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  • American Journal of Sociology

The Changing Role of Managers

By: Letian Zhang
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Abstract

This study argues that the increase in middle management in recent decades was accompanied by a major shift in managerial roles. Increased task complexity and a new management philosophy have reduced the need for direct supervision but generated a much greater demand for internal collaboration, leading in turn to the emergence of a managerial class whose primary role is collaboration rather than supervision. To test this, I analyzed a large volume of data, including millions of managerial job postings, a large collection of managers’ resumes, job reviews written by employees, and several unique firm-level datasets. These analyses generated three sets of findings. First, in recent decades, the expectations of the managerial role have quickly changed, in almost all sectors, from supervision to collaboration. Second, this new managerial role is especially concentrated in innovation-focused firms. Finally, firms treating managers as collaborators have a much higher proportion of middle managers than those still treating them primarily as supervisors. Thus, accounting for changing managerial roles could explain a significant portion of the managerial growth in recent decades. Together, these findings suggest that the role of managers has fundamentally shifted and that this change helps explain the growth of the managerial class.

Keywords

Managerial Roles; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Change; Organizational Structure

Citation

Zhang, Letian. "The Changing Role of Managers." American Journal of Sociology (forthcoming).
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About The Author

Letian Zhang

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

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More from the Author
  • Regulatory Spillover and Workplace Racial Inequality By: Letian Zhang
  • Values and Inequality: Prosocial Jobs and the College Wage Premium By: Nathan Wilmers and Letian Zhang
  • A Framework for Understanding Racial Disadvantage within Organizations By: Alexandra C. Feldberg, Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
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