My boss sends out desperate emails to the team all day, using goofy platitudes like "we can do this - let's drive our main focus" and "focus and execute", to get us to keep him from losing his job in a top-heavy company with too many managers.

While I don't doubt that CEOs work a lot, I wouldn't trust the accuracy of this study all that much. The CEOs knew their activity was being recorded by their assistants, so it likely affected their behavior.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

This article talks about Italian bosses. It would be interesting to compare bosses across the top 8 (or so) economies across different sectors and business sizes.

Simple: The higher up the chain you are, the more meetings you attend. It's not unusual for managers to have their entire day filled with meetings.

Well all I know is some bosses get paid in the tune of millions while companies they run perform poorly every quarter.

Don't forget, upper management's often unwarranted high pay is in part to incentivize the broad ranks of hopeful middle management.

just amazing "....But not every boss thinks he needs more time for thinking. 'You can hire McKinsey to do that for you,' says one."

Not very shocking if you ask me.