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38 Part I • Decision Making and Analytics: An Overview

taBle 1.2 Mintzberg’s 10 Managerial Roles

Role Description
Interpersonal
Figurehead Is symbolic head; obliged to perform a number of routine duties of a
legal or social nature
Leader Is responsible for the motivation and activation of subordinates;
responsible for staffing, training, and associated duties
Liaison Maintains self-developed network of outside contacts and informers
who provide favors and information
Informational
Monitor Seeks and receives a wide variety of special information (much of it
current) to develop a thorough understanding of the organization
and environment; emerges as the nerve center of the organization’s
internal and external information
Disseminator Transmits information received from outsiders or from subordinates to
members of the organization; some of this information is factual,
and some involves interpretation and integration
Spokesperson Transmits information to outsiders about the organization’s plans,
policies, actions, results, and so forth; serves as an expert on the
organization’s industry
Decisional
Entrepreneur Searches the organization and its environment for opportunities and
initiates improvement projects to bring about change; supervises
design of certain projects
Disturbance handler Is responsible for corrective action when the organization faces
important, unexpected disturbances
Resource allocator Is responsible for the allocation of organizational resources of all
kinds; in effect, is responsible for the making or approval of all
significant organizational decisions
Negotiator Is responsible for representing the organization at major negotiations
Sources: Compiled from H. A. Mintzberg, The Nature of Managerial Work. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ, 1980; and H. A. Mintzberg, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. The Free Press, New York, 1993.

that is part of most of these roles. Many managerial activities in all roles revolve around
decision making. Managers, especially those at high managerial levels, are primarily deci-
sion makers. We review the decision-making process next but will study it in more detail
in the next chapter.

the decision-making process
For years, managers considered decision making purely an art—a talent acquired over a
long period through experience (i.e., learning by trial-and-error) and by using intuition.
Management was considered an art because a variety of individual styles could be used
in approaching and successfully solving the same types of managerial problems. These
styles were often based on creativity, judgment, intuition, and experience rather than
on systematic quantitative methods grounded in a scientific approach. However, recent
research suggests that companies with top managers who are more focused on persistent
work (almost dullness) tend to outperform those with leaders whose main strengths are
interpersonal communication skills (Kaplan et al., 2008; Brooks, 2009). It is more impor-
tant to emphasize methodical, thoughtful, analytical decision making rather than flashi-
ness and interpersonal communication skills.

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