ABSTRACTResearch 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 di