An Empirical Study on Niche Structure of Senior Managers

Recent years see the more and more extensive application of ecology to social science. This paper aims to introduce niche theory to the study of senior managers, with a view to provide new ideas and methods to management theory and practice. The paper defines the connotation of the niche of senior managers based on literature review. An open-ended questionnaire survey helps to establish the 7-factor structure of the niche of senior managers. According to the structure, a preliminary questionnaire of the niche of senior managers is designed. 138 subjects have been surveyed, and the results of exploratory factor analysis show that the niche of senior managers is a multi-dimensional structure of six factors. In order to further verify the construction validity of the questionnaire, a more accurate study is made on the selected samples of 244 subjects. Confirmatory factor analysis shows that the niche of senior managers is a parallel structure of six factors, including scholarly accomplishment, character accomplishment, competence, organizational advantages, organizational social responsibility, and organization-authorized resources. The questionnaire is found to have acceptable reliability and validity.