Minztberg 10 Roles

INTERPERSONAL ROLES
Interpersonal roles are roles that involve interacting with other people inside and outside the
organization. Management jobs are people-intensive: Research suggests that managers
spend somewhere between 66 and 80 percent of their time in the company of others. 20
Seldom do managers work alone for long periods without outside communication. As Linda
Hill noted, managers get things done through their network of interpersonal relationships.
Mintzberg identified three types of interpersonal roles: a figurehead role, a leader role, and
a liaison role.

Managers at all levels are figureheads . They greet visitors, represent the company at
community events, serve as spokespeople, and function as emissaries for the organization.
For example, when Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A opens a new restaurant, it gives a year’s worth
of free meal coupons to the first 100 customers. This incentive draws big crowds, who camp
outside the restaurant before opening day in the hope of being among the first 100
customers.
The chain’s president, Dan Cathy, joins them, camping outside the night before the
opening, chatting with them, and then signaling the grand opening by playing his trumpet.
By doing this, Cathy is acting as a figurehead for Chick-fil-A. At lower levels in a company,
functional and frontline managers perform a variety of figurehead roles. They welcome new
staff, help their teams celebrate performance milestones, give performance awards to
employees, accompany senior executives or outside visitors on tours through the work
area, and so on.

Earlier we noted that leadership is one function of management, and it is perhaps the most
pivotal. However, leadership is more than a function that managers must fulfill.Managers
also take on a leadership role to get things done within organizations. Managers behave as
leaders to influence, motivate, and direct others within organizations and to strategize, plan,
organize, control, and develop. A central task of leaders is to give their organizations a
sense of direction and purpose.
They do this by identifyand articulating strategic visions for the organizations (by
strategizing) and then by motivating others to work toward this vision. This is exactly what
Rose Marie Bravo did at Burberry: She gave the organization a strategic vision,
repositioning it as a hip, high-end brand, and she engaged Burberry’s employees in that
vision.

In their liaison role managers connect with people outside their immediate units. These may
be the managers of other units within the organization or people outside the organization,
such as suppliers, buyers, and strategic partners. An important purpose of such liaisons is
to build a network of relationships. Managers can use their networks to help coordinate the
work of their units with others, to gain access to valuable information, and more generally to
get things done and further their own agendas within the organization.
As Linda Hill observed in her research, building a network is one of the most important
tasks that new managers face.
INFORMATIONAL ROLES
Informational roles are concerned with collecting, processing, and disseminating
information. Managers collect information from various sources both inside and outside the
organization, process that information, and distribute it to others who need it. Mintzberg
found that managers 40 percent of their time in these tasks. Mintzberg divided the
information roles of management into three types: monitor, disseminator, and
spokesperson.

As monitors managers scan the environment both inside and outside the organization. At
Microsoft, for example, CEO Steve Ballmer is constantly reviewing competitive,
technological, and regulatory trends in the markets in which Microsoft competes. He also
monitors the performance of the different units within Microsoft, assessing, for example,
how well the Windows, Office, and Xbox businesses are performing against targets.
Managers rely on both formal and informal channels to collect the information required for
effective monitoring. Formal channels include the organization’s own internal accounting
information systems and data provided by important external agencies.
Managers at Microsoft, for example, can access through the company’s intranet a vast
electronic library of research reports produced by external consulting companies and stock
analysts that profile competitive trends and competitors in all the relevant markets. Informal
channels include the manager’s own personal network, which can be a great source of
qualitative information and useful gossip.

By monitoring the external competitive and internal organizational environment for

information, managers try to gain knowledge about how well the organization is performing
and whether any changes in strategy or operational processes are required. At Seattle-
based retailer Nordstrom, for example, the first thing President Blake Nordstrom does when
he gets to his desk every day is review sales figures from all company stores for the
previous day.

He compares these figures against targets; looks for trends; and if there is variance
considers whether the company should take corrective action. In this respect the monitoring
role of management is part of the controlling function. In addition, the information collected
from monitoring can help managers think more clearly about the company’s strategy.

One thing managers do with this information is disseminate it to direct reports and others
inside the organization. In their dissemination role managers regularly inform staff about the
company’s direction and sometimes about specific technical issues. At the supervisory
level, the disseminator role often takes the form of one-to-one informal conversations with
specific employees about particular matters.
In their spokesperson role, managers deliver specific information to individuals and groups
located outside their department or organization. Sales managers communicate with
business partners regarding new sales strategies. Division heads give presentations to their
colleagues in other divisions about strategies and resource requirements.
CEOs meet with investors, government officials, community leaders, and others to convey
information about company developments of interest to those stakeholders. These are more
than figurehead activities: They communicate valuable information to important
constituencies, and in doing so they can help to shape their perception of the organization
and the way they interact with it.

For example, if by sharing information the CEO of a company can successfully persuade
investment analysts that his company is pursuing a good strategy, they may write a
favorable investment report. In turn, this might lead to an increase in the company’s stock
price, making it easier for the company to raise additional capital from investors in the future
by issuing new stock.

DECISIONAL ROLES
Management guru Peter Drucker once wrote that whatever managers do, they do through
making decisions. The information collected through monitoring is directed toward
discovering problems or opportunities, weighing options, making decisions, and ensuring
that those decisions are put into action. Whereas interpersonal roles deal with people and
informational roles deal with knowledge, decisional roles deal with action.

They translate the people and information into processes with the purpose of moving the
organization toward its strategic goals. Mintzberg identified four decision roles:
entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

To survive in competitive markets, firms must be entrepreneurial. They must pioneer new
products and processes and quickly adopt those pioneered by others. In their role
as entrepreneurs, managers must make sure that their organizations innovate and change
when necessary, developing or adopting new ideas and technologies and improving their
own products and processes. They must make decisions that are consistent with such
entrepreneurial behavior. If they do not, their organizations will be quickly outflanked by
more nimble competitors. Rose Marie Bravo is a good example of what happens when a
manager successfully adopts the entrepreneur role. She made decisions that encouraged
creativity within Burberry, leading directly to the development of new product offerings that
appealed to a wider customer base.
Managing is full of paradoxes, and this is partly apparent when we contrast the proactive
entrepreneurial role with the reactive disturbance handler role. Disturbance handling
includes addressing unanticipated problems as they arise and resolving them expeditiously.
In managerial work unanticipated problems arise often. Sales may grow more slowly than
anticipated; excess inventory may accumulate; production processes may break down;
valuable employees might leave for jobs elsewhere; and so on. Managers must decide what
to do about these unanticipated problems—often quickly.
An important class of management decisions involves resource allocation. Organizations
never have enough money, time, facilities, or people to satisfy all their needs. Resources
are scarce and can be used in many different ways. A crucial decision responsibility of
managers is to decide how best to allocate the scarce resources under their control
between competing claims in order to meet the organization’s goals.
As a resource allocator, a manager in charge of product development, for example, may
have to assign people, money, and equipment to three different product development
teams. A marketing manager may apportion money between media advertising and point-
of-sale promotions. A production manager may havelimited funds for new equipment. In
general, resource allocation decisions should be guided by the strategy of the organization.

Negotiating is continual for managers. They negotiate with suppliers for better delivery,
lower prices, and higher-quality inputs. They negotiate with customers over the pricing,
delivery, and design of products and services. They negotiate with peers in their own
organization over shared resources and cooperative efforts. They negotiate with their
superiors for access to scarce resources, including capital, personnel, and facilities.
They even negotiate with subordinates in their own work unit, trying to allocate employees
between tasks to meet the goals of both the organization and individual employees.
Managers who are successful when making negotiation decisions can lower input costs,
strike better deals with customers, gain access to more high-quality resources within the
organization, and better organize their own subordinates. Skilled negotiators are more likely
to successfully implement strategy and raise the performance of their organizations.
Management Functions at work in Coca Cola.

Planning
The vision of the Coca-Cola Corporation is to become the biggest and the best anchor bottler in the world
and its mission is to refresh everyone which guides its management team in the planning process.

The top management of the company engages in formulating five year longer term plans as well
as shorter term planning for the next year or so. The idea behind this type of planning is to have a
strategic vision extending over a longer period as well as a flexible and adaptive strategy to change
according to the imperatives of its external environment.

Apart from this strategic planning, the top management at Coca-Cola also engages in tactical planning in
consultation with the middle management who in turn acts on the feedback from the salespersons on the
ground.

The planning at Coca-Cola entails setting targets for all employees at all levels that are periodically
reviewed for either success or failure in meeting the targets and in case of the latter, feedback is sought
from the managers and the employees who have failed to meet the targets about the reasons for the
same. This is then incorporated into the decision making loop so that the next year’s plan can address
and redress the shortcomings as well as set new targets taking into account these aspects.

An example of how planning at Coca-Cola works can be gauged from this year’s target for the managers
to increase sales by 20% over last year’s target and increase the total customer based by 10%.

This is the micro level planning which is complemented by the macro level planning which can be seen
from the objectives of increasing market share ranging from 5 to 30% for the middle management in the
various markets in which it operates. Further, there are operational goals which are set for the
salespersons on the ground and which are to do with the point of sale and the other front end supply
chain interfacing roles to actualize coordination and cooperation among the partners, bottlers, vendors,
and distributors.

Organizing
Coca-Cola follows the decentralization within centralization model of organizing itself. This means that
while the global headquarters retains its overall decision making, the corporation is divided into regions
and geographical territories in which it operates. These regional divisions are then organized into the
functional departments which in its case comprise the Production, Industrial Relations, Sales and
Marketing, and Human Resources departments.

The key to understanding the organizing function at Coca-Cola is to recognize that employees
with similar skills and common work functions are grouped together. This helps the company avoid
redundancies in problem solving processes as well as bestowing a certain functional autonomy at all
levels.

Further, the organizing function at Coca-Cola follows the maxim of the span of control not exceeding five
direct reports which means that no employee has more than five others reporting to him or her. Having
said that, it must be noted that there is cross functional reporting as well which is in the case of the
managers and the functional heads reporting to the other divisional heads in addition to the country
heads.
Moreover, the managers at all levels are afforded a high degree of autonomy which empowers them to
decide according to the specific local needs.

Finally, the organizational structure is such that redundant layers in the hierarchy are eliminated and the
layers of direct and dotted line reporting ensure that information flows through the organization without
the clogging of the organizational arteries due to bureaucratic mindsets as well as blockages due to
communication gaps.

The overall responsibility for each country or region is with the country or regional head and the functional
heads under him or her also report to the global functional heads. Similarly, the responsibilities are clearly
defined which means that accountability is taken care of as is the aspect of transparency.

Leading
Though Coca-Cola is organized around geographical regions and then the various departments for each
region, the company emphasizes the importance of transformative leadership at both the Global and the
Local levels.

This means that local managers and the heads of departments in addition to the Country Heads in the
various markets that the company operates in are free to decide on the appropriate strategies for their
territories as long as they conform to the global norms and global culture that permeates the organization.
This decentralization within centralization is the hallmark of the Glocal approach which has been stated in
the thesis.

Apart from this, the leadership at Coca-Cola believes in a democratic and laissez faire approach to
leading which is necessary considering the business it is in which is heavily dependent on both the
macro level vision and mission that need to be translated and transformed into micro level execution.

Typically, the General Manager is at the top of the regional hierarchy who in turn reports to the country
head. These general managers have other managerial subordinates such as the ones referenced for this
article who have mentioned how the organization practices behavioral leadership that is based on acting
on the specifics of the situation at the micro level.

The managerial styles of these managers also follow the incentive based system for actualizing peak
performance from the salespersons. In this system, monetary and non monetary incentives are provided
to the salespersons to motivate them and make them meet or even exceed their sales targets.

The monetary incentives include pay hikes, bonuses, and commissions based on the sales achieved
whereas the non-monetary incentives include vouchers for vacations, travel, and discounted holiday
packages for the employee and his or her immediate family.

Controlling
The controlling function in Coca-Cola is done through periodic reviews of managerial and
salespersons performance. Towards this end, an appraisal system based on objective evaluation of
whether the employee being appraised has met his or her targets forms the backbone of the controlling
function in the company.

Though managerial performance goes beyond evaluation of targets and their compliance as the
managers typically perform other roles such as people management and strategic planning, the
salespersons are appraised based on the Sales Person’s reporting system and the Sales Person’s
evaluation system.
The former tracks the activities of the salesperson on a daily basis whereas the latter is done according to
the appraisal cycle and the results of which are used to determine promotions, bonuses, and other
incentives. The evaluation period is usually a year for sales managers whereas it is a quarterly cycle for
the market development roles, and a monthly cycle for the salespersons.

Apart from these performance measures, the employees are also evaluated according to their
contribution to the actualization of the overall goals of the organization as well as on their soft skills
including communication, people management, coordination, and service quality.

Further, the controlling function also ensures that a performance development plan is prepared which
takes into account the salespersons meeting the targets such as growth in sales, market development,
and completion of customer and partner calls including conversion of cold calling, attendance, and the
punctuality of the salesperson.

The key point to note about Coca-Cola’s controlling function is that it follows a Glocal approach wherein
the performance measures vary according to the local conditions of the markets in which it operates.