three months to two years for lower-level jobs, two to five years (perhaps as high as 10 years) for
middle managers, and 10 to 20 years-plus for top-level leaders (Jacobs & Jaques, 1987).
3.2.3 FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
In line with the traditional idea of division of labor and the nature of bureaucracy (Weber, 1946),
activities at different organizational levels were thought to be substantively different. Katz and Kahn
(1978) defined the functional activities as follows, at the top level, WKH³RULJLQDWLRQRIVWUXFWXUH ́which
was the determination of organizational structure and policy. More recently, this has been described as
setting strategic direction and creating and maintaining organizational culture (Hunt, 1991). At the
middle level, the ³LQWHUSRODWLRQ RI VWUXFWXUH ́consisted of middle managers translating the bigger
picture into operating goals, implementing policy, and execution. At the lowest level, ³the
administration of structure ́ was the routine use of operating procedures to deal with problems in
execution. A parallel can be drawn with the notion of complexity, origination of structure deals with
high levels of complexity in order to identify and define the novel problem of setting direction in an
ambiguous context where options are bountiful whereas the administration structure involves the
selection from a relatively known set of options to deal with problems in execution that could have
been expected. The key activity for lower-level managers was the supervision and direction of the
individuals carrying out the core day-to-day work of the organization, distributing resources and
assigning specific tasks to the employees who executed the core work.
3.2.4 PRIMARY SKILLS
A somewhat different approach to distinguishing between the three organizational levels involved the
identification of the distinct competencies and skills needed at each level. Hodgson et al. (1965)
presented a model in which the dimensions of organizational structure, specifically organizational
level, moderated the nature of leadership as well as its antecedents and consequences. He argued that
performance demands on managers change across organizational levels and hence the critical
competencies that form the basis for selection policies and training and development programs, should
change as well. While it seems logical that differences in competencies were drawn from the
differences in tasks and functional activities, competencies were the firstly discovered distinguishing
factor. The skills typology of Katz (1955; Mann, 1965) classified management skills into three general
areas: technical skills ± being at ease with specialized methods, processes, knowledge and techniques
(for lower-level managers); interpersonal skills ±communication, ability to relate, build and maintain
relationships, understand feelings and desires of others (for middle managers); and conceptual skills ±
analytic and logical thinking, deductive and inductive reasoning, and mentally representing complex