Traditional research on factors predicting to managerial success has typically employed correlational methods designed to assess how individual characteristics of one kind or another or in combination influence success. This study is based on a social psychological contingency perspective and was designed to test the hypothesis that the interaction or fit between personal work orientations and organizational climate makes a significant contribution to the variance in career success among managers. Questionnaire survey data collected from a population of 310 middle managers and 101 top managers in 28 different company environments in British and American firms were used for the study. Four paired orientation-climate variables were investigated: achievement, risk-taking, relationships, and conventionality-structure. Success was measured by a salary progression-age ratio. The findings support the fit hypothesis in the particular case of the achievement pair for middle managers with meaningful support in the risk-taking area. However, such was not the case for the cross-validation study with the population of top managers where a different dynamic appears to be at work. Certain main effects of orientation and climate, different in pattern for the two groups of managers, were also observed. Modifications in the basic hypothesis guiding the study are proposed.
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