The Warp and Woof of the General Manager's Job

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Center for Creative Leadership, 1986 - Business & Economics - 68 pages
This report draws details and examples from a study of the general manager job in a major corporation in an effort to determine what it takes to be an effective general manager. The report looks at two aspects of the demanding and important position of general manager. First, the report discusses the more or less constant requirements of the job, those demands that the general manager job places on any manager in most situations. The demands discussed include the need to function strategically and tactically, to think multi-dimensionally, to build and make use of large networks of contacts, to manage organizations of large scope and scale, and to occupy an elevated position with its visibility and trappings. Next, the report examines the variation in general manager jobs, with special emphasis on the contextual factors that make one general manager job different from another. Specific examples from the organization studied are given to illustrate these contextual factors. A section on how a general manager can evolve through various stages of definition and redefinition is also supported by examples from the company studied. The report concludes with five guidelines for studying and understanding the general manager job. (NB)

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