Understanding Differences in General Management Jobs

Kotter J.P. , The General Managers, New York, Free Press, 1982.

The first author's study of five division general managers in a three-billion-dollar diversified firm in the US was an intensive case study. General managers from each of the company's three industry groups were studied for five days each. The divisions ranged in size from $150 million to $300 million. The research methods used were primarily interviews with the general managers, their direct reports, and their superiors (the group vice president and the chief executive) and secondarily, observation of the managers' styles and key meetings, and collection of company documents. Follow-up phone interviews were conducted at three-month and six-month intervals. The research was funded by the Division of Research, Harvard Business School, and is gratefully acknowledged. The second author's study of 20 district general managers in the UK National Health service was a two-year intensive tracer study of a random stratified sample of the 182 district population. The research methods used were frequent interviews with the general managers (averaging 25 per person); interviews with each manager's boss, peers, and subordinates; collection of documentary evidence; and observation of key meetings. The sample was stratified to include at least two of each of the professional and career backgrounds selected for these jobs from within the health service and from business and the armed services. These were new jobs (following a reorganization in 1984–1985) which took charge of the hospitals and related facilities in a geographical area. The research was funded by the National Health Service Training Authority, but the remarks are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of the Authority.

Hemphill J. , Dimensions of Executive Positions, Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University, 1960.

Mintzberg H. , The Nature of Managerial Work, New York: Harper and Row, 1973.

Kotter , 1982, p. 23.

See, for example: Aguilar F.J. , General Managers in Action, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988; Andrews, K., The Concept of Corporate Strategy, Homewood, Il.: Irwin, 1980; Berg, N.A., General Management: An Analytical Approach, Homewood, Il.: Irwin, 1984; Christensen, C.R., Andrews, K.A., Bower, J.L., Hammermesh, R.G. and Porter, M.E., Business Policy Text and Cases, Homewood, Il.: Irwin, 1982; Dakin, S.R. and Hamilton, R.T., ‘The Development of General Managers; Some New Zealand Evidence’, Management Decision, 1985, Vol. 23, pp. 28–34; Kaplan, R.E., The Warp and Woof of the General Manager's Job, Greensboro, NC.: Center for Creative Leadership, Technical Report No. 27, 1986; Kotter, 1982; Pearson, A.E., ‘Six Basics for General Managers’, Harvard Business Review, July-August 1989, Vol. 67, pp. 94–101; Thain, D.H., ‘The Functions of the General Manager’, Business Quarterly (Canada), autumn 1978, Vol. 43, pp. 53–61; Lawrence, P.R., and Lorsch, J.W., ‘New Management Job: The Integrator’, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1967, Vol. 45, pp. 142–152.

Resource allocation differences are discussed in Scott B. , ‘Stages of Corporate Development, Part I’, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Case Services 9-371-294, 1971.

Kotter , 1982, p. 27. One implication of Kotter's work is that it would be wise to appoint younger, less experienced people to the less demanding general management posts as training for other general management jobs and/ or as an experiment to see if the person can handle a general management position.

See, Gupta A.K. , ‘Contingency Linkages Between Strategy and General Manager Characteristics: A Conceptual Examination’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 9, 1984, pp. 399–412; Herbert, T.T. and Deresky, H., ‘Should General Managers Match Their Business Strategies?’ Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 15, winter 1987, pp. 40-51.

These meetings typically last longer than encounters with managers in smaller organizations. See Kotter, 1982; Kurke L.B. , and Aldrich H.E. , ‘Mintzberg was Right!: A Replication and Extension of the Nature of Managerial Work’, Management Science, Vol. 29, August 1983, pp. 975–84; Mintzberg, 1973.

Stewart R. , ‘A Model for Understanding Managerial Jobs and Behavior’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 7, January 1982, pp. 7–13; Choices for the Manager, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 1982.

Allen S. , ‘Understanding Reorganizations of Divisionalized Companies’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 22, 1979, pp. 641–71.

See, Vancil R.F. , Decentralization: Managerial Ambiguity by Design, Homewood, Il.: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1978.

See Lorsch J. W. , and Allen S.A. , Managing Diversity and Interdependence: An Organizational Study of Multidivisional Firms, Boston, MA.: Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, 1973; Vancil, 1978.

Vancil , 1978, p. 8.

See Hemphill, 1960; Hemphill J. , ‘Job Descriptions for Executives,’ Harvard Business Review, Vol. 37, September-October 1959, pp. 55–67; Stieglitz, ‘The Chief Executive's Job - and the Size of the Company’, The Conference Board Record, September 1970, pp. 38-40.

Kotter J.P. , ‘General Managers are not Generalists’, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 10, Spring 1982, pp. 4–19.

Stewart R. , ‘Developing Managers by Radical Job Moves’, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 3, 1984, pp. 48–55.