CEO succession is a vital organizational decision because organizational strategy is a reflection of the experiences of a firm's top leader. The dissertation studies CEO succession by exploring its pattern, which reveals a dynamic nature of many succession decisions. One specific succession pattern, leadership vacillation, is observed in a grounded case of PepsiCo. Leadership vacillation occurs when organizations sequentially select their CEOs between "output" and "throughput" functions. To explain the existence of leadership vacillation, the study combines organizational vacillation theory (Nickerson and Zenger, 2002) with insights from upper echelons research (Hambrick and Mason, 1984) and studies on expert performance (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1993). The study argues that some organizations dynamically balance exploration and exploitation by switching leaders between output and throughput functions, thus exhibiting the phenomenon of leadership vacillation. An empirical examination of 200 large, public companies indicates that the phenomenon is common and non-random. In addition, a probit model accounting for sample selection and a modified treatment effect model are employed to correct for two endogeneity problems when assessing antecedents, boundary conditions, and performance implications of leadership vacillation. The empirical analyses provide initial evidence that leadership vacillation is a product of a series of endogenous successor choices, meaning that a departing leader's functional background has an impact on that of a successor. Knowledge of the phenomenon of leadership vacillation, which has not been explored in previous research, contributes to CEO succession studies in specific and to organization and strategy research in general. Finally, the dissertation discusses its limitations and suggests possible future research on leadership vacillation.

A comprehensive guide to planning for CEO succession, from the experts at RHR As the demands from stakeholders for consummate leadership and good governance from a company's board of directors, its CEO, and its executive team increase, how the process of CEO succession is carried out has become more critical than ever before. Yet, over the past several years, a growing number of CEOs have failed early in their terms, often with devastating consequences to their companies and stockholders. By far the most common problem is a lack of ownership of the CEO succession process. Inside CEO Succession provides businesses, leaders, and boards with the strategies they need to execute their responsibilities with a heightened level of professionalism and ensure the sustained success of the companies they serve. Written by Dr. Thomas J. Saporito, CEO of RHR International, and Dr. Paul Winum, Senior Partner of RHR International, the lessons of Inside CEO Succession are rooted in RHR's long-standing history of bringing expert knowledge, experience, advice, and counsel to the issues related to CEO succession. The culmination of RHR's 65 years of experience providing expert counsel to the boards of directors of hundreds of companies, it explains how ego, role-relationships, power, and human dynamics associated with relinquishing leadership, preparing successors, and ceding power and authority to other people create undetected problems in the succession process and ultimately cause many CEOs to fail early in their tenures. Distills RHR's 65 years of experience helping businesses deal with CEO succession into one practical resource Presents strategies to enable boards to understand their role in succession planning and how to source leadership that best fits their organization's culture and requirements Brings together business acumen and psychological insight to help readers better prepare for more effective CEO succession To be successful, CEO succession requires a well-defined course of action that ensures that a number of highly capable candidates are ready to assume the chief executive position whether through an unexpected event or a planned transition. Inside CEO Succession is designed to help boards comprehensively manage that process and effectively sustain their company's profitability.

CEO succession represents a challenge for many companies. The leadership style of the new CEO impacts employees’ attitudes which, in turn, might be biased by the comparison employees make with their previous CEO. Cristina Pratelli investigates how and why leadership style (dis)similarity between the predecessor and the successor develops and affects successor leadership effectiveness. After a literature review and a theoretical model, she presents results from a quantitative study with SMEs in Switzerland as well as a qualitative multiple-case study with family businesses based in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. This work offers new insights into CEO selection, leadership development, and the effectiveness of organizations.

Whether precipitated by sudden tragedy, CEO performance issues, or a key executive simply going elsewhere or retiring, succession planning has become a front-burner issue in corporate boardrooms across the country. For board members, CEOs, and anyone concerned about the quality of governance in corporate America, CEO Succession fills the need for a practical, best-practices roadmap that puts the board of directors squarely at the helm as the guiding force for ensuring the steady flow of effective leadership. Authors Carey and Ogden draw on personal interviews and their own behind-the-scenes work with the CEOs and directors of some of the leading companies in the world to articulate the field-tested strategies and techniques boards need to create a systematic and transparent planning process that promotes a seamless transition of leadership at every level in the organization. With an up-close look at such companies as Metropolitan Life, Hewlett-Packard, Mellon Bank, and GTE, CEO Succession shows how to put in place the key elements essential in the succession planning process: establish and sustain a reliable succession agenda and timetable; implement a self-renewing succession culture that develops leaders at all levels of management; create a healthy relationship between the Board and CEO that keeps the CEO on track; and benchmark internal candidates for CEO and other top posts with comparable outside leaders. With practical guidelines and experienced advice from leading consultants in this field, CEO Succession offers a long overdue antidote to what stakeholders, Wall Street, and the media have decried as a lack of board leadership in carrying out its fundamental fiduciary responsibility: ensuring the steady flow of effective leadership in Corporate America.

This volume focuses on the most critical strategic activity in any organization, namely, who gets chosen to sit in the top echelon of the pyramid. Friedman argues that it is the quality of corporate leadership that will determine corporate winners and losers in the global competitive game. The stakes in leadership succession are high. The selection of key figures is the one human resource activity that no one belittles for being of secondary importance. Indeed, leadership succession is so important and central in many executive minds that it crowds out any other work. The succession process is often fraught with political intrigue, it lacks discipline, and excludes meaningful involvement of senior human resource executives. The contributors to this imaginative volume reveal a succession planning process that is frequently sloppy, superficial, and regularly sabotaged by senior management when they give it short shrift in terms of quality time. In addition, senior management often overrides sound decisions when it comes to filling key positions. The result is a lack of integrity throughout the human resource systems that eventually leads to a collapse of belief in the system and its governance. Noel M. Tichy, a leading figure in the studies of human resource management, has said, "Stewart Friedman is to be congratulated for a successful effort in providing a state of the art look at leadership succession. [He] provides us with an empirical database of what is happening in U.S. corporations, helpful prescriptions for future improvement of leadership succession, and a realistic assessment of the human resource executive challenges in this area."

Noel Tichy has been the trusted adviser on management succession to companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Nokia, Intel, Ford, and Mercedes Benz. Succession distills his decades of experience and provides a practical framework for building effective transition pipelines - for multi-billion dollar conglomerates, family businesses or anything in between. Through revealing case studies - like Hewlett Packard, IBM, Yahoo and P&G - Tichy examines why some companies fail and others succeed in training and sustaining the next generation of senior leaders. He highlights the all too common mistakes that can generate embarrassing headlines and threaten survival. And he puts leadership development and succession where they belong: at the top of every leader's agenda.

Shortlisted for the Business Book of the Year (International Books category) 2022 Every year, companies spend billions of dollars in board time and headhunter fees on CEO searches. In fact, the selection of the next CEO is the single most important task of the board of directors. Yet, despite the huge amount of time, money, and attention given to the task, many CEO changes fail, with disastrous consequences for all concerned. With so much at stake, it is natural to ask what companies and their boards can do to increase the odds of success. Illustrated with an abundance of real-life examples from interviews with CEOs, C-suite members, members of the boards, and headhunters supporting CEO searches, The Next CEO explains how boards can improve the odds of success with CEO succession by identifying clear CEO mandates and associated CEO profiles and by selecting CEOs that are fi t for purpose. It further explains how the CEOs of leading corporations effectively take charge and create results, providing a roadmap for incoming CEOs. These ideas are brought to life with case studies and interviews with well-known corporations such as ABB, Alibaba, Freudenberg, GE, Google, HNA, HP, Microsoft, Nestle, Nike, Nokia, Novartis, Roche, Sony, Tata, and Zurich Insurance. The book is invaluable practical reading for board members of medium-to-large-size fi rms involved with CEO succession, and for those preparing for their fi rst CEO position. It is also relevant to headhunters who are involved in the process of CEO succession as a working tool for them and their clients. In addition, the book will be relevant to courses on corporate governance and strategic transformation at the executive and MBA levels.

Goldsmith offers this how-to guide to prepare for a leadership transition andpresents leaders with a resource to help them through this process.