This study investigates the relationships of the managerial characteristics of supervisory ability, achievement motivation, intellectual ability, self‐actualization, self‐assurance, and decisiveness to the assessment of managerial effectiveness in Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China relative to a Western country such as Canada. It was found that, as in Canada, several of these managerial characteristics were significant predictors of managerial effectiveness in the Eastern cultures. In addition, senior managers in the PRC were quite similar to their counterparts in Canada, but differed from those in Hong Kong, in their use of these characteristics in inferring the effectiveness of their subordinates. Self‐actualization was the most important predictor of managerial effectiveness rating in Canada, self‐assurance in Hong Kong, and intellectual ability in the PRC. Supervisory ability was the second most important predictor in each