About 1200 managers derived from 5 large industrial firms in the Nagoya area were asked to respond the questionnaire designed to explore what managers are doing to develop. their own roles and careers in the organization. The hypothesis that states role develop ment and career investment activities are most rigorous among managers whose vertical re lations with their superiors are high, was developed and tested on the basis of findings of the previous 13-year follow-up study on newcomer's managerial career progress in the Japanese industrial organization. Results of the analyses for the present study provided evidence to support our hypothesis. Although, age, the educational level, a job type, years of service, and status were found to have significant influence on managers' role develop ment and career investment activities, the effect of vertical exchange remained highly signi ficant after effects of all the above variables were partialed out by using the method of a hierachical regression analysis.