Organizational structure and CEO dominance

Journal of Organization Design

Christian Schumacher¹ 

[1] Department of Global Trade and Business, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020, Wien, Austria;

关键词: Organizational design;    Chief executive officers;    Personality traits;    Dominance;    Span of control;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s41469-021-00091-6

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

We explore the effects of chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) personal dominance—an idiosyncratic character trait strongly associated with a desire for influence and control—on two fundamental organizational design decisions: the CEO’s span of control (1) and her delegation of responsibilities as reflected in the appointment of a chief operating officer (COO) (2). Linking three original measures of CEO dominance based on quarterly earnings calls with manually collected data on span of control and COO positions for a sample of CEOs presiding over large US corporations, we demonstrate that CEOs who are high in dominance have a significantly larger personal span of control and delegate fewer decision rights than less-dominant CEOs. We discuss implications of our findings and future questions from an organizational design perspective.

【 授权许可】

CC BY