School of Information Management & Systems   Spring 1999.   Michael Buckland.
290-1 Designing Library Services.

Assignment 3: What Managers Do - Due Feb 12.

Based on his studies of what managers actually do, Henry Mintzberg enumerated ten roles that managers perform:

A. INTERPERSONAL ROLES
1. The figurehead role (performing ceremonial and social duties as the organization's representative).
2. The leader role.
3. The liaison role (particularly with outsiders).

B. INFORMATIONAL ROLES
4. The monitor role (receiving information about the operation of the enterprise).
5. The disseminator role (passing information to subordinates).
6. The spokesperson role (transmitting information to outsiders).

C. DECISION ROLES
7. The entrepreneurial role.
8. The disturbance-handler role.
9. The resource allocator role.
10. The negotiator role (dealing with various persons and groups of persons).

Pick any manager you know well -- not necessarily a library manager and not necessarily "senior". Disguise the name, but describe the position and its context. Describe briefly how this manager performs each of these roles. Give examples. Identify the roles in which this manager could needs to improve and, if you can, suggest how he/she could perform better. Review handout and write one paragraph per role.