Management Functions and

Managerial Roles
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2
Types of Managers .............................................................................................................................................. 2
Functional or General Manager ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Administrators ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners ............................................................................................................................... 3
Team leaders ............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
Qualities of Manager........................................................................................................................................... 4
Managerial Skills ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Technical Skills ........................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Human Skills .............................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Conceptual Skills ........................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Managerial Roles ................................................................................................................................................ 7

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Introduction
A manager is an individual in a firm who is responsible for the work performance of group members.

In other words, Managers get things done through other people. They make decisions, allocate resources,
and direct the activities of others to attain goals. Managers do their work in an organization which is a
consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a relatively
continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. By this definition, manufacturing and service
firms are organizations, and so are schools, hospitals, churches, military units, retail stores, police
departments, and local state, and central government agencies. The people who oversee the activities of
others and who are responsible for attaining goals in these organizations are managers.

Types of Managers

Functional or General Manager

Administrators

Entrepreneur or Small Business Owners

Team Leaders

Functional or General Manager

• Functional managers supervise the work of employees in specialized activities such as accounting,
engineering, information systems, food preparation, marketing and sales.
• He is a manager of specialists.

• General managers are those who supervise employees in various different tasks, not necessarily related
to each other.
• Example: the job description of a ‘Plant General Manager’ offers an insight into the work done by general
managers. The plant general manager look into works of various departments and their employees, for
instance, production department, accounting department, safety control, etc.
• Branch managers and companies’ presidents are General Managers.

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Administrators

• An administrator is a manager who works in the public (government) or non-profit organization, including
education institutions.

Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

• An entrepreneur is an individual who founds and operates an innovative business. After an entrepreneur
develops the business to a certain level, he or she can’t handle it alone anywhere and assumes the role of
a general manager who manages people in his or her firm.
• Small business owners are also similar to entrepreneurs as they manage several employees as it grows
larger.
• Entrepreneurs are small busines owners but the reverse may not be true. An entrepreneur must have an
innovative idea to fit in the definition of an entrepreneur.

• Passion for their work is the common principle between the two
• Recent research has indicated three roles or activities that arouse passion in entrepreneurial work:
Opportunity recognition, the inventor role
Venture creation, the founder role
Venture growth, the developer role
• Examples of recent successful entrepreneurial stories of young Indians abound. Flipkart becoming a large
company from humble start as an start-up venture by entrepreneurs.

Team leaders

• Referred to as Project Managers, Program Managers, Task Force Leaders, etc., the team leaders are driving
forces behind various teams in an organization.
• Team leaders manage small groups of people while acting as facilitators and catalyzers.

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Qualities of Manager
In order to succeed in managing, a manager should possess the following qualities:

1. Education: A manager must be well-educated. In addition to general education, he must have specific
education in business management. Knowledge of the business environment is also important to deal
with the problems which the organisation may have to face in the future

2. Training: Management skills are not inborn qualities. They are to be acquired through training.
Therefore, it is necessary for a good manager to have some sort of training in the branch of management
where he is working or going to work.

3. Intelligence: A manager should have a somewhat higher level of intelligence than the average human
being. He should have the ability to think scientifically and analyse problems accurately.

4. Leadership: Every manager is supposed to provide guidance and leadership to a number of subordinates
for the achievement of organisational objectives. The manager cannot motivate the subordinates
effectively if he has hot leadership qualities.

5. Foresight: A good manager should have an open mind. He should be receptive to new ideas. He should
be able to foresee the problems which might be faced by the business. Only through his foresightedness,
he can make good decisions.

6. Maturity: A good manager should have broad interests. He should be emotionally mature and have a
balanced temperament. He should have high frustration tolerance also.

7. Technical Knowledge: A manager should have sufficient knowledge of the techniques of production
being used in the enterprise. Adequate technical knowledge so that he may not be fooled by his
subordinates.

8. Human relations attitude: A good manager should try to develop social understanding. He should treat
his subordinates as human beings. He should try to maintain good relations with them. He should
understand their problems and offer a helping hand to them.

9. Self-confidence: A manager should have self-confidence. He should take decisions after scientific analysis
and implement them with full dedication. He should not shirk taking initiative.

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Managerial Skills
The job of a manager demands a mixture of many types of skills, whether he belongs to a business
organisation, an educational institution, a hospital or a club. Skill refers to the practical ability or expertise
in action.

A manager is successful when he is able to make a smooth functioning team of people working under him.
He is to reconcile, coordinate and appraise the various viewpoints and talents of people working under him
towards the organisational goals. He has also to plan and organise the operations of the enterprise so that
the subordinates are able to use the material resources in the best possible manner. For this, he must use
the various skills in the appropriate degree.

• From the very beginning of the development of management thought, both

management practitioners and researchers have emphasized different skills for
managers. Therefore, the list of managerial skills is very long. Robert Katz has grouped
various managerial skills into three broad categories:

Technical Skills

Human Skills

Conceptual Skills

Þ Technical skills deal with job or work that is to be done

Þ Human skills deal with persons
Þ Conceptual skills with ideas

The three types of skills are interrelated and they are required by all managers. But the proportion or relative
significance of these skills varies with the level of management.

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Technical Skills
Technical skills refer to specialised knowledge and proficiency in handling methods, processes and
techniques of specific jobs. These skills are most important in lower-level management and much less
important at the upper level.
A production supervisor in a manufacturing plant, for example, must know the processes used and be able
to physically perform the tasks he supervises. A word processing supervisor must have specialised knowledge
of computer software used in the process. In most cases, technical skills are important skills are important
at this level because supervisory managers must train their subordinates in the proper use of work-related
tools, machines, and equipment.

Human Skills
Human skills also referred to as human relations skills, are one’s ability to work effectively with others on a
person-to-person basis and to build up cooperative group relations to accomplish organizational objectives.
Human skills are the abilities needed to resolve conflicts, motivate, lead and communicate effectively with
others. Since management is a process of getting things done with and through people, no manager can be
effective without suitable human skills irrespective of his being technically and conceptually competent.
Human skills are required for effective performance.

Conceptual Skills
Conceptual skill is the ability to see the organisation as a whole, to recognise inter-relationships among
different functions of the business and external forces and to guide effectively the organisational efforts.
Conceptual skills are used for abstract thinking, and for the concept development involved in planning and
strategy formulation.
Conceptual skills involve the ability to understand how the parts of an organisation depend on each other.
A manager needs conceptual skills to recognize the interrelationships of various situational factors and,
therefore, make decisions that will be in the best interests of the organisation.

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- There are various levels of management and the management at various levels performs all the functions
of management thought in varying degrees. Thus, the level of skills required at different managerial
levels will be different whereas technical skills are very essential for lower-level management. Technical
skills can be learnt easily, but other skills cannot be learnt unless an individual has the potential and
capacity and an inner urge to learn them.

- Conceptual skills are important for top management which is responsible for formulating long-range
plans and policies for the whole business. Human skills are important at all levels of management. This
should be obvious as management is the process of getting things done through and with people. At
every level, managers interact and work with other human beings. But technical skills are most important
for the first line management which has to oversee the use of equipment, tools, processes and
procedures. The relative importance of technical skills decreases as one moves up to higher levels of
management.

Managerial Roles
A role consists of the behaviour patterns expected of a manager within an organisation or a unit. Henry
Mintzberg conducted a comprehensive study of the nature of managerial roles in 1973. A summary of
Mintzberg’s findings gives us a complete picture of what a manager actually does. Based on his study of the
activities of five practising chief executives, Mintzberg generalized his description of the nature of
managerial work in actual practice.
He identified ten basic roles performed by managers and classified them under three heads:
I. Interpersonal
II. Informational
III. Decisional

I. Interpersonal Roles
a) A manager is a symbol or a figurehead. This role is necessary because of the position occupied. It consists
of such duties as signing certain documents required by law and officially receiving visitors.
b) A manager serves as a leader that is, he trains, encourages, remunerates, and judges the subordinates.
c) A manager serves as a liaison between outside contacts such as the community, suppliers and others and
the organization.

Figurehead Leader Liaison

§ Performs symbolic duties § Motivates § Maintains relationships with
§ Bestows honours § inspires other organizations,
§ Makes speeches § sets an example governments, industry
§ Serves on commitment § legitimizes the powers of groups, etc.
subordinates

II. Informational Roles

a) As monitors, managers gather information in order to be well informed
b) Managers are disseminators of information flowing from both external and internal sources
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c) Managers are spoke-persons or representatives of the organisation. They speak for subordinates to
superiors and represent upper management to subordinates.

Monitor Disseminators Spoke-persons

§ Observers § Transmits information and § Speaks for the organization
§ Collects and review data on judgements about internal § Lobbies and defends
the meeting of standards and external environments § Engages in public relations
§ Notes compliance

III. Decisional Roles

a) Managers are entrepreneurs who are initiators, innovators, problem discovers, and designers of
improvement projects that direct and control change in the organisation.
b) As disturbance handlers, managers react to situations that are unexpected, such as mass absenteeism,
the resignation of subordinates, or loss of customers.
c) A third decisional role is that of resource allocator, i.e., who will get what?
d) Finally, managers are negotiators. The managers negotiate with customers, suppliers, etc.

Entrepreneur Disturbance Handler Resource Allocator Negotiator

§ Initiates changes § Handles conflicts and § Approves budgets § Works out

§ Authorizes action complaints § Schedules and agreements
§ Sets goals § Counters actions of programmes with
§ Formulates plans competitors § Sets priorities customers,
suppliers and
agencies

The above 10 roles form an integrated whole. In addition, managers in any organisation work with each
other to establish the organization’s long-range goals and to plan how to achieve them. They also work
together to provide one another with the accurate information needed to perform tasks. Thus, managers
act as channels of communication within the organization.

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