The face of corporate leadership is changing.
This paper identifies reasons for this
change and how the face of leadership is changing and will continue to change. Related to changing faces are associated changes in leadership styles. The face of organizational leaderships in developed economies in large multi-national organizations has shown the least amount of change however. A majority of these positions, along with their corporate boards of directors, remain primarily older white males (Vinnicombe et al., 2008; and Davidson and Burke, 2011), what David Cameron in the UK, in referring to his previous cabinet, described as “white, male and stale”.
Why Is the Face of Leadership Changing?
There are several reasons why organizational leaders today look different from those of several decades ago. First, as the Baby Boomers retire, there is an urgent need to replace them with talented individuals. As Generation X and Generation Y women and men take over leadership when the Baby Boomers retire, the face of leadership will become younger as well. The “war for talent” that exists today because of a shortage of skilled managers and professionals has forced organizations to cast a wider net (Michaels et al., 2001). Related to this need is the fact that the tenure of chief executives officers, in North America at least, is becoming shorter and shorter. Thus individuals who replace them typically have held fewer jobs on their rise, making them younger. Examples of major US organizations with newly appointed chief executives 50 years of age or younger would include McDonald’s, Harley-Davidson, Microsoft and 21st Century Fox.
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