Mintzberg’s managerial roles

What do managers actually do? Henry Mintzberg’s observational work describes managerial activity through three families: interpersonal roles, informational roles and decisional roles. The framework helps managers compare how they spend time with what their situation requires, without pretending that one ideal schedule fits every job.

When to use it

• To examine and improve your own pattern of managerial work.

• To diagnose organisational expectations and gaps.

• To design context-specific management development.

Origins

For his doctoral research at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Mintzberg observed chief executives at work rather than beginning with abstract functions such as planning, organising, budgeting and controlling. This close study of what executives actually did produced a different account: work was fast, fragmented, verbal, relational and responsive. It helped establish managerial-work research as a field and later informed situational views of management.

The study was small and descriptive. Its enduring value is the method and vocabulary, not a claim that every manager, culture or modern communication environment behaves identically.

What it is

Mintzberg observed that managers:

• work at a demanding pace and tend toward action;

• rely heavily on meetings, calls and other verbal exchanges;

• spend substantial time with subordinates and external contacts;

• move through short, varied activities—averaging 9 minutes in the original observation.

He grouped ten roles into interpersonal, informational and decisional categories.

Interpersonal roles concern symbolic representation, relationships and leadership. Informational roles involve monitoring, disseminating and speaking for the organisation. Decisional roles involve initiating change, handling disturbances, allocating resources and negotiating.

The roles describe work; they do not endorse constant interruption, overload or reactivity. Context determines which roles matter most and how they should be performed.

How to use it

Keep a short activity log and classify meaningful blocks by role. Then ask of each role: how much time do I spend here, what outcomes does it produce, and what does this job currently require?

Look for omissions and overload. A manager absorbed by email and meetings may be neglecting coaching, external sensing or resource decisions. Another may spend heavily on interpersonal work while avoiding a difficult allocation or negotiation. Examine quality as well as time: a long meeting can still fail to disseminate useful information.

Use the diagnosis to remove low-value activity, delegate appropriately, redesign information flows and protect time for work that requires reflection. Do not simply add missing roles to an already unsafe workload.

At organisational level, aggregate patterns without using surveillance or individual time data punitively. Link development to actual role requirements. A negotiation gap calls for a different intervention from weak coaching or environmental scanning.

Finally, revisit the map as the role changes. Effective management is not performing every role equally; it is integrating the necessary roles without allowing urgency to crowd out judgement, people or long-term capacity.

Top practical tip

Track activities and outcomes for a representative week, then protect time for neglected high-value roles. Use the evidence to stop or redesign work before adding more.

Top pitfall

The framework is descriptive, not a universal job specification. Do not force every manager into the same mix or celebrate fragmentation merely because it was observed.

Further reading

• Mintzberg, H. (nineteen seventy-three). The Nature of Managerial Work. Harper & Row.
• Mintzberg, H. (nineteen ninety). “The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact.” Harvard Business Review.