel, and other critical resources"

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Negotiator role!
managers conduct major negotiations with other organizations or individuals"

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Discussion Questions

INTERPERSONAL ROLES!

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If you were a manager how would you establish and maintain relations with your staff?"
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How have your managers done this? What is your assessment of their interpersonal
skills?"

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How were people trained/mentored, disciplined or rewarded at jobs you have had?"
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Have you ever filled the Figurehead, Leadership or Liaison role at work/school? What
did you do in these roles?"

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Have you witnessed others perform these roles? What did they do?"
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INFORMATIONAL ROLES!
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How do you keep yourself informed of what is going on in the field of work you want to
enter? How might you stay up to date with trends?"

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Do you share information you are learning? How? What is something new you
learned recently?"

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How was information disseminated in a job you have had? Was this an effective
process?"

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Have you ever acted as a spokesperson for an organization? Would you want to?
What skills does this position require?"

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DECISIONAL ROLES!
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Have you seen changes be made at a place you worked? Were the changes positive
or negative? Why were they made? Who had input on these changes?"

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How are resources (time, people, tools, money, etc.) allocated at jobs you have had?
Who has input on these decisions? "

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How have your managers dealt with conflict? What were the results?"
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Have you ever formally or informally negotiated with your manager?"
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Intuition

Intuition:!
the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious
reasoning"
develops from a long history of education and experience"

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Experienced managers use intuition in several ways:!
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to sense that a problem exists"

to perform well-learned mental tasks rapidly (e.g., sizing up a written contract)"
to synthesize isolated pieces of information and data"
to double-check more formal or mechanical analysis (e.g., Do these projections look
correct?)"

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Discussion:!
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In your past jobs, were there things (tasks, processes, routines, etc.) that when you
first did them you had to think a lot about how to do them? Did these become more
automatic over time? Have things you are learning in school started to become more
automatic?"

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Have you ever sensed that a problem existed at work, school or elsewhere? How do
you think your past experiences contributed to this feeling that something was wrong?"

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Do you work with data at school or at work? Does your understanding of this data
come from a logical analysis of it or are you in some way able to get a feeling of what
the data means?"

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When you check over your work at school or in a job do you get a feeling when
something is correct or needs improvement or do you use a more formal process?"

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Are there other ways you think you have used your intuition?"
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Contemporary Management Concerns

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): !

An organization taking responsibility for the impact of its decisions and actions on its
stakeholders"
Focus is not just on increasing profits but on how the organizations activities affect its
employees and the community it operates in"

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Involves a variety of issues:"

community involvement"
environmental protection"
safe products"
ethical marketing"
employee diversity "
local and global labour practices"

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Talent Management!
An organizations processes for attracting, developing, retaining, and utilizing people
with the required skills to meet current and future business needs."

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Two important management challenges:"

recruitment of high-quality people across multiple territories"
improving the appeal of the company culture and work environment" "

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Discussion:!
Have you worked at a place that engaged in activities that went beyond their core
mission (e.g., provide a service or product) that benefitted the community in some
way?"

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Do you know of any CSR examples? Can you find any online?"
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If you were in charge of an organizations CSR department what initiative would you
want to undertake?"

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What incentives would attract you to work for one employer over another beyond the
job duties? "

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Discuss the culture of workplaces you have been an employee. How did people get
along with one another? How did people communicate with one another? How did
people learn to belong and participate in the culture? What beliefs and values were
held about what is good/bad, right/wrong, true/false in the workplace and who held
these beliefs?