This study investigated what university and college department chairpersons believe are the most important duties of their position, how they view their roles, and the relationship of perceived roles and duties. Possible role definitions included seeing department chair work as leader, scholar, faculty developer, or manager. The study surveyed 800 department chairs from 100 higher education institutions with a 36-item questionnaire. Of those, 539 were returned. Analysis of the results indicated that chairs view those items which are of immediate benefit to the faculty and departments they chair as more important than activities which may benefit the university as a whole. Specifically, of the 10 chair duties selected as most important, eight describe aspects of faculty development, suggesting that chairs see assisting colleagues as of primary importance in their job. A clear association was seen between duties in which chairs believe they are effective and duties which they regard as most important. Gender differences between male and female chairs were observed with female chairs giving greater emphasis to remaining current in their discipline. In addition, leader and manager chairs who chair soft discipline departments gave greater emphasis to providing informal faculty leadership than did their hard discipline counterparts. (Contains 14 references.) (JB)