Mintzberg’s Ten Management Roles (1973) were specified into three categories: interpersonal roles (figurehead, leader, liaison); informational roles (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson); and decisional roles (entrepreneur, handler, allocator and negotiator). All ten managerial roles stated above are essential to all three managerial levels with of course, different portion.
The first category of Mintzberg’s management roles is the interpersonal roles. Interpersonal roles are managerial roles that involve people and other duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. (Robbins et al., 2008). In other words, interpersonal roles can be described as a managerial performance that is assumed to interact and coordinate with employees as a part of acknowledging organizational visions. Interpersonal roles are simplified into figurehead, leader and liaison.
Figurehead is a symbolic head; obliged to perform a number of routine duties of a legal or social nature. (Mintzberg, 1973, as cited in Robbins et al., 2008). A figurehead represents what tasks are done by his/her team, which things are necessary to get the jobs done more effectively and efficiently (at lower-level manager) and so on.