Managerial Roles by Henry Mintzberg

NAME: TAI QIN NI
STUDENT ID: 0342085
PROGRAMME: BACHELOR OF BUSINESS FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
MOBILE NUMBER: 012-5501303
EMAIL ADDRESS: [e-mail]
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
INTRODUCTION
This research is focused on Johnson & Johnson(J&J), a
worldwide corporation. According to their official
website, J&J is a healthcare company that operates via
three segments:
consumer health, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices.
Alex Gorsky is the current chairman of the board and
CEO of J&J since 2012 (J&J, n.d.).
THE MINTZBERG’S MANAGERIAL ROLES
The purpose of this assignment is by conducting secondary research, to display how J&J’s
managers adopted Henry Mintzberg’s managerial roles. There are ten roles common to the
work of all managers identified by Henry Mintzberg (The Nature of Managerial Work, 1973).
It encompasses three main roles which are informational role that are divided into monitor,
disseminator, and spokesperson three sub-roles. Second, the interpersonal role that includes
three sub-roles such as figurehead, leader, and liaison. Finally, the decisional role which has

entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator four sub-roles (The
Nature of Managerial Work, 1973).
INTERPERSONAL ROLE
One of Henry Mintzberg's managerial roles that can be applied to J&J is the interpersonal
role defined as dealing with and motivating employees at all organisational levels (Stimpson
and Farquharson, 2015). The figurehead and liaison are the two sub-roles that will be
discussed. A figurehead is defined as the symbolic leadership in social and legal concerns
(Stimpson and Farquharson, 2015). Alex Gorsky, for example, has represented and spoken on
behalf of J&J at the Lake Nona Impact Forum, which annually attracts more than 300 of the
country's top CEOs, health-care innovators, and thought leaders (Lake Nona Institute Impact
Forum, n.d.). Besides that, Mr Gorsky has also been on CNBC’s Healthy Returns to discuss
and answer questions regarding the J&J vaccine that the company has developed. Mr.
Gorsky, is clearly acting as a significant representative of J&J because he is the one who
attends forums and other interviews on behalf of the entire company. A liaison, on the other
hand, is defined as connecting with managers and leaders from other business divisions and
organisations (Stimpson and Farquharson, 2015). The US government and J&J have agreed
to invest $1 billion in vaccine research, development, and clinical testing (Brewster, 2020)
during the pandemic. J&J has entered into a $1 billion agreement with the US government to
co-invest in vaccine research, development, and clinical testing (Lovelace, 2021), through
building a close relationship with the government to work together in increasing the
immunisation rate. These are evidence showing the importance of a business creating and
maintaining a close relationship with external bodies, in this case J&J with the government,
to increase the rate of achieving herd immunity for the entire country.

DECISIONAL ROLE
Decisional role is defined as decision-making and allocation of resources for the objectives
of the organisation (Stimpson and Farquharson, 2015). the disturbance handler and
entrepreneur are the two decisional sub-roles that will be
discussed. A disturbance handler is the role of a manager that
reacts to changing conditions that can endanger the company
(Stimpson and Farquharson, 2015). Former J&J CEO James E.
Burke from 1976 to 1989, made an extraordinary measure during
the Tylenol problem in late September 1982 (Rehak, 2002), by recalling 31 million of J&J's
Tylenol products after seven people in the Chicago region died after eating Extra-Strength
Tylenol pills (Rehak, 2002). Although J&J spent $100 million on recalling and relaunching
Tylenol (Wiggins, 1982), this clearly shows how Mr Burke is prioritising the key individuals
involved in this disaster, its consumers. Additionally, the entrepreneur
role is defined as the role of manager looking for new opportunities to
develop the business (Stimpson and Farquharson, 2015). William C.
Weldon, a former CEO of Johnson & Johnson from 2002 to 2012,
exhibited his entrepreneur role during his tenure. Mr. Weldon brought in
a significant number of engineers and equipped them with computer-
aided design (CAD) equipment when he was hired as the president of Ethicon Endo-Surgery
(EES), a newly founded J&J subsidiary in 1992, to develop new products (Reference for
Business, n.d.). He also enrolled Harvard Business School experts to assist EES in
establishing a versatile, team-based environment that was able to drastically reduce the time
needed to develop new products (Reference for Business, n.d.). Mr. Weldon’s initiatives are