Antigüedad en el puesto, comunicación y rendimiento en el desarrollo de nuevos productos

This research paper is intended to provide a greater insight into the relationship between the length of service of managers from a sample of innovative Spanish companies and their behaviour towards problem solving, information and cognitive processes. The results obtained from 136 managers from various departments are in line with prior studies and warn of the long-term effects of length of service on managerial ability to respond to change and tendency to overlook problems or conflict as opposed to attentively dealing with them. Specifically, as length of service increases, managers notice: (i) less changes in customer preferences; (ii) less opportunities arising from advances in technology; and (iii) more difficulties in predicting their competitors’ upcoming product improvements.