The Role of Management Behavior in Agricultural Cooperatives

Abstract

Mintzburg's managerial working role model is used to explore the ways roles and behavior of the general manager of a user-oriented firm differ from those of the manager of an investor-owned firm (lOF). It is argued that, in the roles of conflict resolution, resource allocation, information spokesperson, and leadership, the challenges of a user-oriented manager are not only significantly different but often more difficult. It is concluded that managers comfortable with complexity, technical-operation, people-oriented resource allocation, multi-stakeholder communication, and with strong coalition-building skills are most successful in user-oriented organizations.