Is there a ‘New Managerial Work’? A Comparison with Henry Mintzberg's Classic Study 30 Years Later*

Abstract

This comparative study of top executives' work aimed at examining the stability of top managerial behaviour reveals a relatively different pattern of behaviour compared with the study by Henry Mintzberg. The main differences are a much larger workload, a contact pattern to a larger degree oriented towards subordinates in group-settings, a greater emphasis on giving information, and less preoccupation with administrative work. One important finding is that fragmentation of time -in previous studies highlighted as a central tenet of managerial work -was not as prevalent in the new study. The different results can be attributed (with caution) to the impact of the management discourse about leadership and corporate culture, and to factors such as organizational structure and geographical dispersion of companies. However, there are also significant similarities between the two studies which indicate that claims of the emergence of a radically different managerial work are much exaggerated. Instead the empirical data shows that new work-practices are combined with older practices, both in a complex and context-specific ways. Therefore, there is a need for better integration between theoretical development and empirical investigations in this field of inquiry.

Perceptions of facial dominance, trustworthiness and attractiveness predict managerial pay awards in experimental tasks

“…Our findings indicated a greater reward for trustworthiness and dominance in senior managers than lower-level managers and this is likely to be routed in the specific context of senior positions (e.g. Mintzberg, 1975;Tengblad, 2006). Two issues underlie our findings: First, we found that facial cues are sufficient to trigger an evaluation of managers' deserved pay.…”

“…As work at different hierarchical levels of organisations can pose different challenges, characteristics derived from facial cues might be of greater or lesser salience for employee pay according to the nature of the position in question. Senior management positions differ crucially from other leadership roles in terms of the tasks and challenges that they involve (Mintzberg, 1975;Tengblad, 2006). Consequently, the perceived value of the facial cues considered in the current study will likely differ for senior managers relative to lower-level managers.…”

“…Creed and Miles (1996) propose that trust in leaders is especially relevant in workplaces where tasks are unstructured and complex with high levels of interdependencies. This description is particularly fitting to senior managerial work (Mintzberg, 1975;Tengblad, 2006). Moreover, given that strategic decisions are not always made under a consensus from all team members, it is particularly important for senior leaders to generate trust in their teams (Korsgaard, Schweiger & Sapienza, 1995).…”

Accounting information and managerial work

“…Given criticisms that accounting research is too rigid and cautious (Hopwood, 2007), an expanded research focus is important in encouraging investigations that consider the emergence of new roles and possibilities for accounting, as well as reconsideration of our existing conceptions of what accounting is and is used for. A broader scope of inquiry will require much greater engagement with on-going research in related fields, such as studies of how managers use information (e.g., Anderson, 2008), research that examines how information is communicated in organizations (e.g., Nelson, 2001), as well as studies of changes to the nature of managerial work itself (e.g., Tengblad, 2006). In addition to enriching our own research, a likely benefit of this engagement is increased interest in the outputs of accounting research from scholars in other disciplines whose research also seeks to understand how managers use information in organizations.…”

Celebrity Chief Executive Officers Influence on Firm Performance: A Review of Theory and Evidence

“…Mintzbergs [56] in his book titled "Managing" based on the analysis of the daily lives of 29 managers in a variety of fields and industries and varying in sizes in America notes that the role of a CEO in leading and managing remains timeless and is unaffected by the complexities in the business environment. In an earlier study by Tenglad [57] titled "New Managerial Work? A comparison with Henry Mintzberg's Classic Study 30 Years later" observed CEOs over a full working week and emphasizes their behaviors as leaders, partner and facilitator to employees and solves business problems through cross-functional networks and projectteams.…”