Organizational structure and CEO dominance

Christian Schumacher ()
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Christian Schumacher: Vienna University of Economics and Business

Journal of Organization Design, 2021, vol. 10, issue 1, 19-34

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Keywords: Organizational design; Chief executive officers; Personality traits; Dominance; Span of control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jorgde:v:10:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s41469-021-00091-6

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DOI: 10.1186/s41469-021-00091-6

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