Module 1: Management Work Flashcards
Mintzberg’s 3 Roles of a Manager
- Interpersonal Role
- Informational Role
- Decision-making Role
Interpersonal Role
- Figurehead
- Leader
- Liaison
Informational Role
- Monitor
- Disseminator
- Spokesperson
Decision-making Role
- Entrepreneur
- Disturbance handler
- Resource Allocater
- Negotiator
Mintzberg’s Facts of the Managerial Role (1990)
- Managerial Work is brief, various, and discontinuous (fragmented)
- Managers perform regular duties; participate in rituals and ceremonial duties; processes soft information.
- Managers prefer verbal media over documentation (e.g. phone calls, conversations, meetings, networking; external information gathering; timely actions).
- Managers programs are locked inside their brains (judgement & intuition).
Mintzberg’s Rounding Out the Manager’s Job
- Person: values, experiences, skills & competencies, mental models.
- Frame (conceiving): purpose (of the unit), perspective (vision & culture), positions (strategy).
- Agenda (conceiving): Issues (may be integrated with the frame), schedule (setting & prioritising managerial time).
Hales & Mintzberg (1986)
The role is mounded by the individual that steps into it.
Mintzberg’s Rounding Out the Managerial Job (Activities)
- Managing through information
- Managing through action
- Managing through people
Managing through information
- Communicating
- Controlling
Managing through action
Context: inside/ outside/ within the org.
- doing inside: completing projects that need to be finished.
- doing outside: doing deals and negotiating.
Managing through people
- Linking
- Leading
Mintzberg’s Rounding out the Manager’s Role ( Managerial Styles/ Preferences)
- Different roles may be emphasised in different contexts (e.g. cafe vs hospital)
- Managers may favour certain roles and a manager’s individual style will have an impact on managerial work ( the roles one takes, how they perform the role, and the relationship between the roles).
Role 1: Conceptual Style (opaque)
focuses on the development of the frame.
Role 2: Administrative Style (opaque)
focused primarily with controlling (information)
Role 3: Interpersonal style (visible)
favours leading on the inside/ linking to the outside
Role 4: Action style (visible)
concerned with tangible doing
Different styles to linking
- the sieve
- the lead
- the sponge
Different styles to conceiving the frame
- passive
- driven
- opportunistic
- determined
Different styles to leading
- individual
- unit
- group
Relationship between roles: deductive approach
the conceived frame is processed from the core out - using scheduling & information to drive people to action (cerebral style- highly deliberate).
Relationship between roles: inductive approach
conceived frame is processed from outer surface to inner core- acting in order to think (an insightful style “ do first, think later”).
Tengblad’s (2017) Ten Theses of Managerial Work
- Management work exists in complex & often ambiguous environments
- Managerial work involves much uncertainty & unforeseen events.
- Managerial work is conducted in a processual & adaptive manner (managing fuzzy work situations rather than strategic thinking).
- Managerial work is emotionally intense.
Fundamental changes to management discourse since Mintzberg (1973, 1990)
- Management as Leadership (Tengblad, 2006, p.1440)
> Leaders maintain & mold the values of an organisation, and communicates a ‘vision’. - Growth of the Post-Bureaucratic Form (Tengblad, 2006, p. 1440)
> Post-bureaucratic organisations are flexible & non-hierarchical organisations built on shared values, dialogue, & trust, rather than rule following.
The Shift: Leading & Doing (Gratton, 2016)
Technology is changing the role of managers:
- Coordinator work will face pressure from automation
- Shift to adult-to-adult relationships with employees undertaking self-assessment tools.
- Axis of power will shift from vertical to horizontal (module 3)
- Rise of platform business
