Managers Roles and Responsibilities: What Does a Manager do in the 21st Century?

In the simplest terms we probably understand management to be the organisation of people and resources to achieve a firms objectives.

But isn't the managers role more complicated and diverse than that? In today's relentlessly busy, 24 hours a day 7 days a week business world, doesn't the company demand more than a good organiser? How do business gurus and theorists view management and the many tasks the role encompasses?

The business writer, Peter Drucker, considers the main tasks of management to be marketing and innovation. In addition he asserted that "The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product."

Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), who wrote on the topic in the early twentieth century, defined management as "the art of getting things done through people."

Steve Case, co founder of AOL, said that "one of the great lessons I've learned over the past couple of decades, from a management perspective, is that really when you come down to it, it really is all about people and all about leadership."

Paul Hawken, an environmentalist and entrepreneur said that "Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them."

Henry Mintzberg, business writer and academic felt that "Management is above all a practice where art, science and craft meet."

Lee Lacocca, an American businessman who revived the Chrysler corporation in the 1980's stated that "Management is nothing more than motivating other people."

So it seems that the traditional description of a manager as the person who supervises and oversees the work of others is too limited. Clearly the consensus of successful business people and academics is that the 21st century manager has a much more complex role. The manager needs to be more than the person who' gets things done' and supervises his staff. They need to be a motivator, a leader, a marketer and an innovator. Someone who can unite and inspire his staff to achieve the goals he sets. A manager must be a mentor,a communicator, a planner and a strategic thinker.

A manager must be able to take control of a difficult situation and be seen to be dealing with it. (Tony Hayward of BP please take note). A manager not just needs to be efficient at dealing with people, but also needs to be proficient at using technology. Today's world moves quickly and a good manager needs to keep up.

Henry Mintzberg has written much about business and management. He suggests three groups of roles to explain the complexities of managerial activity. These are;

Interpersonal roles, Informational roles and Decisional roles.

Interpersonal roles are those which involve formal relationships within the organisation established by the managers status and position of authority.

• It includes the role of figurehead. The manager is the individual who formally represents the organisation.
• In the leader role the manager has responsibility for staffing, motivation and guidance.
• In the liaison role he/ she must network and form relationships outside the organisation.

Informational roles directly link back to the interpersonal managerial roles and refer to communication and sourcing of information.

• So in a monitor role the manager must actively seek out and receive information.
• Information the manager has gathered in his/ her liaison role as a networker, and in his/ her leader role through his/ her staff, must then be passed on and cascaded down to others within the organisation. Mintzberg classes this as a disseminator role.
• Further sources of communication arise from the managers figurehead role as the formal authority figure and necessitate the passing on of information through board meetings and AGMs, and to suppliers and customers. This delivering of information is classed as the spokesperson role.

In decisional roles the manager must undertake strategic planning.

• In an entrepreneurial role he/ she is expected to solve problems, make improvements and act upon information received.
• As a disturbance handler he/ she must act upon unpredictable events and take charge of the situation. Shareholders and stakeholders will expect the manager to correct the situation and handle it well.
• In a resource allocator role the manager decides how to make the most efficient and profitable use of the organisations materials.
• Finally in a negotiator role the manager must take part in discussions with trade unions, competitors, suppliers and customers.

Minztbergs language may seem a little awkward, and his set of ten roles could probably be merged together in some places as there is certainly some overlapping of categories. However, it does demonstrate the numerous demands placed upon a manager and the level of responsibility he/ she must shoulder.

Certainly none of these roles can be taken in isolation, (and in practice as an effective manager how could you ignore any of them?) because to be an efficient manager he/ she must be adept at handling all of these demands.

Fred Luthans, an academic who has studied organisational behavior and management, carried out observational research on managers and concluded that successful managers carry out activities within four categories.

1. Communication; Managers must share routine information and deal with or delegate paperwork.
2. Traditional management; In essence this activity involves planning, decision making, and controlling. These are the activities most immediately suggested as a managers role.
3. Networking; socialising and interacting with people outside of the organisation, Forming new relationships and building business contacts.
4. Human Resource Management; Motivating, disciplining and resolving conflict. Also training and staff development.
   

You will see that although these suggestions are much more clear cut than those of Mintzberg, most of Mintzbergs managerial roles are echoed by Luthans research.

A managers functions can be identified by those requiring 'hard' or 'soft' Human Resource Management skills. 'Hard' HRM centres on the Resource aspects of management. it focuses on

• Controlling
• Planning
• Decision making
• Organising

'Soft' HRM deals with the Human side of management, and includes the roles of

• Leading
• Motivating
• Communicating
• Staffing

These roles apply to a manager of any size organisation. Even self employed women or men have to be able to manage their time, communicate effectively and deal with stress.

The Management Skills Pyramid on the right shows how a manager can improve to reach the level of success. Starting by getting the necessary jobs done, a manager can then look at encouraging staff development. From this point he must examine how to better his own business skills, until he has reached a position of an effective and productive manager.

The more skilfully a manager can fulfill their roles, then the more well run and profitable the organisation will be. A manager has to carry a lot of responsibility but alongside this pressure is the possibility of recognition and success.

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