Henry Mintzberg, now a prominent management scholar, undertook a careful study of executives to determine what they did on their jobs. On the basis of his observations, Mintzberg concluded that managers perform 10 different, highly interrelated roles or sets of behaviors, thus serving a critical function in organizations. All managers are required to perform duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. For instance, when the president of a college hands out diplomas at commencement.

Another key interpersonal role all managers have is a leadership role. This role includes hiring, training, motivating, and disciplining employees. To some degree, all managers collect information from outside organizations and institutions, this the monitor role. In addition, managers perform a spokesperson role when they represent the organization to outsiders. Managers also act as a conduit to transmit information to organizational members. This is the disseminator role.

Mintzberg identified four roles that require making choices. In the entrepreneur role, managers initiate and oversee new projects that will improve their organization’s performance. As disturbance handlers, managers take corrective action in response to unforeseen problems. As resource allocators, managers are responsible for allocating human, physical, and monetary resources. Finally, managers perform a negotiator role, in which they discuss issues and bargain with other units (internal or external) to gain advantages for their own unit.