Although managers can serve multiple roles within organizations, their nature can be broadly categorized as decisional, informational, interpersonal, and formal status and authority. The managerial roles in the decisional category focus on handling, sharing, and using information. They include negotiations, resources allocation, handling disturbances, and assuming entrepreneurial activities. As negotiators, managers interact within their departments and teams and those from other agencies or departments. Resources allocation involves identifying the appropriate areas that require additional resources (such as staff and funds) to improve productivity (Lussier, 2008). Managers must use available information to handle disturbances that arise from unexpected situations or in mediating disputes. Lastly, they should use available resources to initiate and manage organizational changes, generate new ideas, and solve problems. Managers should be able to lead changes, take responsibility for them, and explain to the employees why they are required and what benefit they will bring (Kotter International Website, n.d.).
The informational perspective focuses on processing information generated within their organizations, acting as spokespersons, disseminators, and monitors. As Lussier (2008) suggests, managers must apply their communication and human skills here. It is critical to find a balance between professional and personal relationships, as their blending can lead to misunderstanding and a lack of unbiased perception. Managers in the spokesperson role speak to people from the outside to convey information about their organization, which means that their communicational skills define the outcome. The disseminator role involves sharing valuable information with other members of the manager’s team, department, or organization. Managers in the monitoring role actively seek information to identify the changes that may affect their organizations, focusing on teams to determine their well-being and productivity. Technology can improve monitoring greatly but it can also cause additional problems for leaders as they need to provide training for the staff.
The interpersonal perspective deals with the provision of ideas and information, being a liaison, leader, and figurehead. The managers perform the liaison duty by communicating with external and internal contacts, which requires efficient networking skills. Additionally, they deal with training, motivating, and influencing other employees as leaders (Lussier, 2008). Professionals should be able to unite the staff, which is rather difficult in the current diverse workplace, so they should be aware of the staff’s cultural peculiarities and be rather convincing and approachable team builders. Honesty and integrity are vital for managers, as they make the employees accountable. In this way, it is critical to admit personal mistakes that are unavoidable in the rapidly changing and innovative environment (Earley, 2015).
Lastly, the managers are the formal authorities of their departments or organizations. They sign deals and host leaders from other agencies so their collaboration skills can define if organizational goals can be achieved (Lussier, 2008). Even when signing a contract and interacting with the competitors or sponsor who does not appeal to the manager, they are to remain well-disposed and benevolent. Information is transferred fast today so one mistake can ruin the future of the whole organization.
Strategizing is a continuous process that incorporates strategic leadership, strategic thinking, and strategic decision-making. The nature of these three parts of the process varies depending on where they are applied. Nonetheless, they are mutually reinforcing, and their coherent interaction helps in producing optimal strategizing (Cunningham & Harney, 2012). Strategic leadership is crucial to the success of any organization or business activity because it helps to realize strategic decision-making and strategic thinking. Strategic thinking assists in achieving organizational goals and preventing the recurrence of errors made in the past, being based on intuition or facts. Strategic decision-making is crucial in the strategizing process, and it may have significant long-term impacts on the organization. Errors made during this process can result in heavy losses and the collapse of businesses. Consequently, strategic decision-making is a multifaceted process that involves competing for perspectives and unstructured information.
References
Cunningham, J., & Harney, B. (2012). Strategy & strategists. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Earley, S. (2015). 6 key components to effective leadership. Web.
Kotter International Website. (n.d.). The 8-step process for leading change. Web.
Lussier, R. N. (2008). Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.