Three broad categories of management roles was first discussed in management scholarship by Henri Fayol.

Henri Fayol, a French engineer and director of mines, was one of the most influential contributors to modern concepts of management. He is known for his "14 principles of management" and the five functions of management. However, it was actually management scholar Henry Mintzberg who first proposed the three broad categories of managerial roles.

Here are the three broad categories of management roles as discussed by Mintzberg:

1. Interpersonal Roles: These roles involve managers performing duties that are centered on relationships within the organization. They include the roles of figurehead (symbolic head of the organization), leader (responsible for the motivation and activation of subordinates), and liaison (maintains a network of outside contacts who provide favors and information).

2. Informational Roles: These roles involve managers acting as the main point of receiving and transmitting information. They include the roles of monitor (seeks and receives wide variety of special information to develop a thorough understanding of the organization and environment), disseminator (transmits information received from outsiders or from subordinates to members of the organization), and spokesperson (transmits information to outsiders on organization’s plans, policies, actions, and results).

3. Decisional Roles: These roles involve managers making decisions about the organization. They include the roles of entrepreneur (searches organization and its environment for opportunities and initiates projects to bring about change), disturbance handler (responsible for corrective action when organization faces disturbances), resource allocator (makes or approves significant organizational decisions), and negotiator (represents organization at major negotiations).

These roles are not exclusive to any specific level of management and are likely to be performed by managers at all levels of the organization.