Chief executive officers are at the epicenter of a crisis in corporate America: From Kenneth Lay of Enron to Martha Stewart, they continue to amass charges of criminal or ethical misconduct. But do behavioral similarities exist among the dethroned?
John Slocum Jr., MBA, who teaches at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Cass Ragan, M.D., MBA, a psychiatrist and corporate consultant, examined the histories of 23 CEOs who were forced out of publicly traded companies, including British Petroleum, Compaq and Mattel, within the last decade. Slocum and Ragan found that embattled executives had consistently demonstrated poor communication skills and indecision.
Slocum and Ragan compiled press reports, then interpreted the executives' behavior by applying Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. They argue that transformational, or visionary, CEOs ultimately accept their predicament, while transactional leaders, or those who use a quid pro quo management style, remain mired in denial and anger. The team's thesis was published in the journal Organizational Dynamics.
