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The Manager’s Job
Folklore and Fact
by Henry Mintzberg

Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact 15 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications

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The Manager’s Job
Folklore and Fact

The Idea in Brief
What, exactly, do you do? As a manager, it’s difficult to say. The textbook answer used to be: plan, organize, coordinate, and control. But down in the trenches, the manager’s job has always been far more complicated. In fact, you play so many roles, it’s hard to excel at any one. The pressures of the job can drive you to: • take on too much work • operate with constant interruptions • respond prematurely to complex events • act rather than think • make decisions without seeing the big picture. So, what’s a manager to do? How can you overcome these too familiar managerial pressures and demands? Learn to tackle head on the demons of superficiality and fragmentation by stepping back to see the broader landscape in which you operate.
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The Idea in Practice
WHAT MANAGERS REALLY DO Whether you are a supervisor or CEO, your success hinges first on recognizing the range of roles you’re expected to perform. Interpersonal roles • Figurehead—You represent your group to your organization and the community at large. • Leader—You hire, train, and motivate employees. • Liaison—You maintain contact with colleagues and stakeholders outside your immediate chain of command. Informational Roles • Monitor—You leverage your personal network to scan the environment for vital information. • Disseminator—You feed information to subordinates who lack your access to critical...