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Managers need to play a wide variety of relatively
non-standardised roles to accomplish their assigned tasks, and in
playing each role there is room for creativity, much in the way
there is room for creativity in the playing of a role by an actor,
writes Pradip N Khandwalla
Managers operate in a context in which, for the
most part, the freedom to act is restricted. It is hobbled by limited
delegated authority; rules, regulations, and policy frameworks they
must respect; and practices, norms, and values that have got so
well accepted in the organisation that violating them may invite
fury. Most managers operate within function-based silos and job
descriptions that further erode their freedom to act.
But this is only part of the story. Managers
are part of a system (the management system) in which taking initiative
and adapting to environmental or internal opportunities and threats
is the done thing, at least in dynamic organisations. Restricted
though managerial freedom may be, within the constrained space each
member occupies there is usually enough room to innovate. Certainly
the room to innovate tends to be substantially larger at higher
levels; but even at lower levels there is at least some room.
Another factor that impels managerial creativity
is that managerial tasks differ from manager to manager and also
the means for achieving them cannot be standardised in a dynamic
operating environment. Managers need to play a wide variety of relatively
non-standardised roles to accomplish their assigned tasks, and in
playing each role there is room for creativity, much in the way
there is room for creativity in the playing of a role by an actor.
Managerial roles
Managers play a great variety of roles. In the
late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg followed around five chief executives
and jotted down whatever they did. When he analysed the information,
he was able to identify 10 roles that the managers played. Three
were “interpersonal” in character—(1) the figurehead
or symbolic head of the organisation role; (2) the leader and guide
of the organisation role; and (3) the liaison role involving the
creation by the chief executive officer (CEO) of a web of relationships
with numerous individuals and groups outside the organisation. The
managers also played three information roles, that of (4) the manager
as a monitor of the information arising in the organisation and
its environment; (5) the manager as a disseminator of key external
information or intelligence into the organisation as well as of
key internal information to his/her subordinates; and (6) the role
of a spokesman, or provider of information, to those outside the
organisation. They played four decisional roles: (7) the manager
as the entrepreneur, that is, one who initiates and designs major
changes and choices in the organisation; (8) the manager as a disturbance
or crisis handler; (9) the manager as an allocator of money, time,
material and equipment, manpower, etc, for organisational purposes;
and (10) the manager as a negotiator with other organisations or
individuals. Each role, of course, involved a number of distinctive
activities, and therefore, distinctively different sets of behaviours.
Furthermore, these behaviours would need to be modified in different
circumstances.
Managers, in fact, play a much large number of
roles. In the 1980s, several senior managers attending a training
programme at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, were
requested to indicate the chief roles they played in their organisations.
When their responses were analysed, as many as 37 roles emerged.
There were 10 ‘strategic’ roles.
1. Policy formulation
2. Planning of changes and innovations
3. Securing of vital intelligence
4. Procuring of vital scarce resources
5. Setting of long-term goals and strategy
6. Identification, understanding, and interpretation of major constraints
7. Understanding and interpretation of the organisation’s external
environment
8. Articulation of the organisation’s vision
9. Contributing to the growth of the organisation ‘
10. Building up of the organisation’s image.
Ten roles were called ‘operational’:
1. Policy implementation
2 Innovation/change implementation
3. Setting of short-term targets
4. Work allocation
5. Maintenance of the control system
6. Monitoring of staff performance
7. Disciplining
8. Crisis handling
9. Rewarding
10. Seeking suggestions from ‘customers’ to improve services.
There were nine ‘leadership’ and staff
development roles:
1. Setting a personal example
2. Exciting the staff through challenges
3. Investing in the staff’s growth and development
4. Motivating and inspiring the staff
5. Providing support to the staff
6. Providing guidance and counselling to the staff
7. Team building
8. Constructive resolution of staff conflicts
9. Emphasis on the right values.
The eight ‘people management’ or human
relations roles wereas follows:
1. Effectively communicating with the boss
2. Meeting the expectations of the boss
3 The development of effective relationships with one’s colleagues
4. Being helpful to colleagues
5. Eliciting the cooperation of colleagues
6. Keeping one’s clients satisfied
8. Development of good relations with the staff of government agencies
9. Flaying of ceremonial roles.
If managers, especially at senior levels, need
to play so many roles, it is clear that they need to be very effective
at allocating their time to these roles and at playing each role
well. Much creativity would be required to learn how to play so
many roles (including how to delegate away some roles or many of
the activities of these roles) and how to play them well in a large
variety of circumstances.
What can managers create?
Managers can create a structure of roles and
responsibilities, delegations, and coordination and control mechanisms
in their departments to ensure that the department is able to carry
out its assigned functions and tasks.
Let us look at some examples of what managers
create, and how creatively they create.
Managers can transform a lethargic work culture
in creative ways. In 1984, Captain Prabhala of the Indian Navy was
seconded to Bharat Electronics Corporation (BEL), a government-owned
enterprise that was in the business of producing various sorts of
electronic equipment, mainly for India’s defence forces. He
came in as a top-level executive, not as the CEO. He headed the
Bangalore unit of the company. He found the work culture somewhat
laidback, so he sat about changing it. He spoke to his subordinates;
he spoke to the people in the plant. He began the practice of walking
around in the plant unannounced and talking to the operatives.
He got a diagnostic survey of staff morale and
attitudes commissioned. He learnt from the middle-level managers
that their seniors were autocratic and did not grant enough authority.
Prabhala invited an outside consultant to help in the diagnosis,
especially concerning issues of effectiveness, productivity, and
structure. A human resources development (HRD) manager was appointed
to initiate HRD activities, and the induction programme for trainee
engineers was re-designed. Management by objectives (MBO) was introduced
for managers to make them more focused on key result areas and make
the process of target setting at all levels more participative.
By these actions, Captain Prabhala was able to
transform the work culture and the organisational climate from a
somewhat traditional, conservative, bureaucratic, and laidback one
to a participative one in which the rank and the file felt a stake.
He created hope and optimism where earlier there was lethargy. In
three years, the sales of the Bangalore unit climbed two-and-a-half
times, and the profit nearly doubled.
Managers can creatively craft revitalisation
strategies for sickly organisations. Revitalisations of sick organisations
are generally effected by newcomer CEOs, frequently imports from
outside the organisation. In order to come up with a revitalisation
strategy, the CEO needs to get familiar with the organisation and
its stakeholders, and its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats.
The common strategy is to rely on internal and/or
external analysts and consultants, meet senior managers for briefing
sessions, go through internal records, reports and financial statements,
and so forth. V Krishnamurhty of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL)
relied instead on face-to-face interaction. As soon as he took over
as the CEO, he started meeting, singly or in groups, various staff
members.
Excerpt from ‘Corporate Creativity’
by Pradip N Khandwalla. Reproduced with permission © 2003,
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company LimitedIn a matter of six months
or so, he met an estimated 25,000 persons, and sought from them
their views, concerns, and suggestions. He also took the opportunity
to brief them about SAIL’s sorry state. Through this Herculean
effort,
Krishnamurthy could develop a widely acceptable
revitalisation strategy that he called Priorities for Action.
CEOs can also display considerable creativity
and diversity in the way they implement their revitalisation strategies.
Krishnamurthy, for example, personally coached all his 5(K) senior
managers on the turnaroundstratcgy, got them to coach in turn their
subordinates, and mailed the document Priorities for Action to all
2(XXKK) plus staff of SAIL, with freedom to them to fashion local
turnaround strategies that were compatible with the corporate Priorities
for Action.
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