Differences in Managerial Jobs at the Bottom, Middle, and Top: A Review of Empirical Research

It has become popular in the practices of leadership development and talent management to segment managers at different organizational levels in order to focus on the unique requirements thought to characterize jobs at each level. This movement has been spurred by popular books that emphasize differences in the nature of managerial work at different hierarchical levels. Seemingly independent of popular work in this area has been scientific research to describe differences in managerial jobs across organizational levels. The present article summarizes the extensive research literature on level differences in managerial jobs in terms of three broad generalizations: The number of distinct management levels, five different ways to characterize work at each level, and how radical differences in work at each level pose adaptive challenges to managers who transition into positions of greater authority and responsibility. The article closes with commentary on the current state of theory and research and offers su...