ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a data that points to several predictors of variation in managerial roles, of which industry, functional specialism and the prevailing type of organizational structure appear to be the most pervasive. It focuses on whether differences in work role characteristics among these managers are in any way associated with the environmental and organizational attributes of their working context. The chapter looks at possible interactive effects between the contextual variables. Among the dimensions of organizational structure, specialization, standardization and formalization were highly intercorrelated in a positive direction. These variables had a moderately high negative relationship with centralization of decision-making. The structuring of activities and centralization are associated with different characteristics in managerial roles. Viewed overall, differences in a manager’s area of functional specialization appear to be more strongly associated with personal rather than interpersonal role perceptions. The size of organizations, their country of ownership and the hierarchical level of their senior managers proved to predict certain managerial role characteristics.
