As Mintzberg (1973) and Robbins and Coulter (2018) highlight, managers and leaders adopt multiple roles that are contingent on a variety of factors, including the task to be undertaken and the impact it will have on the relationships among individuals, the organisation and wider stakeholders.

This activity will enable you to appreciate the roles that managers and leaders adopt to influence others and to plan, organise, lead, co-ordinate and control the organisation's resources.

Task 1: Choose one of the following scenarios that most relates to your personal context:

1. recall a time in your working life when you were responsible for managing an activity
2. draw on your experience of being managed and recall your manager at the time
3. recall a time in your educational life when you were tasked with leading a group or undertaking a particular activity

Once you have chosen one of i, ii or iii:

1. consider whether the ten roles cover all of your/their work. Did you/they do things that are not on Mintzberg's list? If so, what were they?
2. give examples of what you/they did under five of the roles in any of the categories
3. on reflection, consider whether any of the five roles should have been given more or less attention
4. evaluate whether your findings support or contradict Mintzberg's theory

Adapted from Boddy (2017, p. 19).

On completion of this task, in approximately 50–100 words, post your findings on the Discussion Board. Respond to at least one of your peers and compare and contrast your findings.

Task 2: In your Personal Journal, in no more than 50 words, reflect on what you have learnt from this activity and how it will aid the development of your personal and employability skills.

Now that we have established what managers and leaders do, we will examine the skills they need to effectively perform their managerial and leadership responsibilities.