Managerial work in small firms:
summarising what we know and
sketching a research agenda
Henrik Flore
´
n
School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to describe the basic characteristics and qualities of
managerial work in small firms.
Design/methodology/approach – The article draws on a summary and synthesis of five studies
from the “managerial-work research tradition” that investigates the behaviour of top managers in
small firms by means of direct observation. Studies are evaluated by using research on managers’ jobs
in general, and some needs as well as guidelines for future research on entrepreneurial and managerial
work in small firms are suggested.
Findings – Managerial work in small firms is described by discussing: how managers divide their
time between different activities; managerial interaction and communication, and the elements of
managerial work in small firms. Three limitations of existing studies are identified: they are difficult to
compare; they adopt a simplistic conception of the constituents of managers’ jobs, and more
specifically of the relation between the managing actor and the context in which he/she works; and
they fail to recognise to the value of inductive analysis.
Research limitations/implications – Future studies of managerial work in small firms have much
to gain by considering the development that has been taking place within general management theory
and in the study of managers’ jobs. This article contributes a first step towards bringing research on
managers’ jobs into the small-business research community.
Originality/value – The paper initiates a better understanding of the basics of managerial work in
small firms, which has not previously been elaborated upon and is an important step in exploring the
dynamics of small business management.
Keywords Owner-managers, Small enterprises, Management styles
Paper type General review
Introduction
This study deals with the work of top managers in small firms. There are several
motives for such interest. Many studies of entrepreneurs and small business
owner-managers have adopted a trait perspective in the search for an answer to the
question: who is an entrepreneur and who is a small firm manager? For some time now
it has been argued that this perspective alone is inadequate in explaining the
phenomena of entrepreneurship (Gartner, 1988, p. 12). Hence, the study of
entrepreneurial behaviour has been suggested by several authors (Gartner, 1988;
Gartner et al., 1992; Sarasvathy, 2001) and explored by others (Sadler-Smith et al., 2003)
to clarify what entrepreneurs and small business managers do. Yet our knowledge of
what small business managers really do is limited. A field which has been paying
extensive attention to what managers in general do is that of managerial work. Going
back to the seminal study of executive behaviour by Carlson (1951), this research
tradition has contributed to an empirically grounded understanding of what managers
do in many different settings and provides valuable experiences of how to study
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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IJEBR
12,5
272
International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behaviour &
Research
Vol. 12 No. 5, 2006
pp. 272-288
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1355-2554
DOI 10.1108/13552550610687646