Management tasks of department chairs and their perceived needs for staff development were studied in Australian Colleges of Advanced Education (CAE), U.S. state colleges, and a U.S. university. Data were obtained from 679 Australian and 98 U.S. department heads, using similar instruments developed by the Nebraska-Lincoln Task Force on Management Practices in Higher Education. The university differed from the CAEs and state colleges in emphasizing graduate education, offering more majors, and enrolling more students. Respondents indicated whether 61 tasks were part of their responsibilities and whether they needed professional development on the tasks. The tasks can be categorized as: budget planning, development and control, student relations, human relations and personnel administration, internal/external relations, internal administration, personal/professional development, and curriculum and instruction. Findings include: Australian chairs engaged in fewer tasks than the U.S. chairs; university chairs engaged in fewer tasks than state college chairs; and Australian chairs did not engage in the budget planning, development and control, and student relations tasks. Additional findings and a comparison with past studies are presented. A 29-item reference list, 3 tables, and an appendix showing frequency distribution of responses by task conclude the document. (SW)