The Project Manager Role: Management or Managing?

Abstract
A lot of research has been done on the role of project manager, which varies in detail
and agrees in the outline through defining some key managerial roles required by a
project manager to follow throughout his project in order to be able to manage it.
Leading is one of the major roles which is required to be at its highest by any
project manager because it defines the relationship between the project manager and
other staff inside and outside the project. Also, communication, planning, monitoring,
and integration are some other key roles required by a project manager to be within a
certain level of experience and skills.
Some researchers provided different aspects of the managerial roles such as Mintzberg
who has classified the management roles in three major categories: interpersonal,
informational, and decisional roles which in turn are branched to other ten managerial
roles.
Introduction

The role of a project manager is one of the key issues which has been discussed by many
researchers due to its importance and direct effect on the success or failure of a project. As
the project manager is responsible for the project’s success and failure, it is important for any
project manager to have certain skills to be able to guide the project.
Bodepudi (2018) defined the responsibilities of a project manager through six factors:

1. Planning: achieving a certain goal by creating a roadmap beforehand.

2. Organizing: giving a structure to the project team, through assigning roles to team members
with targets to be achieved.
3. Leading: the most important as per Bodepudi (2018). This responsibility includes
coordination, meeting deadlines, decision making, knowledge management, and interpersonal
skills.
4. Monitoring: which is done through three steps:
 Measure: progress
 Evaluate: causes of deviation
 Correct: appropriate corrections

5. Communicating: as per research mentioned by Bodepudi (2018), 90% of project managers’

time is spent in communication.
6. Managing risk: analyzing the projects and defining negative risks and their impact.

Some other roles were discussed by Siles (2018) where he emphasized the need for a better
understanding of the role of a project manager that the job description of a project manager
needs to be more explicit defining the managerial skills and competencies required for the
job.
Siles (2018) mentioned three critical roles of a project manager:

1- Integrator: a project manager must ensure the integration between project activities,
strategies, and approaches.
 2- Communicator: through communicating with the stakeholders to achieve better
relationships.
3- Leader: through motivating and inspiring the project’s team.

Anantatmula (2010) went deeply in the role of a project manager through publishing a
research about prioritization the project manager roles and responsibilities. To achieve his
research, Anantatmula (2010) selected the respondent profile from different disciplines and
industries (Fig. 1 & 2).
 Fig.1 – Type as per Industry Fig.2 – Type as per Discipline
Anantatmula (2010)

After analysing the responds, Anantatmula found the following priority of project manager’s role:

1) Define roles and responsibilities

2) Communicate expectations

3) Create clarity in communication

4) Establish trust

5) Employ consistent processes

6) Facilitate support

7) Manage outcomes

Then, Anantatmula prepared the following project manager model (Fig.3):

Fig.3 – Project Manager Model
Anantatmula (2010)
Mintzberg’s Theory

“Henry Mintzberg is one of the world’s premier management thinkers as credited

by Tom Peters on the front cover of Mintzberg’s book Managing” (Nguyen, 2011).
Most of researchers have focused on the role of project manager from the management
perspective by listing what a project manager has to do, or what skills he has to have.
Whereas Mintzberg proposed a Model of Managing, not of management, (Nguyen,
2011).
Gervais (2020) listed 10 managerial roles as classified by Mintzberg (Fig. 4):

Fig.4 – Mintzberg’s theory of management

Gervais (2020)

1. Interpersonal
roles:

1.1.Figurehead: by performing ceremonial duties such as greeting visits, wedding parties, and
lunch invitations (Zartler, 2016). The project manager within this role is expected to become
a source of inspiration (MindTools, 2016). In order to build confidence within this area, the
project manager has to improve his image, reputation, and empathy (MindTools, 2016). Both
Zartler and MindTools agreed about the importance of cultivating humility and empathy. This role
helps the project manager to stay close to his staff and others around him through sharing their
private times which will impact on their mutual collaboration and contributes in reducing
any possible conflict during their work.
 1.2.Leader: it is about building strong relations with subordinates, motivation, and coaching.
Responsibilities are at the coronary heart of the manager-subordinate courting and consist of
motivating subordinates, structuring and overseeing their development, inspiring their
improvement and balancing effectiveness (Altamony, 2017). Also, leader roles include
providing leadership to the project manager’s team, department, and the entire organization
(MindTools, 2016). To achieve this role, it is important to improve the leadership skills,
where one of the most important skills is the emotional intelligence (Zartler, 2016).
Leadership is about respect, and listening (Gervais, 2020). Leadership is a major key in the
direct relation between the project manager and his subordinates which shows his experience
and capabilities to move forward throughout the project as one team, reducing conflicts and
collaborating as a member of team, which motivates everyone to achieve more regardless the
work pressure.
1.3.Liaison: which is to have the required contact and communication with external parties. It is
about making contacts outside the vertical chain of command (Zartler, 2016), and about
networking effectively on behalf of the project manager’s organization (MindTools, 2016).
Liaison is about being giving rather than taking (Gervais, 2020). Gervais and Zartler both
agreed that not everyone is comfortable with networking, but networking should be a decent
liaison, where the project manager should attend small networking events. Decent liaison is
an effective tool to seek other respect and approval, since everyone seeks for self- respect and
appreciates those who can express their requirements, fears, troubles, and different issues in
well selected words and times.

2. Informational roles:
2.1.Monitor: it is about scanning the environment for new information to collect (Zartler,
2016), monitoring the team in terms of productivity and well-being (MindTools, 2016),
understanding the details, keeping an eye on “the big picture”, and keeping-up with
industry news (Gervais, 2020). Altamony (2017) added that monitoring is about seeking
internal and stakeholders’ problems which could affect the company. Monitoring is about
gathering information, data analysing, and productivity measurement. To monitor, it is
 important to have monitoring tools, clear and understood by others, to provide actual
measurement and support your judgement, which in turn improves performance, clarify
shortage, and specify the solution.
2.2.Disseminator: which is about communicating potential useful information with other
colleagues and team (MindTools, 2016), or passing on privileged information directly to
subordinates (Zartler, 2016). It is important to understand what to share, how and with whom
(Gervais, 2020). To be effective in this role, it is advised to improve writing skills,
 seek help of other colleagues, or using proofreading. This role shows a professional
attitude by the project manager in having high communication skills through sharing
information properly with the related parties, written properly with no mistakes, and
shared in a timely manner.
2.3.Spokesperson: it is about public speaking. The project manager is responsible for
transmitting information about his organization and its goals to the people outside his
organization (MindTools, 2016). The project manager should have presentation skills, and
ability to overcome his fear of public speaking (Gervais, 2020). Also, spokesperson transmits facts
about the company to stakeholders (Altamony, 2017). The project manager is the
representative of his company to others, including the client, consultant, suppliers,
subcontractors, and stakeholders. This role is the major key in transmitting the actual
project’s progress and status to others in proper, clear and trustful way.

3. Decisional roles:

3.1.Entrepreneur: it is how to improve the unit by initiating projects (Zartler, 2016), how to
create and control change within the organization, and how to solve problems, generate new
ideas, and implement them (MindTools, 2016). This role is a creative behaviour of the project
manager through applying proper solutions to current and expected problems and seeking
new ideas about people and project management.
3.2.Disturbance handler: it is to help mediate disputes within the organization (MindTools,
2016), to handle team conflicts to improve conflict resolution skills (Gervais, 2020), and to
take corrective motion while facing critical and surprising problems (Altamony, 2017). In
order to apply this role, the project manager should coach team members, especially those
who have high emotions (Gervais, 2020). To improve this skill, the project manager should
have proper skills in regards of conflict management either through training or direct
coaching.
3.3.Resource allocator: it is about who gets what (Zartler, 2016), allocating funding and
assigning staff (MindTools, 2016). To apply this role, prioritization is the key (Zartler, 2016). The
project manager has to develop his skills in prioritization and budgeting to apply this role
 (Gervais, 2020). The project manager should have the required skills to allocate his different
resources including staff, equipment, machinery, and funding as per the project requirements,
and matching the organization strategy within other projects.
3.4.Negotiator: it is within the team, department, and organization (MindTools, 2016). The
project manager has to focus on win-win situations (Gervais, 2020). The project manager
 has to improve his negotiation skills, which comes by experience and real situations
which require flexibility, trust, knowledge, and strong influence towards others.

Conclusion

The role of manager is a key factor for the success or failure of a project or organization;
therefore, a lot of discussions and theories have been done in this field to specify what a
manager role can be.
The responsibilities and duties of a project manager have been discussed, and then the
Mintzberg’s theory of management was detailed to see the difference in concept between
Mintzberg and others in defining the managerial roles, where Mintzberg was more effective
in specifying the managerial roles.
Being a manager gives more attention to the required skills and experience, therefore a
manager is expected to have sufficient skills and desire to do the required research in order to
be updated and competitive.
People learn best, and more willingly apply what they have learned, when they do it
themselves (O’Brien, 2001), and they learn most effectively when working on real-time
problems occurring in their own work setting (Raelin, 1997).
Being a learner without professional experience is not sufficient to enrich the required
skills to overcome organizations’ repetitive issues. Therefore, for action researchers, theory
informs practice, practice refines theory, in a continuous transformation (O’Brien, 2001).
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