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Four ways to choose a CEO: Crown heir, horse race, coup d'Etat, and comprehensive search
Author(s) -
Friedman Stewart D.,
Olk Paul
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
human resource management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.888
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-050X
pISSN - 0090-4848
DOI - 10.1002/hrm.3930340109
Subject(s) - successor cardinal , politics , race (biology) , management , process (computing) , business , ecological succession , political science , public relations , sociology , economics , law , computer science , gender studies , mathematical analysis , ecology , mathematics , biology , operating system
Most attempts to understand CEO succession fail to adequately differentiate the various ways by which CEOs are chosen. This article presents a conceptual framework that identifies four kinds of CEO succession processes, distinguished according to two key factors: political dynamics (who rules?) and the candidate search (are preferences known in advance?). Our main point is that the response of organizational stakeholders to CEO successions—(a) whether the process is perceived as fair, (b) whether the chosen successor is seen as good for an organization's future, and (c) the extent of disruption attending the leadership change—reflects how the politics and the search are managed. How internal and external stakeholders respond to a CEO succession can affect a new CEO's capacity for exercising effective leadership. Examples of each type (Apple, General Motors, Kodak, and Procter & Gamble) are offered and implications are drawn for researchers and for human resource executives. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.