The Circulation of Managerial Elites Decline of Financial Ceos in Large U S Manufacturing Firms, 19811992 Classic Reprint

Excerpt from The Circulation of Managerial Elites: Decline of Financial Ceos in Large U. S. Manufacturing Firms, 1981-1992

We extend the theory of circulation of elites and apply it to the selection of functional backgrounds of new CEOs in large U.S. manufacturing firms from 1981-1992. The circulation of managerial elites entails both political contests for the top executive positions in corporations and ideological struggles over defining the corporate agenda and purpose. We study 277 CEO succession events and find that intraorganizational political dynamics and the circulation of elites add to Fligstein's explanations of CEO selection which were based on strategic contingencies and institutional isomorphism. Furthermore, we find evidence of a decline of financial CEOs and a change in the strategic contingencies that previously favored finance and the financial conception of control. The result suggests that conceptions of control associated with the power of the various subunits are best viewed as styles or convention, rather than institutions, and that the various styles are subject to contestation and change.

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