Abstract
Population ecologists suggest that inertial pressures make it difficult for organizations to adapt their strategies and structures in response to environmental changes. One way in which organizations may attempt to overcome these inertial tendencies is by selecting executive successors with different career specializations than their predecessors, which may enable them to better cope with changing environmental contingencies. The present study examined the relationship between the previous CEO's career specialization, the corporate strategy in place at the time of the succession event, and the career specialization of the new CEO from 1981-1990. The results suggest that organizations often chose successors with different career specializations than their predecessors, and that previous corporate strategy was a relatively poor predictor of successors' specializations. These results differ from earlier research findings concerning executive succession between 1957-1981. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed, and the implications for future research are considered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
