Going Sour in the Suite: The Root Causes of Executive Failure
Kaiser, R.B. (2011, May). Going Sour in the Suite: The Root Causes of Executive Failure. Invited address delivered to the Association of Business Psychologists, University of Westminster, London.
Much has been written about spectacular business blunders and the press love to create a must-read story around big personalities which they see as “of interest to the public” rather than “in the public interest.” But much less known than sensational media stories are the history and lessons from 30 years of research on how successful executives run aground. This presentation traces the story of research on executive derailment from its quiet beginnings in the 1970s to a large and consistent body of findings that hold up across organizations, industries, cultures, and eras as well as across the gender and age range of the fallen. The findings point to two root causes of executive derailment: failure to adapt to change and troubled relationships. The presentation will close with solutions for minimizing the rate of executive failure through better selection, development, and management of upward transitions.
See also: APA Handbook of I/O Psychology chapter on Derailment
Filed under: Conference Presentations
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