What do small business owner-managers do? : a managerial work perspective

This article proposesmanagement styles to small business owner-managers based on the twomost important approaches tomanagerialwork. The managerial work performance of small business owner-managerswas analyzed from different perspectives. An important perspective, known as small business owner-manager behavior studies, is founded on the manager's functions (process approach) and roles (roles approach). This perspective is based on studies on thework of the manager of large businesses. Even if on the one hand this transfer of concepts from large to small business reveals problems, on the other hand it has proven to be a rich opportunity for research. This research applied a survey methodology that asked small business owners to answer a questionnaire. The results indicated that both approaches - process and roles - are useful to characterize the work of small business owner-managers. Four managerial styles were identified: (1) activity structuring (2) public relations (3) supervision and leading, and (4) conflict solver. Regarding the four different styles,we believe our paper can contribute to thedevelopment and improvement of specific theories about small business management, based on the study of the nature of managerial work.