Company managers are perceived as people who dedicate their time to discern and plan the strategies of organizations, but how real is this perception?
Traditionally, the concept has spread that executives who make great business decisions are people who have developed great strategic thinking, who always keep in mind the long term of their firms, who are astute and agile in decision-making and that their work concentrates on the most important issues.
That is what the vast majority of people think, their employees see them that way and even they themselves, the managers, see themselves like that, like the great conductors who deal only with the transcendental.
To a large extent, this concept is real, they are the ones who make the decisions that move millions, but it is also true that they must deal with inconsequential issues and that their time does not always pass between important meetings or in planning corporate strategy for the next two. years.
Henry Mintzberg, one of the greatest thinkers of management and strategy in the world, dedicated his time, several decades ago, to observe the reality of the work of a manager and from this experience the book The Nature of Managerial Work was born. nature of managerial work) in which he describes what managers actually do, how they do what they do, and why they do it. This book, originally published in 1973, raised a great hornet's nest in the world of high directives since it landed in the world of mortals those almost mythical beings that managers had become and although in the book there are only truths This sudden "nudity" did not please the managers very much at the time.
Let's look at Mintzberg's approach to what managers actually do:
Manager characteristics at work
- The manager performs large amounts of work at a relentless rate; This undermines the mythical perception that managers are methodical, reflective and systematic planners. The manager's activities, in general, have as a common denominator brevity, variety and discontinuity, in addition, his work focuses on action and not on reflection. Directive work is full of routine activities; He has to run regular meetings, he must attend ceremonies frequently, attend visits from important clients,… but, he is more interested in current affairs than in these frequent tasks to which his status forces him. His daily life is full of reports, memos, letters and all kinds of written information; although Mintzberg identified that the communication medium preferred by the manager is oral.Much of the information that reaches him does so through the contacts that concern his investiture, it moves within a network of internal and external contacts.Although he is believed to have a lot of control, the limitations that his position creates make him control about your job is not what you would like.
"The manager is overloaded with obligations… Brevity, fragmentation and oral communication characterize his work…" Mintzberg
Mintzberg's managerial roles
Based on the above observations, Mintzberg identified what in his view are the three managerial roles as follows:
Interpersonal roles
- Representative or figurehead of the organization before people or entities outside the company Leader who is responsible for the motivation and union of efforts of their subordinates Coordinator or link between the firm and the environment or within
Informational roles
- According to Mintzberg, the reception and communication of information is the fundamental job of the manager Monitor or supervisor who looks for information outside and inside Information disseminator within the organization Spokesperson who is responsible for transmitting information abroad
Decision roles
- Entrepreneur who seeks to improve his company or unit and designs its adaptation to change Problem solver in charge of solving the unforeseen Resource allocator who decides who does what or who gets what Negotiator
Mintzberg concludes: "All managerial work comprises these roles, but the prominence of each role varies in different managerial positions."
The importance of studying the true functions of the manager lies in the fact that only in this way is it possible to improve the training of those who want to become or are in a position, since commonly, in universities and other business study centers, training is these people with precepts that in practice are non-existent.
Next, and finally, an instructive video-lesson by Professor Julio García Sabater, from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, through which you can learn more about Mintzberg's managerial roles.
