The Effects of Environment and Technology on Managerial Roles

Abstract

Two samples of managers are used to demonstrate that environmental and technological variables affect the frequency of managerial roles as defined by Mint&erg (1973). Environmental complexity increases the frequency of informational roles while complexity and dynamism increase the frequency of decisional roles. The interpersonal roles are predicted by an interaction between complexity and dynamism. Overall routineness decreases the frequency of all roles. The presence of rules increases the frequency of decisional and interpersonal roles. The findings suggest that environmental dimensions and technology need to be taken into account in future research and future theories of managerial work.