3 Ways to Set a User's Manager in Microsoft Teams

Keeping reporting lines current in Microsoft Teams helps people find the right approvals fast. But manager data drifts, org moves happen, and profile cards get out of date.

Teams reads each user’s Manager attribute from Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). You can set it three ways: Microsoft 365 admin center, Entra admin center, and PowerShell or Microsoft Graph. Below, we’ll walk through each method, required roles, sync timing, and common pitfalls.

Table of Contents

• Use Microsoft Teams's UI
• Use Torii
• Use Microsoft Teams's API

Use Microsoft Teams’s UI

Here, you’ll use the Microsoft Teams UI to find and confirm a user’s manager. Teams shows manager data from your organization’s directory, so you won’t assign it here, but you can verify it and know when it updates.

Open the person’s profile in Teams

• In Teams (desktop or web), search for the person at the top.
• Click their name to open their profile card.
• Select Organization.

Check the manager on the Organization tab

You’ll see the person’s manager at the top of the org view. If no one is listed, no manager is set for them in your directory. Microsoft’s Teams docs note that the Organization tab shows info from your company directory and isn’t editable in Teams.

• Quick checks:
  • Hover over the person’s name anywhere in Teams and open their profile card. Look for Organization on the card to see the manager.
  • If you use the Who app in Teams, ask “who is [person]’s manager?” to confirm what Teams has on file.

If it’s wrong or missing, capture what your admin will need

In Teams, you can’t assign or change the manager. Microsoft’s documentation explains this data comes from your organization’s directory (Microsoft Entra ID/Microsoft 365). Share the details below with your IT or HR directory admin so they can update it in the right place:

• The user’s name and email/UPN
• The correct manager’s name and email
• When the change should take effect

Recheck in Teams after the directory is updated

• Close and reopen the person’s profile, or sign out and back in to Teams.
• Give directory changes a little time to sync. Then open Organization again and confirm the manager now shows correctly.
• If it still looks off after some time, repeat the quick checks above and confirm the directory update is complete.

Use Torii

Instead of updating Microsoft Teams by hand, consider using Torii, a SaaS Management Platform, to set a user’s manager in Microsoft Teams. SMPs centralize your SaaS applications and integrations so you can automate onboarding/offboarding, track licenses and subscriptions, and much more-all from one place.

With Torii, you can replace manual steps in Microsoft Teams with automations that fire when specific events occur. Typical triggers include a new hire, an employee departure, or a contract renewal, helping you save time when this task recurs often.

To assign a user’s manager in Microsoft Teams directly from Torii, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for Torii

Contact Torii, and request your free two-week proof-of-concept.

2. Connect your Microsoft Teams account to Torii

After your account is activated, connect Microsoft Teams to Torii (assuming you already have a Teams account). Here are the instructions for the Microsoft Teams integration.

3. Create a Torii workflow for Microsoft Teams

In Torii, build an automated workflow to assign a user’s manager in Microsoft Teams. Go to the Workflows tab, choose your trigger, and add the action that assigns the user’s manager in Microsoft Teams. From then on, whenever the trigger is met, Teams will be updated automatically.

Use Microsoft Teams’s API

Here, you will use the Microsoft Graph API that Teams relies on to set a user’s manager. Teams reads this relationship for org charts and workflows.

Get the right permissions

You need an access token for Microsoft Graph with write access to directory data.

• Pick one authorization approach:
  • Delegated access with user sign-in: scope Directory.AccessAsUser.All
  • App-only access with a daemon or service: app permission Directory.ReadWrite.All
  • After consent, your token must include the chosen permission. If you see 403 errors, check consent and scopes first.

Identify the user and the manager

You will need the object IDs of both the employee and the manager. You can look them up by UPN or email.

Example curl to get the employee’s ID:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/[email protected]

Example curl to get the manager’s ID:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/[email protected]

From each response, copy the id value.

Assign or update the manager

The manager is a single-valued reference on the user. As documented for the users manager relationship in Microsoft Graph, set it by sending a PUT to $ref with an @odata.id pointing to the manager.

Example curl:

curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"@odata.id":"https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/"}' \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users//manager/$ref

A successful response is HTTP 204 No Content.

Verify the assignment

Confirm the relationship is in place.

Example curl:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users//manager

• You should see the manager’s user object in the response.
• Teams may cache directory data. Give it some time to reflect changes in org views.

Change or remove the manager

• Change: run the same PUT to $ref with a different @odata.id.
• Remove: send a DELETE to the reference.

Example curl to remove:

curl -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users//manager/$ref

Common errors and fixes

• 403 Forbidden:
  • The token is missing Directory.ReadWrite.All (app) or Directory.AccessAsUser.All (delegated)
  • Admin consent not granted
• 400 Bad Request:
  • The @odata.id is malformed or references a user outside your tenant
• 404 Not Found:
  • The target user or manager ID is wrong, or the user does not exist
• 409 or policy blocks:
  • A directory policy or role restriction is preventing writes. Check tenant policies and role assignments.