Testing Mintzberg's managerial roles classification using an in-basket simulation

H. Mintzberg (1973) described managerial work as consisting of 10 roles classified into the following 3 groups: (a) interpersonal roles including the figurehead, leader, and liaison roles; (b) informational roles including the monitor, disseminator, and spokesman roles; and (c) decisional roles including the entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator roles. An in-basket simulation exercise, constructed to test Mintzberg's classification, was administered to 54 Master of Business Administration students and 112 24-40 yr old managers in 2 studies. Analysis with the Guttman-Lingoes smallest space procedure (J. C. Lingoes, 1973) suggested that the 10 roles could be meaningfully divided into 2 facets. One facet consisted of roles that dealt with the generation and processing of information, and the 2nd facet was comprised of roles that involved decisions. The validity of in-basket simulations for the study of managerial behavior is discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).