Roles of Management

The four roles an organization must perform to be healthy, known individually as the (P), (A), (E), and (I) roles of management. These four roles make the organization effective and efficient in the short and long term:

• (A) Role: this role of management helps make the organization efficient in the short term by making the organization more systematic through rules, standard operating procedures, and other similar tools.

• (P) Role: The role of management that helps make the organization effective in the short term by making the organization more functional. The (P) role is what gets things done in an organization.

• (E) Role: The management role that helps make an organization effective in the long term by making the organization more proactive through creative thinking, seeing the big picture, and imagining what the future will bring.

• (I) Role: The role of management that makes an organization efficient in the long term by making the organization more organic, raising the organization’s awareness of its own interdependency. The (I) role is strengthened through personal relationships and the understanding that the organization will succeed or fail as one.

Because the roles are in conflict with one another, an organization must continuously seek to balance these roles in a way that best serves the organization within the context of events taking place in its industry (external factors) and its evolving lifecycle location (internal factors).