The Unit General Manager

Abstract

The research follows two, related avenues of study. It seeks first to answer the question as to what are the requisite competencies of subsidiary unit general managers in a successful multibusiness group dealing in industrial goods and consumer durables. The role of the particular category of general manager is defined, primarily, in relation to a two dimensional model developed by Kotter (1982). The nature of the employing Group is defined in relation to another two dimensional model developed by Goold and Campbell (1987). Secondly, the study asks what are the relationships between outputs, skills and personality attributes in the unit general manager role following a model defined by Boyatzis (1982) after having first critically examined and updated Boyatzis’ model by reference to the work of later contributors. The researcher defines a competency model for the particular genre of general manager based on the literature. He then attempts to validate this model by reference to data related to outputs, skills and personality attributes which he has collected over a number of years in the context of a variety of action research projects, i.e. research undertaken for operational, rather than academic, purposes. With minor exceptions, the empirical data supports the hypothesised model. It also provides insight between which are threshold competencies, i.e. differentiating between poor and average performers and those which distinguish the superior performer as well as indications as to which competencies correlate most with overall performance indices. The results give support to the existence of relationships between the three classes of variable examined but, as Boyatzis predicted, these relationships are rarely of a simple one-to-one variety between single variables. Analysis of the data suggests that measuring outputs, skills and personality attributes can add value to each other in accounting for variations in overall performance so that selectors would be advised to assess all three classes of variable