The first category of roles described by Mintzberg is called interpersonal roles. These roles involve the behaviors associated with human interaction. In other words, interpersonal roles are those roles that allow a manager to interact with his or her employees for the purpose of achieving organizational goals. There are three roles listed under interpersonal roles, which include figurehead, leader and liaison. Let's look at how these three roles are played out by Bernard. When Bernard arrives at the store in the morning, he holds a daily meeting for all employees who are working that day. He spends time talking about daily specials and sales goals and motivates his employees for the day by holding a friendly contest between the workers to try to sell as many of the sale items as possible during their shift. He informs his employees that the highest seller will win a $50 gift certificate for the store. As afigurehead, Bernard the Boss has certain social, ceremonial and legal responsibilities that his employees expect him to fulfill. Bernard is seen as a source of inspiration and authority to his employees. As Bernard goes about his day, he must make sure that he's monitoring the performance of his employees and how well they are doing in their sales. He checks with his employees periodically to make sure they understand the products that are on sale and what key features to point out, as well as to remind them of their goal of winning the contest. Bernard the Boss's role as a leader requires him to direct and manage the performance of his employees. He will spend time communicating performance goals, training and mentoring employees, supporting employee efforts, supplying resources, evaluating employee performance and motivating employees toward a higher level of productivity. Bernard does not leave all the selling up to his employees, because he likes to maintain contact with his customers to better understand their needs and how he can accommodate them. He stops and chats with several customers throughout the day to get feedback on sale items and to learn about products that his customers would like to see the store put on sale in the future. Acting as a liaison is Bernard the Boss's final interpersonal role. As a liaison, Bernard communicates with internal and external members of the organization. This networking activity is a critical step in reaching organizational goals, especially those concerned with customers. Informational Roles The second category of managerial roles is informational roles. The informational roles include those roles in which a manager must generate and share knowledge to successfully achieve organizational goals. There are three roles listed under informational roles, which include monitor, disseminator and spokesperson. After Bernard is comfortable with his employees' understanding of the sales products and their goals, he heads back to his office to do some research for what he will put on sale next week. Bernard spends time reflecting on the feedback his employees gave and the information his customers shared with him that day, and he also looks at what his competitors are putting on sale at this time. The monitor role that Bernard the Boss must fill involves the task of researching, locating and choosing useful information. As a monitor, Bernard has to stay abreast to current industry standards and changes occurring in both the internal and external business environments. This also includes monitoring the performance of employees and their level of productivity. Bernard combines all of the information into a proposal for next week's sale advertisement and forwards the information to upper management for approval. He also spends some time previewing this information with his employees so that they can begin to familiarize themselves with the items. As a disseminator, Bernard must take the information he gathered as a monitor and forward it on to the appropriate individuals. Now that Bernard has approval from upper management, he creates the advertisement for next week's sale items and begins to distribute it to his customers. Acting as a spokesperson on behalf of the organization is Bernard's final informational role. As a spokesperson, Bernard communicates information about the organization to outside parties. Four Functions of Management: Planning, Organizing, Leading & Controlling Instructor: Sherri Hartzell Sherri has taught college business and communication courses. She also holds three degrees including communications, business, educational leadership/technology. A person who holds a management position inside an organization is required to think strategically and conceptually in order to achieve organizational goals. This lesson will describe the four functions of management and how they relate to organizational success. The Four Functions of Managers Management involves far more than just telling others what to do. Before any of you decide that yo

• published: 30 Apr 2016
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