1. EMBO laboratory management course © www.metisleadership.com (2006) © Dr. Conor John Fitzsimons (Baden-Baden), Dr. Klaus Wagenhals (Mühlheim/Main) (2005) Role Theory Rounding Out The Job Description

2. EMBO laboratory management course © www.metisleadership.com (2006) © Dr. Conor John Fitzsimons (Baden-Baden), Dr. Klaus Wagenhals (Mühlheim/Main) (2005) Types of Roles  Roles, fixed by society, groups (historically grown) they are used like stereotypes, established for special purposes of action – like the police-man, the doctor, the scientist, the father/ mother… These roles exist independently of us.  Roles, developed as part of our personality they are indicated as our individual pattern of action in different situations depending on our favors, strenghts, necessities – like “the nit picker”, the “bon vivant”, the “artisan”, the “strategic thinker”, …  A speciality of these roles are the Somatic Roles they are developed taking care of one’s physical / emotional needs (e.g. “fresh air fanatic”). Each of us takes on many roles, depending on the situation. Moreno figured out, that our role-taking happens in three phases:  the taking in a sense of looking how it will work  the taking in a sense of playing the role(s) – filling out in all the aspects  the taking in a sense of performing the role(s) – means juggling with different roles appropriate to the situation

3. EMBO laboratory management course © www.metisleadership.com (2006) © Dr. Conor John Fitzsimons (Baden-Baden), Dr. Klaus Wagenhals (Mühlheim/Main) (2005) the bon vivant the patriot Father or mother Personality (Role receiver, Role bearer) Organisation Tasks Understanding of the main tasks Culture Values & Norms Structure Training, Position, Power Role definer and sender (The Others ) Environment Where The Role(s) Come From Translated from Steiger & Lippmann Handbuch angewandte Psychologie für Führungskräfte. Berlin (1999)

4. EMBO laboratory management course © www.metisleadership.com (2006) © Dr. Conor John Fitzsimons (Baden-Baden), Dr. Klaus Wagenhals (Mühlheim/Main) (2005) Every Job Has Three Components Task Description Formal tasks, responsibilities, authorities Expectations The company expects the job to be carried out in a particular way Staff have expectations about how their boss behaves Customers & Suppliers also have expectations Influence of personality Each of us fills our role differently A personality model can help to identify particular strengths and blind spots

5. EMBO laboratory management course © www.metisleadership.com (2006) © Dr. Conor John Fitzsimons (Baden-Baden), Dr. Klaus Wagenhals (Mühlheim/Main) (2005) Clarifying the Roles in a Team  If you are working in a team, people tend to take so called goal-roles: these are roles, which are useful and necessary to reach the goals (i.e. the pusher)  But they are able to act at the same time in so-called group-maintaining roles – like the searcher of compromise  And at the same time they are able to act in so-called individual-interest roles; means: these roles serve more personal interests or the individual balance. For you as a team-leader it´s very important to encourage your team-members to take the roles of the first 2 bubbles and to keep under control the role(s) of the 3. bubble.

6. EMBO laboratory management course © www.metisleadership.com (2006) © Dr. Conor John Fitzsimons (Baden-Baden), Dr. Klaus Wagenhals (Mühlheim/Main) (2005) The Challenge Most Job Descriptions focus on formal tasks Formal tasks, responsibilities, authorities Expectations are seldom clearly formulated Expectations are often subconscious Expectations vary from culture to culture what makes a good manager How should decisions get made Expectations vary from person to person and are different between the hierarchies Bringing expectations to the surface is key in international teams