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11

CHAPTER-6

ROLE OF MANAGER

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Roles of a Manager
Introduction: Organizations deploy people to perform various activities for converting
inputs into outputs. At various levels, certain people are assigned the job of allocating
work, supervise, monitor, control and guide the tasks performed by others. This lesson
explores the concept of Manager and his roles and responsibilities in an organization.

Lesson Plan
• Manager
• Roles of a Manager
• Manager V/s Leader

Manager: A Manager is the person responsible for planning and directing the work of a
group of individuals, monitoring their performance, and taking corrective action when
necessary.
Managers may guide the workers directly or they may guide several supervisors who
ultimately give directions to the workers. The Manager must be familiar with the work of
all the groups he/she supervises, but does not need to be the best in any or all of the areas.
It is more important for the Manager to know how to manage the workers than to know
how to do their work well. The Manager has the authority to change the work
assignments of team members. A manager's title reflects what he/she is responsible for.
Regardless of title, the Manager is responsible for planning, directing, monitoring and
controlling the people and their work.

Roles of a Manager: Few important job aspects of a Manager are listed below:

1.0 Manager of Outcomes

Firstly a Manager is responsible for making things happen.
For the newly appointed Manager this is the first big role change. Rather than having to
actually sell products, to produce engineering drawings or to deliver the meals on wheels,
the Manager must make sure that other people do these things, and do them properly.
For many first time managers this can be doubly confusing as their role is similar to that
of a player/manager i.e. they must both undertake some of the activities (often the more
complex ones) and manage other people to do the other activities..

2.0 Manager as Coordinator

Managers must work to make the total effort of their team meaningful.
They have to quickly get to know their team’s activities, the strengths and weaknesses
and ensure that the team members are working together, not duplicating each other’s
work. The activities have to be balanced and focused towards an ultimate goal.

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The assignment of tasks to team members is a challenging work. It is not merely
delegating some work to someone. Each of the Team members will have his own ways
of understanding and working and some will be better than others. There will be tasks
which may take longer period than the expected, or there may come other unforeseen
problems/unexpected priorities to deal with. Dealing with unforeseen situations and
having a contingency plan in place is an important aspect of the managerial job.

3.0 The Manager as commander

The traditional role of a Manager is that of commander or captain of the
ship. In many ways this is the role model which most managers are exposed
to at an early stage in their career.
Command and control model is an easy role to fall into, not only because always we
see examples all around us, also because there is something tempting about the
power of becoming a Manager where people have to do as you say.
However easy it is to fall into, the command and control model has serious
drawbacks. It can mean that staff will limit the degree of initiative they take, and
constantly refer back to the Manager for instructions, making more work in the long
run. In particular long serving or skilled staff may become demotivated if they do not
have enough responsibility or feel that they are not trusted.

4.0 Manager as Facilitator

With coming of information age, there is a shift from brick and mortar economy to
knowledge economy. Many a times modern manager has to act as a facilitator rather than
as a commander. Along with coordinating the activities of the team, a Manager must act
as a facilitator, bringing together the varying skills of the team members so that they can
share knowledge, skills and learn from one another.

The Manager must also act as facilitator in driving and motivating the team members,
keeping their morale high and keeping them focussed on their goals. Managers must also
encourage others to contribute to maximize output It can be difficult for newly appointed
managers to do this without appearing to be too pushy, especially to those who till
recently were colleagues.
This is a useful skill to be practiced – to tactfully bring out the positive contributions of
one’s fellow team members and to ensure that credit is given where it is due; this will
reap rich rewards in terms of its effect on staff morale and increasing the pool of shared
knowledge.

5.0 The Manager as coach

Managers are responsible for taking out the best in their team and ensuring that the
efforts of their staff become more effective.

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One of the ways that this can be achieved is through coaching. In this context, coaching
means helping others to improve, by removing the obstacles in their way. Such obstacles
might be
• Lack of confidence
• Lack of clarity over personal and professional goals
• Confusion about which techniques and approaches to be taken to manage a situation
A manager’s coaching role can spread out into other areas of management responsibility,
such as training and skills development or ensuring that the team has the right resources
to do the job.
It is important to remember that the coaching support that a Manager can provide is just
as important as teaching someone a new skill or fighting for your share of the resources at
budget allocation time.

6.0 The Manager as politician

The world of work is always a political, and being a Manager is a political job. In this
context, being political means improving your personal and professional networking.
Taking a more political role is often a hidden, unspoken part of management, but it is an
important part of your success as a manager.
Managers must negotiate often difficult relationships with all sorts of stakeholders and it
pays to pay attention to growing these relationships in all directions. The majority of new
jobs and promotions are gained through contacts and already established relationships, so
the successful manager will always pay attention to maintaining and expanding their
networks.

Being a politician does not mean deceiving or playing games with team members. All it
means being diplomatic and tactful in certain situations.

7.0 Support for development

These different roles require managers to develop a wide range of skills, along with a
reflective attitude and knowledge of their own management style.
Managers who receive support in developing these attitudes and skills are often
better performers.
Managers who are supported in their development:
• Have better working relationships with others
• Achieve a higher level of outcomes, making better use of resources
• Contribute more to the organisation as a whole
• Stay with the organisation for longer

.8.0 Role of a Manager Of the People

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(a) A Manager understands and conveys to his people the meaning of a system. He
explains the purpose or objectives of the system. He also teaches his people to
understand how the work of the group aims to achieve these objectives.

(b) He helps the people to see themselves as components of the system, to work in
cooperation for optimization of the efforts at all stages towards achievement of this
aim.

(c) A Manager of people understands that people are different – i.e. every individual
is different from the other. He tries to optimize the family background, education,
skills, hopes, and abilities of everyone. This is not grading or differentiating the
people. It is, instead recognition of differences among people, and an attempt to put
everybody in a proper position for development.

(d) He is an unceasing learner. He encourages his people to study. He provides, when

possible and feasible, seminars and courses for advancement of learning. He encourages
continued education in college or university for those who are so inclined.

d) He tries to create interest, challenge and joy, in the work for everybody

(e) He is a coach and a counsel, not a judge.

(f) He understands a stable system. He understands the interaction between people and
the circumstances that they work in. He understands that the performance of anyone will
come to a stable state upon which further learning will not bring improvement of
performance. A Manager of people knows that in this stable state it is distracting to tell
the worker about a mistake.

(g) He has three sources of power:

1. Authority of office
2. Knowledge
3. Personality and persuasive power; tact

A successful Manager of people develops Nos. 2 and 3; he does not rely on No. 1. He has
nevertheless the obligation to use No. 1, as this source of power enables him to change
the process, equipment, materials, methods to bring improvement, such as to reduce
variation in outputs.

(h) He will study results with the aim to improve his performance as a Manager of
people.
(i) He will try to find out that whether anybody is there, who is not in tune with the
system, is in need of special help. This can be accomplished by monitoring the

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performance and making timely reviews. May be that only simple rearrangement of work
is only needed or skill upgradation/special training is required for the worker
(j) He does not expect perfection.
(k) He creates trust. He creates an environment that encourages freedom and innovation.
(l) He listens without passing judgment
(m) He encourages upward communication. He will hold an informal, unhurried
conversation with his people at least once a year, not for judgment, merely to listen. The
purpose would be development of understanding of his people, their aims, hopes;
Remove their apprehensions and fears. The meeting can be spontaneous, may not be
planned in advance..
(n) He is aware of the benefits of cooperation and the losses from unhealthy competition
among people and among groups.

9.0 Leadership vs. Management

The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people
who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do.
Many people, by the way, are both. They have managerial jobs but act as leaders too.

9.1 Managers have subordinates

By definition, managers have subordinates - unless their title is honorary and given as a
mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is
other than formal authority.

9.1.1 Authoritarian, transactional style

Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their
subordinates work for them. Management style is transactional, in that the Manager tells
the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this.

9.1.2 Work focus Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often
within tight constraints of time and money. They thus naturally pass on this work focus to
their subordinates.

9.2 Leaders have followers: Leaders do not have subordinates - at least not when they
are only leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because
they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal
authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a
voluntary activity.

9.2.1 Charismatic, transformational style: Telling people what to do, does not inspire
them to follow you. A leader has to appeal to them, showing how following you will
lead to their hearts' desire.

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9.2.2 People focus: Although many leaders have a charismatic style to some extent, this
does not require a loud personality. They are always good with people. They have quiet
styles that give credit to others and takes blame on themselves are very effective at
creating the loyalty that great leaders engender.

Although leaders are good with people, this does not mean they are friendly with them. In
order to keep the mystique of leadership, they often retain a degree of separation and
aloofness.

This does not mean that leaders do not pay attention to tasks - in fact they are often very
achievement-focused. What they do realize, however, is the importance of enthusing
others to work towards their vision.

9.2.3 Seek risk: In the same study that showed managers as risk-averse, leaders appeared
as risk seeking, although they are not blind thrill-seekers. When pursuing their vision,
they consider it natural to encounter problems and hurdles that must be overcome along
the way. They are thus comfortable with risk and will see routes that others avoid as
potential opportunities for advantage and will happily break rules in order to get things
done.

Summary
The table given below summarizes and gives a sense of the differences between being a
leader and being a manager. This is, of course, an illustrative characterization, and there
is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales along which each role can range.
And many people lead and manage at the same time, and so may display a combination
of behaviours.

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Feature Leader Manager

Essence Change Stability

Focus Leading people Managing work
Have Followers Subordinates
Horizon Long-term Short-term
Seeks Vision Objectives
Approach Sets direction Plans detail
Decision Facilitates Makes
Power Personal charisma Formal authority
Appeal to Heart Head
Energy Passion Control
Dynamic Proactive Reactive
Persuasion Motivates Persuades
Style Transformational Transactional
Exchange Excitement for work Money for work
Likes Striving Action
Wants Achievement Results
Risk Takes Minimizes
Rules Breaks Makes
Conflict Resolves Avoids
Direction Finds new paths Treads existing paths
Truth Seeks Establishes
Concern What is right Being right
Credit Gives Takes
Blame Takes Blames

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Review Questions –

1. Describe the important roles of a manager.

2. What are the key functions performed by a manager?
3. Describe the role of a manager as a facilitator.
4. Describe the role of manager as a manager of outcomes.
5. Distinguish between the role of manager as a commander and as a
facilitator. In your opinion, at your work place, which of the two is
more important?
6. Do you think that managers have to sometimes act as politicians also?
If so, describe any such situation.
7. Why it is important for a manger to elevate himself to the role of a
leader?
8. What are the key qualities of a manager?
9. Compare the role of a manager with that of a leader w.r.t. Essence,
Horizon, Energy and Conflict.
10. Describe the difference between Authoritarian and Transactional
styles.

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