The Centre for Executive Development at the Ulster Business School has been com missioned by the Management Development Division of the Training and Employment Agency to develop an assessment centre targeted at senior management of small to medium -sized companies (SM Es) within Northern Ireland. The assessment centre is to be based upon the development of a generalisable framework of managerial competencies that is comparatively simple to understand and that h as perceived relevance and applicability to that senior management population. The research required to develop such a framework will address a number of the more complex issues within the area of managerial competency, none more so than whether any two managerial jobs or situations are ‘the same’ or ‘different’. It is this issue which forms the basis of the present discussion of generalisable versus specific competency frameworks.