Key Components in Product Management Success (and Failure): A Model of Product Managers′ Job Performance and Job Satisfaction in the Turbulent 1990s and Beyond

Over the last five years, the once vaulted system known as product management has been under attack. Challenged by a variety of mega‐trends, including rising consumer expectations and expertise,revolutionary changes in technology, and shifting power in channels of distribution, product managers now face an environment much more demanding than that of the past. Examines the role of product managers of consumer goods in this new environment, within the context of a conceptual model developed to understand better the dynamics underlying their job performance and satisfaction. The model highlights the interactions among boundary spanning, information power and interfunctional coordination, and incorporates the concepts of strategic orientation, role conflict and role ambiguity. In all, 17 propositions are advanced for future empirical testing.