Enactment in Managerial Jobs: A Role Analysis*

Abstract

Research into managerial jobs and behaviour has been appropriately criticized for being acontextual and atheoretical. Hales (1986) suggested that role theory could provide one suitable theoretical framework. This article assesses the merit of that suggestion and then develops it by proposing a theoretical model of the antecedents of a manager's impact on the expectations held by others that partially define the job. The analysis integrates research from the fields of managerial behaviour, leadership dyads, symbolic interactionism, and idiosyncratic jobs to produce a more comprehensive model of the determinants of 'expectation enactment' in managerial jobs. It brings an enactment or 'emergence' perspective to the field of managerial jobs and behaviour that is consistent with recent developments in other parts of the organizations and management studies literature. Implications for future research are discussed.

Brand equity in the professional service context: Analyzing the impact of employee role behavior and customer–employee rapport

“…), where different role expectations develop as individuals or groups interpret their roles (for similar approaches, see e.g. Hales, 1987;Fondas & Stewart, 1994;Hales & Tamangani, 1996;Yaconi, 2001;Butterfield, Edwards, & Woodall, 2005;Mantere, 2008). As such, we acknowledge that roles are formed in various forms of social interactions based on interpretation, communication and expectations.…”

Organizational Climate and Perceived Manager Effectiveness: Influencing Perceived Usefulness of Knowledge Sharing Mechanisms

“…We complement role theory with social exchange theory (Blau, 1964;Gouldner, 1960) to argue that, to the extent that subordinates perceive that their managers have met their role expectations, the subordinates will reciprocate with behavior and attitudes that they believe commensurate with the expectations of their supervisor (Fondas & Stewart, 1994;Hochwarter, Witt, Treadway, & Ferris, 2006), such as exhibiting good organizational citizenship behavior (Chen, Lam, Naumann, & Schaubroeck, 2005). Thus, individuals are more likely to conform to what their managers desire when they perceive their managers as effective, specifically in positively evaluating KSMs that their managers have institutionalized.…”

Leadership discretion: a developmental experience

“…The use of role discretion as the lens through which to develop an understanding of the leadership role, contribution, and perceptions of senior executives to their organization is based on the overwhelming assumption that the senior executives occupy discretionary roles (Fredrickson et al, 1988;Hambrick, 1990, 1996;Fondas and Stewart, 1994;Kakabadse and Kakabase, 1999).…”