Have, and if so how have, the attributes of a "good" manager changed
over time?  I'd be interested in the views from academics or other
expert observers, as well as views from managers themselves.  Ideally,
I'd love to have data from the same survey, conducted repeatedly over
time.  Short of that, I would be pleased with a summary of the
opinions of academics - how have they changed over the past, say 50
years?

We have done profiling in our company and have found out that the
traits/characteristics of our performing leaders.

- has foresight and provides direction for the business
- willingness to lead combined with the interpersonal skills
necessdary to be effective in leadership
- analyzes pitfalls 
- ability of a person to scrutinize potential difficulties related to
a plan or strategy
- enlists cooperation;  a good manager enjoys the feeling of inviting
and persuading others to participate or join an effort

These are characteristics that our HR is looking for when hiring sich managers

It should be noted that much of jadayu-ga's post above was lifted from
this Wikipedia article, without attribution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management#Historical_development

Thanks for pointing that out pink... And here I thought jadayu-ga
worked on that for 3 days!

It should be noted that much of jadayu-ga's post above was lifted from
this Wikipedia article, without attribution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management#Historical_development
===============

Thank you for chidding me for omitting the attribution link:
I must have taken care of that before posting the reply.

First, in order to understand the development of today's manager, you
need to understand the development of organizational theory.  At the
turn of the industrial revolution, managers were trying to come to
terms with the inherent problems related to the increased scale of
production.  To this end, pioneers of the scientific management
principles, Weber and Fayol, created the bureaucratic processes of
management.  Mainly these principles stated that efficiency in the
organization was created by thinking and planning by the top managers
and strict adherence to the rules by the workers.  This model of
organizational structure is actually quite effective and can be put to
use in stable, non-reactive environments.  I know that this is
difficult for many modern workers to comprehend, with the movement
towards the "spirituality" of the workplace.  The worker is still
expected to produce, but the environment around the organization has
changed.  With the internet, telephones, TV, jets, etc. the speed of
information has increased dramatically.  This change has driven
organizations to more of a "flat" structure so that information and
accurate decisions can be more readily created.  The underlying
assumption that all managers must face is that they can't come to
accurate decisions all the time, so they must rely on the workers to
see, and recognize, opportunities.  A good example would be an
organization that has an "open door" policy with the CEO.  Any worker
can bring to his or her attention an opportunity or threat, thereby
changing before the competition.  Research the following authors:
Daft, Richard L.; Dehler, Gordon E.; Welsh, M. Ann;  Jaffee, David;
Margretta, Joan; Schneider, Marguerite; Weber, Max; Whyte, W.H.