Sd. Friedman et P. Olk, 4 WAYS TO CHOOSE A CEO - CROWN HEIR, HORSE RACE, COUP-DETAT, AND COMPREHENSIVE SEARCH, Human resource management, 34(1), 1995, pp. 141-164
Most attempts to understand CEO succession fail to adequately differen
tiate the various ways by which CEOs are chosen. This article presents
a conceptual framework that identifies four kinds of CEO succession p
rocesses, distinguished according to two key factors: political dynami
cs (who rules?) and the candidate search (are preferences known in adv
ance?). Our main point is that the response of organizational stakehol
ders 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 c
hange - reflects how the politics and the search are managed. How inte
rnal 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 off
ered and implications are drawn for researchers and for human resource
executives. (C) 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.