People in Organisations Managerial roles and authority 1

People in Organisations Managerial roles and authority 1

Managerial roles ‘A role from which some work has to be delegated to subordinate roles but for which occupant remains accountable to a higher authority for manner in which all of this work is carried out’ Mullins 2

Henry Mintzberg u Managers don’t spend scheduled chunks of time planning, controlling u Disjointed, u Often fragmented on day-to-day basis u Different hats depending on what is going on 3

Henry Mintzberg Defined 10 x managerial roles, divided into 3 x categories which would be taken appropriately by a manager according to his/her personality, that of their staff and the nature of the task in hand 4

Interpersonal roles u Figurehead organisation’s representative u Leader, selecting, training, inspiring u Liaison, communicating outside, building up information exchange system 5

Informational roles u Monitor – wider network of contacts u Disseminatoru Spokesman- passing on info transmitting info 6

Decisional roles u Entrepreneur – seize opportunities, get things done, fixer u Disturbance-handler – Cope with unexpected, rectifying mistakes u Resource allocator – Distributing limited resources efficiently u Negotiator – Bargaining for resources, influence 7

Authority & responsibility Authority is right to do something, or get others to do it Responsibility is liability of a person to be called to account for way he has exercised authority given to him. It is an obligation to do something, or to get others to do it 8

Delegation u Delegation is not just a case of getting other people to do the work for you u Ultimately you will remain responsible for the work, so delegating can be a tough task and involves a level of trust in employees 9

Accountability Duty of individual to report to his superior to account for how he has used his delegated authority and fulfilled his responsibilities 10

Delegation u Limitations of work load u Frees boss to concentrate on important aspects u Satisfies expectations of participation in decision making u Grooming for promotion 11

Why reluctant to delegate? Low confidence in abilities of subordinates u Responsibility for mistakes u Stay in touch u Unwilling to admit capable subordinate u Poor control, feel have to do everything or lose track u Lack of understanding ‘delegation’ u Doing ‘easy’ jobs, avoiding difficult tasks u 12

Exercise 1 Suggest four ways in which senior management could encourage managers to delegate more 13

Power is the ability to do something, or get others to do it 14

Power u Physical power u Personal power – Access to information – Access to other powerful people – Control over rules & procedures u Resource power u Expert power 15