School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
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ItemAn economic and psychological assessment of managerial ability( 1977)The constituent elements of effective management in coping with the variability of the climatic and economic environment in agriculture are largely unknown. In order to define these elements, a procedure which incorporated an assessment of the influence of environmental and resource levels and inputs, and the personal characteristics of the manager, on management performance, was utilized. A comparative economic analysis between properties, within zones of similar vegetation and soil characteristics in South West Queensland, was undertaken. This involved comparison of individual properties within each year, and changes between consecutive years. Definition of groups of properties with common changes in financial performance between years was also obtained for the Soft Mulga Zone, which had contrasting changes of performance between individual properties and between consecutive years. A review of past research into the influence of a manager's personal characteristics on managerial performance revealed that understanding and predictability of the characteristics' influence was low and unreliable. This was considered to be due to having not used theories of total human behaviour in those studies. Each manager's definition of management of a property, in his own terms, was determined using a Repertory Grid technique derived from Kelly's Theory of Personal Constructs. An understanding of management strategies and success, learning about management, coping with the environment and reacting to one's own managerial performance, was obtained using the Repertory Grid Test. The study showed that environmental and resource levels have a. considerable influence on managerial performance in any one year and on changes in performance between years. Certain strategies of livestock number manipulation were more effective than others in ensuring adequate financial performance, in situations of drought and low wool prices. Each manager was essentially individualstic in how he saw his property and how he saw and valued his management. Whether he effectively coped with changes in his biological and economic 'environment depended on how he construed those changes, his experience with those changes in the past, and how he reacted to the results of his management efforts. The economic and psychological assessments allowed a definition of managerial ability to be determined. They also allowed the development of an in-the-field Repertory Grid technique to assist in determining a manager's constructs about management. The field method would have value in ensuring that the helping agencies for primary producers were more relevant in their activities.