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Abstract

This research arose from a practical managerial issue: the different, sometimes radically different, ways in which individual managers did what was apparently the same managerial job in the same organisation.

The questions prompted were: How can any differences in task preference be identified? What influences the choices made? Can the influences be identified? Can any be measured? Is it possible to predict where and how a manager's preferences might be exercised on the job. The project set out to accurately and consistently identify the tasks carried out by seven managers and establish whether this pattern of work was related to measurable personal characteristics of those managers.

Each manager was observed constantly over a period of several working days. Each activity was timed and recorded; subsequently the activities were classified using the ten managerial roles identified by Henry Mintzberg in his 1973 study of managerial work. The seven managers also completed Cattell's 16PF, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles Questionnaire. All the results obtained were subjected to correlational analysis in order to establish whether any statistically significant relationships were present within the data.

The research establishes clear relationships between the task preferences expressed by managers through their managerial activities and aspects of the personality and cognitive styles of those managers. Additionally, there were strong indications of two further influences affecting the manager's choice: the preferences expressed by more senior managers; and the organisation's management style and culture.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Bayes Business School Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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