Module 1: Management Work

Question 1

Mintzberg’s 3 Roles of a Manager

Answer 1

• Interpersonal Role
• Informational Role
• Decision-making Role

Question 2

Interpersonal Role

Answer 2

• Figurehead
• Leader
• Liaison

Question 3

Informational Role

Answer 3

• Monitor
• Disseminator
• Spokesperson

Question 4

Decision-making Role

Answer 4

• Entrepreneur
• Disturbance handler
• Resource Allocater
• Negotiator

Question 5

Mintzberg’s Facts of the Managerial Role (1990)

Answer 5

• 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).

Question 6

Mintzberg’s Rounding Out the Manager’s Job

Answer 6

1. Person: values, experiences, skills & competencies, mental models.
2. Frame (conceiving): purpose (of the unit), perspective (vision & culture), positions (strategy).
3. Agenda (conceiving): Issues (may be integrated with the frame), schedule (setting & prioritising managerial time).

Question 7

Hales & Mintzberg (1986)

Answer 7

The role is mounded by the individual that steps into it.

Question 8

Mintzberg’s Rounding Out the Managerial Job (Activities)

Answer 8

• Managing through information
• Managing through action
• Managing through people

Question 9

Managing through information

Answer 9

• Communicating
• Controlling

Question 10

Managing through action

Answer 10

Context: inside/ outside/ within the org.
- doing inside: completing projects that need to be finished.
- doing outside: doing deals and negotiating.

Question 11

Managing through people

Answer 11

• Linking
• Leading

Question 12

Mintzberg’s Rounding out the Manager’s Role ( Managerial Styles/ Preferences)

Answer 12

• 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).

Question 13

Role 1: Conceptual Style (opaque)

Answer 13

focuses on the development of the frame.

Question 14

Role 2: Administrative Style (opaque)

Answer 14

focused primarily with controlling (information)

Question 15

Role 3: Interpersonal style (visible)

Answer 15

favours leading on the inside/ linking to the outside

Question 16

Role 4: Action style (visible)

Answer 16

concerned with tangible doing

Question 17

Different styles to linking

Answer 17

• the sieve
• the lead
• the sponge

Question 18

Different styles to conceiving the frame

Answer 18

• passive
• driven
• opportunistic
• determined

Question 19

Different styles to leading

Answer 19

• individual
• unit
• group

Question 20

Relationship between roles: deductive approach

Answer 20

the conceived frame is processed from the core out - using scheduling & information to drive people to action (cerebral style- highly deliberate).

Question 21

Relationship between roles: inductive approach

Answer 21

conceived frame is processed from outer surface to inner core- acting in order to think (an insightful style “ do first, think later”).

Question 22

Tengblad’s (2017) Ten Theses of Managerial Work

Answer 22

• 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.

Question 23

Fundamental changes to management discourse since Mintzberg (1973, 1990)

Answer 23

• 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.

Question 24

The Shift: Leading & Doing (Gratton, 2016)

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Platform Businesses

Answer 25

• A Platform Business is a business model that creates value by facilitating exchanges between two or more independent groups, usually consumers & producers.

Question 26

How do platform businesses work?

Answer 26

• Platform businesses create communities & markets with network effects that allow users to interact & transact.

“In the 21st Century, the supply chain is not longer the central aggregator of business value. What a company owns matters less than what it can connect to.” (Applico)

Question 27

Examples of Platform Businesses

Answer 27

• Google
• Facebook
• Apple
• Amazon
• eBay
• Uber
• Airbnb
• YouTube
• Alibaba
• WeChat
  …and many more.

Question 28

What do you need to remember about management?

Answer 28

• “A Manager is hired for what he knows other firms do, what he can find to do, and what he can be told to do” (Hales, 1986).
• Management is a contingent process, so hard to generalise what works for managers in every situation (Hales, 1986)
• Having a solid understanding of your strengths & preferences can help you work through ambiguous situations (Module 6; self-awareness).