THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF MANAGERS

'The moral responsibilities of managers, whether in the public or private sphere, generally include upholding the law, fulfilling the legitimate duties of their positions, observing relevant codes of ethics and otherwise abiding by generally held moral principles such as honesty and not knowingly doing harm.' (Teehankee, 2007)

In the past, traditional duties of managers were recognised to only focus on administrative work and controlling the employees so as to ensure productivity was efficient and profitable. However, Henry Mintzberg, a Canadian academic, disagreed with the typical view of mangers and found that managers were not the 'robotic paragons of efficiency' that they were usually made out to be (The Economist, 2009), but were figures of authority that had great responsibility to ensure employees were happy, safe and motivated within the workplace. Mintzberg's book, 'the Nature of Managerial Work' looked at the different responsibilities and 'managerial roles' that are enforced on a manager today. He divided the roles into three categories: a)Informational b)Interpersonal and c)Decisional. Interpersonal roles are those important to the moral duties of a manager, and Mintzberg rated these just as highly as administrative duties. These interpersonal duties include role and moral responsibilities included being a “figurehead” for employees i.e. someone the workers can come to for help and who can voice the complaints and opinions of the workers to the board. Other duties include being a “leader” for the employees, and helping to motivate, inspire and guide employees actions, e.g. Through opportunity for promotion and/or rewards for good work. The most important of the interpersonal duties that Mintzberg identified was the role of being a “liaison” and building relationships between the staff and the organisation as