John B. Miner

The essential message set forth here is that if we are to truly understand leadership processes, they need to be couched in the form of the organizational system within which they occur These organizational systems are understood to include the hierarchic (managerial), professional (specialized), task (entrepreneurial), and group (team). Research r...

To reduce the inefficiencies of individual salary polls, and to provide better baseline data for all Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) members, AUTM constructed a comprehensive survey. The second year of the AUTM salary survey, 2006, is the most comprehensive survey to collect and include information about U.S., Canadian and othe...

Data are presented to support the argument that motivation to manage is a major cause of managerial effectiveness, that it declined sharply in the college population during the activism of the 1960s and early 1970s, and that it is now severely lacking in the United States relative to many other countries. Thus America's competitiveness problems app...

A recent article (W. H. Stewart & P. L. Roth, 2001) in the Journal of Applied Psychology presented the conclusion from meta-analysis that entrepreneurs have a higher risk propensity than managers and that this propensity is particularly pronounced among the growth-oriented. A previously unresolved question was said to be laid to rest and a "vital c...

I analyze rated importance, extent of recognition, validity, and usefulness of 73 established organizational behavior theories, differentiating between the views of judges with expertise in organizational behavior and in strategic management. The results indicate an increasingly mature science with many more positive relationships among the variabl...

In this series of letters, Jack Miner and Roseanne Foti exchange their views on the role of individual differences and organizational forms in the leadership process. Foti takes a position more oriented toward individual differences; Miner is more oriented toward organizational form. This exchange leads to a call for more research emphasizing the d...

This study follows upon previous research among established entrepreneurs indicating that a four-way psychological typology (i.e., personal achievers, real managers, expert idea generators, and empathic supersalespeople) predicts firm growth. It extends support for the typology to the venture initiation phase and to a student population. The result...

This research indicates that typologies covering multiple types of entrepreneurs are applicable within the realm of entrepreneurial personality. Four such personality types - personal achievers, real managers, expert idea generators, and empathic supersalespeople - are identified, and shown to be related to subsequent entrepreneurial success. The e...

This study assessed Chinese women's motivation to manage and its relationship to managerial success in Chinese state-owned enterprises. It was found that overall managerial motivation of Chinese women in this study was as high as that of Chinese men. In addition, overall managerial motivation was positively related to the hierarchical job level. Of...

Used follow-up data on the growth of 59 firms contacted over 5 yrs after their entrepreneurs were tested with the Miner Sentence Completion Scale—Form T to test hypotheses derived from task theory. The results lend support for the predictive criterion-related validity of overall task motivation, a desire for personal achievement, a desire to innova...

Research is reviewed that compares women's and men's motivation to manage as assessed by the Miner Sentence Completion Scale, a projective measure designed to reveal respondents' motivation to meet the role requirements that traditionally characterized managerial positions in hierarchic organizations. An analysis of the predominantly masculine defi...

Organization theory has been preoccupied for many years with the bureaucratic form. Insufficient attention has been given to alternative designs, including, in particular, professional organizations of various types. This article considers these professional organizations at length within the context of professional role motivation theory. It also...

Data are presented on the task or achievement motivation, as measured by the Miner Sentence Completion Scale — form T, of 118 technologically innovative entrepreneurs whose subsequent behaviour caused them to be placed in one of three groups: (a) entrepreneurs who were found to be no longer with their firms; (b) entrepreneurs who could not be locat...

Some 25 years ago while developing his type of entrepreneur and type of firm classification system. Smith (1967) thought he had identified a subtype of entrepreneur that did not fit either his craftsman or his opportunistic models. The data at that time were too sparse to be sure, but it appeared that there were certain entrepreneurs whose major co...

In this book the balance between organizational and personnel content is roughly equal, although there is one more chapter in the organizational part. The part of the book dealing with organizational psychology is placed first to reflect the predominant emphasis in courses at the present time. . . . However, some professors may wish to take up pers...

To regard voluntary organizations as unique manifestations of organizational behavior requires an accurate account of the nature of such work systems. This paper appraises existing definitions of the voluntary agency in the context of organization science and presents evidence for replacing the nonvoluntary/voluntary dichotomy with entrepreneurial,...

Research in the United States based on the hierarchic role-motivation theory indicates that motivation to manage rises with job level and is higher in the for-profit sector. The present research was designed to investigate these relationships in a sample of 170 employed individuals in the People's Republic of China. A review of the literature sugge...

This paper describes a program of research, based on role motivation theory and dealing with entrepreneurship, as it has evolved over some 15 years. It notes both dead-ends and successful navigations. Subsequent to the literature review, new findings are presented indicating that motivational measures are particularly effective in identifying growt...

Previous analyses indicated that the goodness of a theory as perceived by knowledgeable scholars had no relationship to the theory's scientific validity or usefulness in application. Additional analyses utilizing the same data now indicate that humanistic values played an important role in this finding. Scholars with strong humanistic values are pa...

The Miner Sentence Completion Scale—Form T (MSCS—T) and an innovative technology survey were administered to applicants for development grants under the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Program. Data were obtained from 118 entrepreneurs who had founded their firms and from a comparison group of 41 manager/scientists wh...

Analyses were carried out relating performance evaluations of labor arbitrators by union representatives to similar evaluations of the same arbitrators by management representatives. It was found that these evaluations are either unrelated or, in some cases, negatively related. An important consideration in the evaluations is whether an arbitrator’...

Managerial role motivation theory has proved to be useful for understanding executive performance in a wide range of highly structured organizational environments. Consistent results of studies indicate that the theory may be useful for understanding managerial behavior and predicting performance in health care organizations.

The motivation to manage is a key factor influencing the energy and effort people bring to the job. A review of a training approach outlines action that can be taken.

Research on motivation to manage can be summarized in five points: (1) motivation to manage is a major factor for success; (2) motivation to manage declined in students from the 1960's to the 1970's; (3) this decline is evident in the relevant age groups; (4) differences between United States students and foreign students place the United States at...

Administered the Miner Sentence Completion Scale—Form H (MSCS—H) to 75 chief executive and operating officers, executive vice presidents, and group vice presidents (mean age 48.2 yrs). 49 of these Ss had clearly worked their way up a bureaucratic hierarchy and thus were congruent with managerial role motivation theory (i.e., those who reached the h...

Previously published data in J. B. Miner and N. R. Smith (1982, Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 297–305) and K. M. Bartol, C. R. Anderson, and C. E. Schneier (1980, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 17, 22–32; 1981, Journal of Applied Psychology, 66, 40–44) are in direct conflict as to whether managerial motivation merely stabilized at a low level...

Analyzed are 32 established organizational science theories in terms of their rated importance, validity, and usefulness. Little evidence of any relationships among these three variables is found. However, other significant findings do emerge from the analyses. Their relevance for an emerging organizational science discipline is explored. Certain p...

Miner Sentence Completion Scale measures of managerial motivation for a sample of Oregon entrepreneurs were compared with interview data on entrepreneur and firm type using a system of differentiation derived from the Enterprising Man (Collins, Moore and Unwalla, 1964) research. Certain relationships between aspects of managerial motivation and fir...

Studies were conducted at the US Military Academy and at the Officer Candidate School, Fort Benning, Georgia, to determine whether the Miner Sentence Completion Scale (Form H) would predict turnover in the essentially hierarchical military education and training context. The Military Academy sample contained 502 Ss, 189 of whom separated in a 4-yr...

Investigated the decline in managerial motivation that began in the early 1960's to determine when and if it stabilized. Data for 1972–1973 ( N = 86) and 1980 ( N = 124) were added to findings for 1960–1961 ( N = 287) and 1967–1968 ( N = 129) showing that managerial motivation as measured by the Miner Sentence Completion Scale (MSCS) continued to d...

Management consultants and corporate managers are compared on measures of motivation and mental ability which have exhibited some relationship to managerial success. A consistent pattern of superiority among the management consultants failed to emerge. Thus, there is no support for the view that consulting firms offer an especially good source of h...

The title of this paper contains two basic elements—the concepts of limited domain theory and of organizational energy. The first of these draws upon Dubin’s (1969) terminology and refers to theories that have a number of boundary-determining criteria. Whether the theories to be presented are truly theories of the middle range in the sense Merton (...

A reading of Tom Mahoney’s discussant comments suggests that he is not really sure what I am trying to do with my four limited domain theories of organizational energy and that he has serious doubts that I am engaged in theory construction in any event. The first problem is the easiest to handle. Although my paper for the Midrange Theory Conference...

Research related to the various hypotheses of managerial role-motivation theory is reviewed. In general this research supports the theory, although there are numerous areas that require further investigation. A total of 21 studies have been conducted to test the theory's validity and all have yielded significant results; 5 of these studies are pred...

Made comparisons between the motivation to manage scores of 75 White male, 36 White female, and 23 minority male (mostly Black) managers on the standard Miner Sentence Completion Scale and a special, situation-specific version. These managers were predominantly at the 1st level and worked for a major automobile manufacturing company in a variety of...

Declining motivation to manage among college students poses the threat of severe managerial talent shortages. Socially responsible business education must move to meet this challenge by adding programs in managing (not just management) to existing curricula. Managerial role-motivation training is essential to any such program.

• Made comparisons between the motivation to manage scores of 75 White male, 36 White female, and 23 minority male (mostly Black) managers on the standard Miner Sentence Completion Scale and a special, situation-specific version. These managers were predominantly at the 1st level and worked for a major automobile manufacturing company in a variety...

Comparisons were made to determine the degree of convergence among three measures associated with leadership success in large, hierarchic organizations in the business sector: the Miner Sentence Completion Scale; the Ghiselli Self-Description Inventory; and the F-Scale, Correlational analyses and comparisons between means were made using college st...

Using J. B. Miner's (1964) Sentence Completion Scale to measure motivation to manage, comparisons were made among 4 different samples of personnel and industrial relations managers ( n = 50, 51, 20, and 21) and 6 samples of business managers from other functional areas ( n = 117, 50, 30, 30, 30, and 37). Comparisons indicate that the personnel and...

Studies were conducted with samples of students from four different universities to determine if male-female differences in motivation to manage existed. Although differences were not found among students majoring in the field of education, females in business administration and the liberal arts did prove to have lower managerial motivation scores...

Studies were undertaken in a department store and in four school districts to determine if managerial motivation is related to management success indexes and whether female managers have less managerial motivation than males. The measure of managerial motivation used was the Miner Sentence Completion Scale. Managerial motivation did prove to be sig...

Hypothesized that the role motivation theory of managerial effectiveness is applicable in highly structured organizational contexts of the bureaucratic type, but not applicable in low structure contexts of the professional type. Simulated organizations with undergraduate members (N = 487) were used-a facsimile of a large business firm and a series...

Claims that the chief cause of the predicted dearth in managerial talent is "no will to manage." Explores a number of remedial actions that companies can take, such as more selective recruitment, more vigorous weeding out, and more participative management. So far, the most promising approach is formal training to shape managerial motivation. (Auth...

Evidence is presented that college students of the late 1960s, as contrasted with those of the early 1960s, had low levels of competitive motivation, and negative attitudes toward authority figures, assuming managerial roles in large bureaucracies, accepting administrative responsibility, and assuming masculine roles. No consistent differences were...

Effective personnel decision making has been crippled in the past by irrationality on the selection and promotion levels and by the failure of professional psychologists to find improvements. Today, the picture is brighter. Accuracy in predicting performance has been improved by modern computers; recognition of the unique corporate personality; eme...

The existing division within organization theory between management and behavioral views is first demonstrated through an analysis of bibliographic listings. An attempt is then made to argue the case for amalgamation, using the frequently parallel literatures on span of control and correlates of group size as an example. These two literatures are r...

Research was conducted to determine whether managerial motivation can be identified as early as the junior year of college. Business students were tested with the Miner Sentence Completion Scale (MSCS), and the scores of those who did and did not indicate managerial career objectives were compared. Although those aspiring to management positions ha...

The author has developed a model of the personnel function to overcome the barriers—created by overemphasis on techniques—that have prevented solution of specific human resource problems The model directs thinking away from specific techniques to broad problem solving and the making of choices from among multiple alternatives. There are implication...

Research was conducted to determine if managerial motivation can be identified during the period of graduate education, or whether it emerges only subsequent to industrial employment. 106 graduate business students were tested with the Miner Sentence Completion Scale (MSCS) which was scored to give an Item Score and a Rare Score. 41 indicated a des...

Does the association between desire to assume managerial responsi bilities and success in managerial work found through research in the business world hold for educational organizations as well? Dr. Miner attempts to relate various motivational measures to organiza tional value and reward indexes in four school districts and to the career choices o...

While the influence of psychology on marketing practices is widely recognized, almost no information is available regarding the roles of psychologists in the education of those preparing for careers in marketing. What related changes are occurring in psychology and in business administration? Are adequate provisions being made so that marketing man...

Taken as a whole these data carry some rather interesting implications regarding the impact psychologists have had upon the schools of Business administration. This impact has been conditioned to a large extent by the fields of specialization, the background, and the training of the particular psychologists who have joined in the task of teaching b...

Four measures have been developed from the Tomkins-Horn Picture Arrangement Test which can provide reliable information regarding the level of conformity in various groups. The present paper deals with the upper strata of the business and academic worlds. Evidence is presented which bears directly on assertions that top executives have remained rel...

A variety of personality and ability tests were utilized in a study devised to isolate effective predictors of sales success and to study the various factors in sales performance. The Ss were 65 dealer salesmen employed by a mojr petroleum company. Objective criterion measures were developed using sales figures covering a 4-year period. After cross...