Decisional roles

Definition (1):

The decisional roles entail making decisions or choices. The four decisional roles are entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

Definition (2):

These are the managerial roles that revolve around making choices.

Definition (3):

According to Mintzberg, making decision is the most important part of any managerial function. He identified four roles which are based on several forms of decisions. These are as mentioned earlier- entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. These four decisional roles are briefly discussed below:

• Entrepreneur: Entrepreneur role involves `making decisions about altering what is taking place in an organization. Managers may need to initiate change and actively decide what is needed to be done to keep pace with the changing situations and for improvement.
• Disturbance handler: This role requires managers to make decisions on unpredictable and high-pressure disturbing events which are beyond their control. For instance, managers must resolve conflicts not only between his department and other departments, but also among subordinates.
• Resource allocator: The resource allocator role is pivotal to much organizational analysis. The managers need to make decisions regarding allocation of money, people, time, equipment, and other resources.
• Negotiator: This role is crucial because a manager requires negotiating with others and in this process he requires making decisions regarding the commitment of organizational resources.