Table of Contents

1. Introduction................................................................................................................2

2. First Managerial Role................................................................................................6

3. Second Managerial Role............................................................................................6

4. Third Managerial Role..............................................................................................6

5. Appendices..................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction

There are various roles played by managers in an organization. Those managerial roles

organized by Henry Mintzberg (1973), the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at

McGill University are divided into three (3) categories that are Interpersonal Managerial

role, Informational role and Decisional role in which these categories hold different

character of managers. Detailed explanations of managerial roles for each category are as

follows:

i. Interpersonal Managerial roles

Managers with this role mostly spend their time doing public relations

activities. They usually interact with people inside and outside the

organization which include peers, subordinates, superior, suppliers, customers,

government officials, community leader and other related people. Two (2)

major interpersonal roles that falls under this category are further defined as

follows:

a) Figurehead : Act as a symbolic head of an organization. Figurehead

presence will upscale any functions that they attended. Queen Elizabeth is

an example of a highly recognizable figurehead. She is the symbolic head

of United Kingdom which her duties involves attending wedding of a

subordinate, responsible of receiving visitors from other countries,

carrying out social works for world organizations or speaking at selected

high profile functions. All these duties are mostly of ceremonial nature but

are important for the smooth functioning of the organization or functions.

b) Leader : In an organization, leader with the ability to lead is essential as

they will influence their subordinates to perform better. Leaders should

also be able to coordinate, motivate, lead the organization to excellence

and be an example for subordinates to work with respect and much

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dedication. Former manager of Manchester United Football Club, Sir Alex

Ferguson is an example of a glorious leader. He leads Manchester United

to glory for 27 years since 1986 until 2013. He carries out his duty as

football manager by encouraging and training his players to perform better

for each competition. He increased the players' discipline and organized

Manchester United club, an unknown football club at that point of time to

become the most successful football club in the world.

ii. Informational roles

Managers that hold informational roles will be the source of information about

the various issues concerning the organization. This means, communication is

the focus for this category which two (2) major roles are described as below:

a) Disseminator : Managers will share their interpretation once monitoring

activities are being done internally and externally, collected data and

information had been analyzed and impact had been assessed. By this, the

manager becomes the disseminator of the information. This is to ensure

that related parties that are influenced or affected by the decisions are

being updated. This communication role is essential for effective

managers. For example, a sales manager declared that sales are increasing

for the year and the organization is profitable. Hence, the organization will

share the profit earned with the employees. The sales manager is now

disseminating good news to the employees and indirectly motivating the

employees to perform better.

b) Spokesperson : Managers that shares information publicly is considered as

a spokesperson to the organization. Spokesperson can also be anyone in

the organization as long as that person is representing the organization and

sending information externally. Medium of information can be radio

commercials, newspapers, internet or any other media. A good example

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for a manager having a role as spokesperson would be none other than

Director of Air Asia Berhad, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes. He comes up with

the tagline ‘Now everyone can fly’, provides information to the media for

promotions held by Air Asia and disseminates information on future plans

and new destination of Air Asia in order to improve and serve everyone

better.

iii.Decisional Roles

A responsibility of a manager includes making the correct decision at the right

time. A skilled manager should have this quality to ensure the smoothness of

the operation in an organization. Two (2) out of four (4) roles in this category

are described as follows:

a) Entrepreneur: As entrepreneur, managers are change makers in their areas

of responsibility. This can be either throughout the whole organization or

just within one department. Managers as entrepreneur bravely ventures

into new business or partnership that can expand and create diversities in

an organization. Other than that, an entrepreneur constantly in the lookout

of new ideas, product innovation and has the determination to make the

innovation happen. Example of a successful Malaysian entrepreneur is

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary. Starting at a very young age, he started

with selling meats and expands the business to packaging meats and

selling them wholesale. With the great entrepreneur skill that he has, he

now owned several giant organizations in Malaysia as well as overseas.

b) Negotiator: A negotiation skill is needed in a manager in order to

negotiate deals and agreements within and outside an organization. A

negotiator is a representative for an organization which their

responsibilities involves resolving any personal conflicts within involved

parties, facilitates decision making among involved parties, addresses any

concerns that may impact involved parties and establishes contracts

within involved parties. Donald Trump is an example of a well-known

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negotiator. He wrote a book called ‘Trump: The Art of the Deal’, a

business advice book. One of the quote from the book is ‘Negotiation is an

art. All the arts require discipline, technique, and a dose of imagination to

take them beyond the realm of the ordinary’.

From the description given above, it clearly shows that all the three (3) categories

of manager are interrelated. All these roles are important and a manager must be

able to balance it in order to manage an organization effectively.

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2. First Managerial Role - Leader

Newspaper article attached in Appendix A- Leader shows the responsibilities of a

quality leader even though he is no longer working with the organization. Former deputy

higher education minister, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah emphasized that in education

system, it is crucial to be innovative. He also did point out that current Malaysian

education system do not encourage the students to be creative by thinking out of the box.

Mostly, teachers and students are being under pressured to complete the curriculum and

prepare for exams. The existing curriculum prepared is no longer valid with current

environment where students are unable to be creative. By this, a new initiative called

National Education Blueprint is being introduced to overcome the issues faced in

Malaysian education system. Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah did highlight that in order to be

innovative; a more conducive environment is needed. A society also plays a role in order

to make the innovation happen by being open to differences of viewpoints and opinion.

As a leader, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah also emphasized that this initiative would require

‘bold leadership’ and it will not happen if there is no cooperation from the Government,

politicians, thought leaders, opinion makers, professionals and public intellectuals. He

also did mention that Malaysian education system should follow Silicon Valley in the

United States where the academic and workplace integrated really well to encourage

innovation and a more conducive learning environment are successfully created. Using

coins as a metaphor, he encourages students, teachers and other responsible parties to be

balance in both academic and curriculum to be able to be innovative and to generate a

better nation.

This shows that Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah is a respectable leader where he is able to

coordinate the National Education Blueprint program to make improvement to the

Malaysian Education System. He also motivates responsible parties to realize the idea of

the changes so that students and teachers embrace the idea of innovation and help the

growth of Malaysian economic.

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3. Second Managerial Role – Spokesperson

From attached article in Appendix B – Spokesperson, it is clearly shown that Menteri

Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Said is being a spokesperson for Syarikat Air Negeri

Sembilan (SAINS) as he is a trusted source in giving such important information to the

people of Negeri Sembilan. He informed water consumers of Negeri Sembilan especially

those who lived in Rembau and Tampin district to use water wisely as the current water

level at the Gemencheh dam has fallen to the critical level. He also did

4. Third Managerial Role

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5. Appendices

Appendix A- Leader

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Appendix B - Spokesperson

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Appendix C - Entrepreneur

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Reference

Introductory Management Module - Open University Malaysia

The Nature of Managerial Work - ( Henry Mintzberg )

‘The Facts of Business Life’ by Bill Mcbean

http://www.managementstudyhq.com/managerial-roles.html

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/management-roles.htm

http://management.atwork-network.com/2008/04/15/mintzberg%E2%80%99s-10-

managerial-roles/

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/henry-mintzbergs-managerial-

roles.html#lesson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mintzberg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Mokhtar_Al-Bukhary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Ferguson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fernandes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II

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