Mastering Interpersonal Roles for Effective Management

It's likely that you've considered the possibility that the roles we fulfill in our personal lives are mirrored in our professional lives, particularly in terms of decision-making, collaboration, and offering guidance to our colleagues. In light of sluggish growth affecting companies worldwide, there is growing concern about the interpersonal roles that management plays. In fact, human resources are the only asset that can enhance a company's revenue with minimal capital and revenue expenditure. While technical infrastructure can only take a company so far, human resources and teamwork have the power to propel an organization to new heights.

Aren’t we living and working in a strange world?

Examining the historical backdrop for better conceptual clarity

However, as we delve deeper into the complexities of human behavior within organizations, it becomes clear that interpersonal roles play a crucial role in the success of any company. Ignoring this aspect of management would be a disservice to the organization and its stakeholders.

Improved human resource management has become essential for not only retaining employees but also building a strong brand and establishing sustainable business models. In today's world, a person's career and the company they work for play defining roles in their lives. Public sector executives tend to enjoy greater job security, and their interpersonal responsibilities carry a unique significance.

In contrast, private sector employees face a more uncertain future, but they are often compensated with higher salaries to offset the risks associated with working in this industry.

Private sector salaries were decreasing while public sector wages were slightly increasing towards the end of the century. This shift in the job market led to a surge in startup companies worldwide, with young individuals opting for entrepreneurship over traditional employment. However, in order for startups to thrive, it is crucial to identify and implement effective HR strategies through observational research rather than relying solely on intuition for organizational design.

In a utopian world with 100% employee satisfaction, the reality would be vastly different than what we experience today. Managers would not be burdened with conflicts and would have a much easier time leading their teams. However, in our current reality, managers are expected to have strong interpersonal, leadership, and liaison skills in order to effectively resolve conflicts and maintain morale within the organization. As a result, the role of a manager requires a high level of moral authority and the ability to navigate complex interpersonal relationships.

Managers take on various monitoring roles, such as informational, disseminator, and spokesman roles, which are all essential to the organization. In addition, when managing conflicts, allocating resources, procuring materials, and negotiating salaries, a manager's entrepreneurial role becomes particularly important.

A successful organization relies heavily on the effectiveness of its managers. In order to achieve success, a manager must take on various motivational roles such as mentoring, training, planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. These roles are essential to ensuring that the organization runs smoothly and achieves its goals.

Ten key roles managers play in organizations

According to a research paper published by Henry Mintzberg in 1990, managers - regardless of gender - perform a variety of roles in their daily activities. These ten roles effectively describe the behaviors displayed by managers in leading both large and small teams, ultimately allowing them to emerge as successful business leaders.

The list below outlines the specific roles played by managers throughout a typical business day. It is evident from this list that 80% of success in the corporate world stems from strong people-management skills, with the remaining 20% attributed to professional or academic expertise.

Disseminator

Disturbance Handler

Entrepreneur

Figurehead

Leader

Liaison

Monitor

Negotiator

Resource Allocator

Spokesperson

For sake of simplicity, these ten managerial roles can be grouped into three broad areas namely:

Interpersonal

Informational

Decisional

Rewritten:

In practice, a manager takes on the three distinct roles of figurehead, leader, and liaison throughout the course of a day. Simplifying this classification further highlights the diverse responsibilities that a manager must fulfill.

Your mother's ability to seamlessly navigate her roles as wife, daughter, and mother in a single day serves as a poignant example of adaptability. This same trait translates to the workplace, where she can confidently assume the role of a decisive boss when faced with difficult or financially significant decisions. Women are treated equally to men in the workplace, and thus, she must also collaborate with her peers in senior management positions.

As an information role, it is crucial to have effective communication skills in order to educate and train individuals within the industry. In fact, young management executives often seek guidance and direction from you regarding their career planning within the organization.

Being a mentor to employees can increase their trust in you and lead to longer tenure within the company. As a senior member, there is much knowledge and experience to be shared, making the mentorship role valuable to both the employee and the organization. Additionally, effective dissemination of information can improve decision-making processes and encourage action-based roles for successful implementation.

Interpersonal rules refer to working with other people and is considered as the most crucial role which managers must play.

Practical Ways To Improve Inter-Personal Relationships

In today's fast-paced world, managers must constantly adapt to changing roles and responsibilities. Whether it's conflict management, business development, or operations management, the key to success is to keep in mind that you must run faster just to stay in the same place.

To fulfill customers' desire for quality products at lower prices and to increase profits, companies like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Google have been successful in delivering highly desirable products with high gross margins. However, achieving such success comes with equally high expectations and challenges. In order to achieve stratospheric growth, companies should prioritize employee orientation programs that introduce innovative ways of learning such as game-based learning or classroom-type learning.

For hospitality professionals, classroom-style training is often the preferred method due to the unique requirements of the industry. On the other hand, IT services employees tend to benefit more from game-based learning solutions. When it comes to trust building and promoting team spirit while minimizing office politics, outdoor training is often the most effective approach.

Cross training amongst various divisions of the company helps in developing all-rounders who prove to be future business leaders.