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Role of Manager

As a manager attempts to perform the management job, there are some roles required of a manager. Such as:

— Figurehead Role A manager is the head of his or her work unit, be it division, department, or section. Because of this lead-person position, the manager routinely must perform certain ceremonial duties. For example, the manager may be required to entertain visitors to the organization, attend a subordinate's wedding, or participate in a group luncheon.

Leadership Role The manager is the environment creator. He or she plays this role by working to improve employees' performance, reducing conflict, providing feedback on performance, and encouraging grouwth.

Liaison Role Managers interact with others besides superiors and subordinates: they work with peer-level managers in other departments, staff specialists, other departments' employees, and outside contacts (suppliers, clients). In this role the manager is building contacts through which to gather information.

Monitor Role The manager is constantly monitoring the environment to determine what is going on. This information is collected both directly, by asking questions, and indirectly, through unsolicited information.

Disseminator Role What does the manager do with the information collected? As dissenminator, the manager passes on subordinates some of the information that ordinarily would not be accessible to them.

Spokesperson or Representative Role The manager is the person who speaks for his or her work unit to people outside the work unit. One part of this role is to keep superiors well informed and a second aspect is to communicate outside the organization.

Entrepreneur Role As the manager is exposed to new ideas or methods that may improve the work unit's operations, he or she assumes the entrepreneur role. In this role the manager initiates activities that will allow and encourage the work unit to use the ideas or methods most advantageously.

Disturbance Handler Role What happens when parts of the work environment — schedules, equipment, strikes, reneged contracts — get out of control? The manager must handle these crises as they develop.

Resource Allocator Role The manager is responsible for determining who in the work unit gets the resources, and how much each person gets. These resources include money, facilities, equipment, and access to the manager's time.

Negotiator Role Mangers are required to spend a good portion of their time in the negotiator role. Negotiating may be required on contracts with suppliers or simply on trading off resources inside the organization. The manager must play this role because he or she is the only one in the work unit with both the information and authority negotiators need to have.

These role are what managers actually do to carry out the functions of their jobs. Any manager who has a problem wearing any of the many hats of the job is going to have a work unit that adversely affected to some extent.

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