During the growth period of the 1960's and the early 1970's, community college institutional research focused on conducting surveys, compiling institutional reports on grades and enrollments, analyzing student characteristics, and providing background information for writing grants. The researchers came mostly from the teaching faculty and were relatively untrained in research methodology. However, current fiscal constraints, public dissatisfaction with the overall decline in student academic achievement, the increased enrollment of non-traditional students, and the growing importance of terminal, vocational education have required researchers to take on five management-related tasks: (1) studying institutional cost-effectiveness to meet increasing demands for accountability; (2) establishing marketing strategies for the recruitment of non-traditional students; (3) utilizing program needs assessment techniques to satisfy state reporting requirements and to determine program cost-effectiveness; (4) conducting periodic program evaluations; and (5) analyzing and providing solutions to problems in faculty contract negotiations. These functions will become increasingly important during the 1980's as community colleges face greater state control and more competition from four-year institutions. Thus, the institutional researcher will become closely allied with college management and is likely to need specialized business training. (JP)