Pulldown Menu Created With JavaScript/DOM; Wrong Width In IE

I am trying to generate a pulldown-menu with JavaScript/DOM:
The following Code works fine with Opera an Mozilla but in the IE the
width of the select element is too short:

myCurrentElement =
window.document.getElementsByName('par_role')[0];
for (var i = 0; i < optionArray.length; i++)
{
myNewElement =
window.document.createElement('option');
myNewElement.setAttribute('value',
optionArray[i]["value"]);
if (optionArray[i]["selected"]==1)
{
myNewElement.setAttribute('selected',
'selected');
}
myNewText =
window.document.createTextNode(optionArray[i]["label"]);
myNewElement.appendChild(myNewText);
myCurrentElement.appendChild(myNewElement);
}

<select size="1" name="par_role"">
<script language="JavaScript">
<!-- //
var j = optionArray.length;
optionArray[j] = new Object();
optionArray[j]["value"] = "1";
optionArray[j]["label"] = "Admin";

var j = optionArray.length;
optionArray[j] = new Object();
optionArray[j]["value"] = "4";
optionArray[j]["selected"] = "1";
optionArray[j]["label"] = "TEST";
// -->
</script>

If I try to set the width of the select-element with css, long labels
are cut off.

Do I have any other possibility to reset the width of the select
element?