Test Drive test drive | Page 7

The Manager’ s Job • HBR CLASSIC dent.
Duties that involve interpersonal roles may sometimes be routine, involving little serious communication and no important decision making. Nevertheless, they are important to the smooth functioning of an organization and cannot be ignored.
Managers are responsible for the work of the people of their unit. Their actions in this regard constitute the leader role. Some of these actions involve leadership directly— for example, in most organizations the managers are normally responsible for hiring and training their own staff.
In addition, there is the indirect exercise of the leader role. For example, every manager must motivate and encourage employees, somehow reconciling their individual needs with the goals of the organization. In virtually every contact with the manager, subordinates seeking leadership clues ask:“ Does she approve?”“ How would she like the report to turn out?”“ Is she more interested in market share than high profits?”
The influence of managers is most clearly seen in the leader role. Formal authority vests them with great potential power; leadership determines in large part how much of it they will realize.
The literature of management has always recognized the leader role, particularly those aspects of it related to motivation. In comparison, until recently it has hardly mentioned the liaison role, in which the manager makes contacts outside the vertical chain of command. This is remarkable in light of the finding of virtually every study of managerial work that managers spend as much time with peers and other people outside their units as they do with their own subordinates— and, surprisingly, very little time with their own superiors.
In Rosemary Stewart’ s diary study, the 160 British middle and top managers spent 47 % of their time with peers, 41 % of their time with people inside their unit, and only 12 % of their time with their superiors. For Robert H. Guest’ s study of U. S. foremen, the figures were 44 %, 46 %, and 10 %. The chief executives of my study averaged 44 % of their contact time with people outside their organizations, 48 % with subordinates, and 7 % with directors and trustees.
The contacts the five CEOs made were with an incredibly wide range of people: subordinates; clients, business associates, and suppliers; and peers— managers of similar organizations, government and trade organization officials, fellow directors on outside boards, and independents with no relevant organizational affiliations. The chief executives’ time with and mail from these groups is shown in“ The Chief Executive’ s Contacts.” Guest’ s study of foremen shows, likewise, that their contacts were numerous and wide-ranging, seldom involving fewer than 25 individuals, and often more than 50.
The Manager’ s Roles
Formal Authority and Status
Interpersonal Roles
Figurehead Leader Liason
Informational Roles
Monitor Disseminator Spokesperson
Decisional Roles
Entrepreneur
Disturbance Handler
Resource Allocator
Negotiator
Informational Roles
By virtue of interpersonal contacts, both with subordinates and with a network of contacts, the manager emerges as the nerve center of the organizational unit. The manager may not know everything but typically knows more than subordinates do.
Studies have shown this relationship to hold for all managers, from street gang leaders to U. S. presidents. In The Human Group, George C. Homans explains how, because they were at the center of the information flow in their own gangs and were also in close touch with other gang leaders, street gang leaders were better informed than any of their followers. 12 As for presidents, Richard Neustadt observes:“ The essence of { Franklin } Roosevelt’ s technique for information-gathering was competition.‘ He would call you in,’ one of his aides once told me,‘ and he’ d ask you to get the story on some
harvard business review • march – april 1990 page 6