Abstract
In this article, we adopt a critical perspective to study how executive search practices reproduce particular understandings of the ‘ideal’ executive body. We show how this disadvantages not only women but also men who are considered not to fit the ‘ideal’, and further demonstrate how search practices are embodied: how aesthetics, the senses and a sensorial way of knowing permeate the practices through which candidates are evaluated. We identify discourses on embodied co-presence, capabilities and voice in search consultants’ talk, and specify how notions of the ‘ideal’ executive body and embodied search practices become intertwined. We offer this contribution to the discussion on the body, gender and management and to research on executive search practice.
It is clear that you must appear physically efficient and competent … I can tell if a 45-year-old, a man in particular, is a hunting dog or a St Bernhard.
This is how a white male executive search consultant in his early 50s describes the qualities he is looking for in candidates for top positions in his client companies. The quotation not only suggests that the body of the candidate plays a central role in the search process, but also that normative standards defining the right kind of executive body prevail–for men as well as for women. It brings to the fore a metaphoric way of talking about bodily requirements. Most importantly, it invites us to ask the following: how do search consultants arrive at such an understanding? How do they come to know that to appear physically efficient and competent is relevant in corporate management? And how can they tell whether a candidate is a hunting dog or a St Bernhard? These are important questions because search consultants are influential in the selection of corporate executives in the contemporary global economy. An increasing number of companies and other organizations carry out their recruitment of key individuals with the confidential help of these external experts (Coverdill and Finlay, 1998; Doldor et al., 2012; Dreher et al., 2011; Faulconbridge et al., 2009; Hamori, 2010; Khurana, 2002; Tienari et al., 2013).
We argue that executive search consultants–or headhunters, as they are commonly known–play a prominent role in determining what constitutes an ‘ideal’ executive body. We adopt a critical perspective inspired by Judith Butler and Elisabeth Grosz to study executive search practice and pay specific attention to the ways in which consultants talk about the appearances and body performances of (potential) executives. We address the body as a complex constructed object of social discourses, always becoming embodied in reference to the stated norm (Butler, 2004). However, language does not fully determine the subject. Butler’s (1997) and Grosz’s (1994) conceptualization of the subject’s interior as psychically constructed and exterior physicality as socially constructed leads us to see the subject as a series of flows inside and out. Hence, we join organization and management studies scholars who have moved beyond conceiving the body as an unproblematic biological entity without considering it as the mere effect of discursive construction and representation (Hope, 2011).
It is our contention in this article that embodied characteristics are more central in executive search processes than has previously been understood and that in evaluating the capabilities and competence of the candidates, an embodied and sensible way of knowing is mobilized–a way of knowing that is based upon use of all senses. Our article thus continues the emerging literatures on the body, gender and management (Hope, 2011; Kenny and Bell, 2011; Sinclair, 2011) and the body, aesthetics, senses and knowing (Cunliffe and Coupland, 2012; Slutskaya and De Cock, 2008; Strati, 1992, 2007; Yakhlef, 2010). These themes are routinely ignored, downplayed and denied in mainstream literature, which tends to privilege the cognitive and the social over the material and the corporeal (Hassard et al., 2000; Styhre, 2004). The body is generally viewed as irrelevant to developing knowledge about organizations and management, although organization studies are filtered with implicit assumptions about the nature of the body as a natural, universal given which can be known objectively and neutrally (Dale, 2001).
Specifically, our study brings to the fore how executive search practices reproduce particular understandings of the ‘ideal’ executive body. We show how this disadvantages not only women–as extant research tends to assume–but also men who are considered (seen, heard and felt) not to fit the ‘ideal’. We demonstrate how executive search practices themselves are embodied and how the senses and a sensorial way of knowing permeate the practices through which candidates are evaluated. We specify how notions of the ‘ideal’ executive body and embodied search practices become intertwined. This article contributes, first, to the emerging discussion on the body, gender and management where the body has been viewed as a constraint for women and where men have been considered to be able to transcend their bodily limitations in management. We theorize on the narrowing ‘ideal’ of the executive body, both for women and men. Second, we contribute to research on executive search practice, which has thus far altogether bypassed embodied characteristics in the ways in which candidates are evaluated and executive recruitment decisions are made. We offer ideas for rethinking the role of the body and embodiment in understanding executive search.
In the following, we first introduce executive search practice as a setting for studying the body and then discuss the theoretical bases of our work. We proceed further to outline our empirical materials and analysis and present the findings of our study. Finally, we offer conclusions and suggest avenues for future research.
Executive search practice
Faulconbridge et al. (2009: 801) argue that executive search consultants have ‘manufactured themselves a position of power in elite labour recruitment’ and that they are instrumental in ‘determining who does and does not classify as a talented individual and who is admitted to the networks that provide access to elite executive positions’. Headhunters’ clients are usually the board of directors or the CEO who use them for important assignments. Their ‘fortunes rest on their ability to secure a match between their client and another interested party’ about who is the right kind of candidate (Finlay and Coverdill, 2000: 377–378). Search consultants act as gatekeepers; they assume power in defining selection criteria and in assessing the (un)suitability of candidates against these criteria (Coverdill and Finlay, 1998).
Executive search practices comprise socially situated activities through which candidates are evaluated (cf. Hicks et al., 2009). The search task is first defined and the contract is agreed on. Headhunters then compile a ‘long list’ of potential candidates for the position at hand, drawing from their own files and tips from colleagues and other relevant actors. They contact a number of potential candidates by phone, evaluate the appropriateness of the candidates and their willingness to serve in the position and meet many of them in person. Headhunters come up with a ‘short list’ of candidates, interview them and arrange opportunities for the client to meet with top candidates. Finally, they assist the client in making an informed decision. Hence, like any consultancy work, executive search is social interaction. Khurana (2002) maintains that the three primary elements of intermediation by headhunters are coordinating, mediating and legitimating. Headhunters coordinate the activities of the searching firm’s key decision-makers, mediate confidentially between people with fragile egos and contractual restrictions, career concerns and an interest in maintaining their personal reputation and legitimate the search by signalling to constituents that the process is being conducted professionally and with the best interests of the participants in mind.
There is clear evidence to suggest that bodies matter in executive search. White men are disproportionately represented as search consultants, candidates and clients (Dreher et al., 2011; Faulconbridge et al., 2009). However, white male dominance and the construction of the ‘ideal’ candidate for top jobs (Acker, 1990) has thus far been credited to considerations of fitting in, to homosocial bonding and to gendered practices. First, headhunters have been found to underline the importance of candidates having the right personality and of chemistry between candidates and clients (Coverdill and Finlay, 1998). Second, it has been argued that ‘headhunters primarily utilise the ‘new boys’ networks which consist of a new elite and preferred stratum of candidates’ (Faulconbridge et al., 2009: 806). Third, it has been shown that the practices of executive search are gendered (Tienari et al., 2013). Overall, it has been suggested that executive search is a theatrical process, the outcome of which is that people are hired ‘in the image of the corporate chieftains whom search firms seek to serve’ (Khurana, 2002: 131). Although it remains insufficiently explored in extant research, the body and the senses are likely to be an inherent part of executive search practice and the processes of inclusion and exclusion that it sustains. To develop a theoretical framework to study this, we turn to literature that deals explicitly with the body and embodiment.
Body in organizations
The body and the senses
A growing corpus of organization and management studies has been concerned with the embodied nature of organizational life (e.g. Dale, 2001; Hassard et al., 2000; Hope, 2011; Styhre, 2004). This literature has brought to the fore the strict bodily norms to which employees and managers are expected to conform and the various ways in which the body functions as a basis for inclusion and exclusion in organizations. Studies have shown that the interpretation of individual competence is closely linked to the gender of the body (Acker, 1990; Calás and Smircich, 2006; Connell and Wood, 2005; Ellehave, 2005; Kerfoot and Knights, 1993). Research on aesthetic labour (Longhurst, 2001; Veijola and Valtonen, 2007; Witz et al., 2003) and aesthetic leadership (Hansen et al., 2007; Koivunen and Wennes, 2011; Ropo and Sauer, 2008), in turn, have drawn attention to the ways in which embodied characteristics play an increasingly significant role in the production of a convincing physical presence in management (see also Sinclair, 2011). The body has also been studied as a medium through which cultural norms and values are acquired (Bell and King, 2010) and individuals are socialized into organizations (Michel, 2011).
In the emerging literature on the body, gender and management it has been argued that the managerial body is inherently masculine. The feminine Other is presented as inferior to the masculine norm or even ‘abnormal’ (Kenny and Bell, 2011). Mainstream research in organization and management studies have been criticized for representing men as having neither gender nor bodies while women have remained definable by their bodies (Sinclair, 2011). It has also been suggested that the ideal size of the managerial body is modelled on the male norm (Kenny and Bell, 2011), implying that different body norms apply for male and female managers (Trethewey, 1999). While managers’ bodies are being disciplined (both by the self and by others) to look good and appear fit and flexible at work, this discourse has been argued to function differently for men and women (Longhurst, 2001). Studies indicate, for example, that corporeal characteristics such as height and weight are valorized differently for men and women (Bell and McNaughton, 2007; Bordo, 1993; Heineck, 2005; Persico et al., 2004; Sarlio-Lähteenkorva et al., 2004; Valtonen, 2013). To illustrate, excess body weight has been found to be associated with income disadvantages for women but not for men (Sarlio-Lähteenkorva et al., 2004).
Much of the extant research on the body tends to assume, explicitly or implicitly, that it is the bodily appearance–evaluated through the sense of sight–that matters most when the role of bodily norms in organizational life is explored. The research perpetuates the visual gaze that dominates Western thought (Howes, 2006). However, the body entails more than appearance. It is our intention to bring to the fore the role of the aesthetic and sensory repertoire when particular bodies are included and credited while others are excluded and discredited. In other words, we seek to illustrate how various senses are intimately involved in the performance of embodied actions and in their evaluation: tactile movements (body postures), sound (voice, respiration, clack of shoes), touch (handshake) and scent (perspiration, use of perfume). All the senses play a role when human bodies orient to other bodies (Classen, 1993; Howes, 2006; Valtonen et al., 2010; Valtonen and Veijola, 2011). As we will show later, in addition to sight and bodily appearance, the human voice and its cultural connectedness to perceptions of competence are of particular importance in executive search practice (Kenny and Bell, 2011).
While the issue of the senses has not been the primary focus of literature exploring the bodily basis of inclusion and exclusion in organizations, scholarship investigating knowing and knowledge has for some time recognized its embodied and sensorial nature, for example, through the notion of ‘aesthetic understanding/knowing’ (Strati, 1992). As this work demonstrates, people gain knowledge of the world and of the bodies that surround us through all the senses (Ball, 2005; Cooper, 2009; Dale, 2005; Slutskaya and De Cock, 2008; Strati, 2007; Yakhlef, 2010). It is our intention to scrutinize how the deployment of embodied sensory knowledge has discriminatory effects and thereby shapes the contours of embodied business life. For us, then, the sensory knowledge deployed by executive search consultants is a way to exert power. This does not mean that power is concentrated in a single search consultant or a group of consultants. Rather, power is enacted through the executive search practice in which sensory knowledge of the suitable (male) candidate is constituted (Butler, 1990).
Material and social body
We suggest that to come to terms with the place of the body in executive search practice we must be able to demonstrate how the body is at the same time material and social. To this end, we need to take a stance vis-à-vis debates at the core of social theory on the body, which tackles questions on whether to approach the body from the inside or the outside and whether to focus on its material or social aspects. This has resulted in more or less disparate strands of research. Phenomenological, psychoanalytic and physiological approaches tend to articulate bodies as internal and psychical spaces, from within, as ‘lived’, while social constructionist and postmodern approaches commonly focus on the exteriorities of bodies investigating the social body as being discursively inscribed from the outside (Crossley, 1995). Body scholars in various fields have attempted to problematize the interiority/exteriority distinction, which is argued to perpetuate a set of problematic dualisms deriving from Cartesian ontology.
Importantly for our study, scholars such as Judith Butler and Elisabeth Grosz have engaged with the interiority/exteriority distinction in their theories of subject formation. In Psychic Life of Power, Butler (1997) addresses the ambivalent relation between the social (‘outside’) and the psychic (‘inside’) as a dynamic effect of power, and argues that power is not merely internalized in any simple way. Rather, the psychic life is generated by the social operation of power, and this operation is fortified by the psyche that it produces (Butler, 1997: 19). For Butler, the psyche is not a separate ‘entity’ affected by power, rather, it is constituted by it. The interplay between the psyche and the social–and thus power–takes place by the reiteration of the normative discursive practices through which the subject materializes itself as socially intelligible and acceptable. Of the normative discursive practices, linguistic categories play a vital role. As social norms and expectations are encoded in these categories, they generate psychic effects–for instance, feelings of guilt if bodily norms such as appearing like a ‘hunting dog’ are not met–and social effects as they (may) shape life trajectories by opening or shutting doors in business life. In this sense, linguistic categories penetrate the flesh (Crossley, 2001: 6).
Elisabeth Grosz, for her part, problematizes the interiority/exteriority division by questioning the idea of depth/surface that it entails. In Volatile Bodies (1994), Grosz offers the Möbius strip–the inverted three-dimensional figure eight–as a metaphoric model for rethinking the relations between the inside and the outside. Through this metaphor, she seeks to invert the primacy of a physical interiority (depth) and demonstrate its necessary dependence on a corporeal exteriority (surface) (Grosz, 1994: xii). Grosz conceives of the body as a social surface of inscription: the biological and material body provides raw material for social and cultural inscription. For Grosz, as for Butler, language occupies a central role in the way bodies are socially inscribed. We constitute the bodies, bodily parts and bodily expressions of managers when we name them.
The practice of naming, and thus of using language, has itself a corporeal character and base. As Crossley (1995: 50) points out, ‘Languages, qua social institutions, consist in shared rules and resources but the existence of those rules and resources is dependent upon bodies which take them up and use them’. Thus, discourse in which managers’ bodies are thought of and categorized is produced and disseminated through the work of the fleshy body: through the body that looks and is looked at, speaks and listens–as well as touches and scents–when interacting with other bodies and with the material world (Forseth, 2005; Germann Moltz, 2006; Mauss, 1973; Veijola and Valtonen, 2007). In this sense, bodies are sensible-sentient beings.
We contend that research on the body, gender and management in general and contributions by Judith Butler and Elisabeth Grosz in particular provide a useful framework for making sense of the body in executive search. Such a framework avoids biological materialism that disregards the effect of culture, on the one hand, and cultural determinism that neglects the corporeal body, on the other. In brief, we conceive of the body as a culturally fabricated physicality in which matter and meaning are inextricably linked. The medium of language is central in this fabrication and the body becomes subject to social and linguistic analysis in executive search practice. On this basis we ask the following: how do search consultants as sensible-sentient beings inscribe executives’ bodies?
The study
Executive search is dominated by white men as headhunters, clients and candidates (Dreher et al., 2011; Faulconbridge et al., 2009; Khurana, 2002). Our empirical study reflects this state of affairs. It is based on several encounters with two male headhunters who provided us with real time access to the ‘short-list’ phase in three of their search assignments. These assignments are typical for executive search in that they initially involved candidates of various kinds but led to a white man in his mid-40s being recruited. Due to the strict confidentiality of the interaction between consultants, clients and candidates, we did not observe these interactions. Rather, we talked to the headhunters each time they had just met with a candidate. The focus in these encounters was on discussing evaluations of that particular candidate’s suitability for the position. With the aim of contributing to theory development in relation to the body, gender, and management, our study focuses in-depth on (re)constructions of the ‘ideal’ executive body in the headhunters’ talk, rather than aims for representation and generalization in a numerical and quantifiable form.
Socio-cultural context
Both the authors of this article and the headhunters interviewed are Finnish. The assignments studied involve international companies based in Finland, which provides a specific societal and socio-cultural setting for talking about bodies. Markers of bodily difference such as gender, age, race and ethnicity attain particular cultural meanings. First, Finnish society is popularly considered to be gender-egalitarian, and it ranks high in cross-societal comparisons of gender equality (WEF, 2011). Denial of gender inequality is a distinctive feature of contemporary Finnish working life, and the argument is that equality has to a large part already been achieved (Korvajärvi, 2002). At the same time, however, the Finnish labour market remains horizontally and vertically gender segregated. Horizontal segregation is reflected in a clear distinction between male and female dominated industries and businesses. Vertical segregation, in turn, is reflected at the top echelons of publicly traded companies where at the time of crafting this article only one company had a female CEO.
Second, studies show that in Finnish organizations people are treated differently on the basis of their age and that aging has negative connotations in working life (Julkunen and Pärnänen, 2005). Aging is associated with decreasing productivity and increasing absence through illness (Ilmarinen, 2006). It also seems to work differently for men and women: ‘women are interpreted to be “old” already rather early, sometimes when they are just over 40 years of age’ (Jyrkinen and McKie, 2012: 73). Third, questions of race and ethnicity have only recently entered the Finnish discussion on diversity (Trux, 2010). In contrast to more multicultural societies such as the United States or the United Kingdom, Finnish society remains ethnically relatively homogeneous. A slow increase in immigration began in the 1990s, but the number of immigrants is still modest, amounting to some 5% of the total population. Finland was never a colonial nation, but it has been complicit in the colonial project by adopting its imagery and mindset (Vuorela, 2009). Whiteness remains a strong marker of Finnishness (Kemiläinen, 1998).
These societal features are reflected in the meanings popularly attached to executive management in Finland. With a population of some six million, Finland is a small country with tightly knit managerial elite networks (Ainamo and Tienari, 2002). Credibility earned through technological expertise and authoritative decision-making has been characteristic of Finnish management culture (Vaara et al., 2003). While the question of how to increase the number of women in the top echelons of Finnish organizations is constantly discussed (Kotiranta et al., 2007), whiteness and the dominance of white men is taken for granted and rarely questioned (Meriläinen et al., 2009). The executive search consultants in our study found it extremely difficult to reflect on ethnicity and race, even when they were directly asked about it. That whiteness would matter in the search process was never explicitly reflected upon. Other markers of diversity besides gender and age were constantly downplayed and ignored.
Method of inquiry
Discourse analysis is a suitable method of inquiry for our purposes because it enables us to study the ways in which executive search consultants inscribe bodies when they talk about candidates. In order to avoid using discourse in vague and all-embracing ways (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2011), however, we position our approach in relation to its levels of analysis, to its understanding of discourse in relation to other social practices and to its position vis-à-vis power relations and criticality. First, the focus of discursive studies ranges from utterances to meta-discourses and the methods available range from detailed textual analyses to broad delineations of socio-cultural discursive formations (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2011). We argue that our study needs to relate to both. On the one hand, in studying executive search practices we must seek to understand the interactions through which candidates are evaluated. This is based on local and situational constructions of what constitutes the appropriate business body, and entails close reading of texts (here, texts refer to headhunters’ recounting of, and sensemaking about, interactions with candidates). On the other, the (re)production of particular notions of the ‘ideal’ executive body are connected to historically developed systems of ideas that form authoritative ways of speaking about business and embodiment. Texts draw meaning from a broader context–here, executive search in Finland–which becomes a part of our research constellation.
Second, forms of discourse analysis vary in relationship to other social practices. Some focus on texts without linking them to specific social settings while others emphasize how discourses are closely connected to particular practices. Alvesson and Kärreman (2011) argue that the former are exclusionary in terms of the influence of non-linguistic material objects and practices on the phenomenon under study. The problem with the latter, in turn, tends to be that discourses ‘are claimed to constitute reality–not only in its ideational dimension, but also in its practical-behavioral dimension–yet without being able to spell out how–and perhaps even if–this actually happens’ (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2011: 1130). In our study, we view discourses and other social practices as inextricably connected. Bodies are socially inscribed, and language plays a crucial but not an exclusive role in this inscribing. While the body is more than a biological entity, it is not only an effect of construction and representation (Hope, 2011). Other pertinent social practices in executive search include greeting practices such as shaking hands (or patting on the back) as well as assessment and evaluation practices such as psychological tests and checking references.
Third, researchers applying discourse analysis may seek to adopt a neutral or a critical stance towards the subject matter (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2011). Studying executive search as a practice dominated by white men and drawing theoretical inspiration from Judith Butler and Elisabeth Grosz leave us with little choice. A critical position, challenging how those vested with authority make claims about social reality to render their viewpoints self-evident, is a crucial feature of our analytical approach. Authority and claims about social reality are enacted in socio-historical practices, i.e. they function as true in a particular time and place. Thus, we aim at revealing the historically specific mechanisms by which (sensory) knowledge of the suitable (male) candidate is deployed to maintain power (Butler, 1990). Against this backdrop, critical discourse analysis as a cross-disciplinary framework is suitable for our purposes (Fairclough, 2003). It cuts across levels of analysis, enables a ‘constant analytical focus not just upon discourse as such, but on the relations between discourse and other social elements’ (Chouliaraki and Fairclough, 2010: 1215, emphasis added), and helps to uncover power relations in executive search practice.
Empirical materials and analysis
As authors of this article, we are two women (Susan and Anu) and a man (Janne), and we are all white ethnic Finns in our late 40s. Susan’s encounters with headhunters Carl and Tom (pseudonyms) form the empirical material for our study. The age difference between Susan, Carl and Tom was relatively small. At the time, Susan was in her mid-40s while Carl was in his early 50s and Tom in his early 40s. The small age difference, together with university education and a shared Helsinki accent, contributed to a relaxed way of communicating. However, Susan’s bodily appearance as a curvy woman with long red hair may have contributed to the interactions in more complex ways, for example, when Susan asked questions related to the lack of metaphors to describe female candidates. Her bodily appearance may have filtered the ways in which Carl and Tom offered vivid illustrations about men, but described the few female candidates involved in the search processes less colourfully.
Susan’s encounters with Carl and Tom include two formal interviews concerning executive search processes in general and 12 informal gatherings (both separately and together) concerning the three search assignments focused on. At the time, Carl had been in the executive search business for over ten years. Susan met with him five times to discuss the ‘short-list’ phase in the search process for a top management team position in a Finland-based MNC. Each encounter took place directly after Carl had met with a short-listed candidate, thus providing opportunities for immediate reflection on the evaluation of that candidate. Next, Susan followed two cases with Tom, who had made a move to executive search more recently. Tom’s assignments involved a search for a CEO in smaller companies in growth businesses in global markets. A similar procedure was followed, and a total of six encounters took place. Finally, Susan met Carl and Tom once together to reflect upon the data generated and to do an inquiry into the role of the human voice in their evaluation practices. Five voices were pre-recorded and played for Carl and Tom to comment on. The content of the recordings did not differ (five individuals had spoken the same piece of text), only the speaker, tone of voice and manner of speaking was different.
All encounters between Susan and the headhunters were conducted in Finnish and they were recorded and transcribed verbatim by an outside expert. We, the three authors, first read the transcripts independently pondering: how do Tom and Carl as sensible-sentient beings inscribe executives’ bodies and how do issues of senses and embodiment matter in executive search practice? We each did an initial coding and interpretation focusing, first, on the constructions of the ‘ideal’ executive body against which candidates are evaluated and, second, on the senses mobilized in these constructions. We then discussed our respective interpretations, further familiarized with the literature on bodies and senses and negotiated a joint understanding of the key discourses discernible in the textual material. The research process thus evolved in an iterative manner, oscillating between theoretical elaboration, field work, analysing and translating the empirical materials, forming interpretations and, eventually, making conclusions based on the analysis. In other words, we followed a process typical of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003).
We located three discourses that are particular ways in which the body becomes ‘embodied’ in reference to what is stated as the norm in executive management: embodied co-presence, embodied capabilities and embodied voice. These discourses form the primary ways through which the candidates’ bodies become a social surface of inscription in Carl and Tom’s talk. Their talk represents particular ways to culturally inscribe the physical corporeality of the candidates, and thereby constitutes the body of a determinate type–in our case, the ideal executive body (Grosz 1994: x). Our analysis illustrates the ways in which the biological body provides raw material for social and cultural inscription in the context of executive search practice. While our analysis of the body focuses on the social/outside (Butler, 1997) and corporeal exteriority/surface (Grosz, 1994), by analysing headhunters’ talk about how and why they evaluate candidates as they do, we also make visible how the headhunters’ ‘psychic life is generated by the social operation of power’ (Butler, 1997: 19), in other words, how they are bounded by particular ways of seeing, hearing and feeling, and how their sensual way of knowing is culturally mediated. The next section specifies and illustrates the discourses identified.
Executive search practices and the ‘ideal’ executive body
We present our findings in three parts. First, we discuss the discourse of embodied co-presence, which details how the physical presence of the executive becomes idealized in Carl and Tom’s talk, and how this presence assumes specific bodily features such as energy that become the target of sensory interpretation and evaluation. Second, the discourse on embodied capability illustrates how physical markers of the body such as fitness and size are interpreted as signs of capability or non-capability, and how the interpretation and evaluation of these markers occurs through a subtle employment of the senses. Finally, the discourse on embodied voice illustrates ways in which the human voice plays a significant role in the construction of the ideal executive body–and in the filtering practice of executive search.
Embodied co-presence
The first discourse of embodiment, which we call embodied co-presence, becomes organized in our material through talk about bodies as they are sensed and perceived as physical objects. Bodies-in-flesh become apparent when themes such as the possibilities for remote work are discussed, for example in relation to managing organizational change: ‘Managing change always calls for presence. You can’t do it otherwise. No matter what tools you have … and the capabilities that exist in the organization … well, managing from afar, it just doesn’t work’. The body-in-flesh is indicated by the constraining effects of physical distance on successful management work, particularly in conditions of change, which presuppose the physical presence of executive bodies. However, it remains unspecified and open why exactly this should be the case.
The notion of embodied co-presence, which indicates some kind of simultaneous presence of executives and others in a physical space, is interesting given the fact that Finnish executives are often criticized for remaining distant from the everyday work challenges of their employees, particularly in conditions of radical change (Vaara et al., 2003). For us, the key question is from whose perspective the executive bodies-in-flesh are meaningful and relevant. The cultural practice that is (re)produced through emphasis on presence is perhaps the male Finnish stereotype of good management as analogical to frontline military management: the troops need to be directed and led from the front by exemplary action (Ainamo and Tienari, 2002). Visibility is presented as a prerequisite for good management. The construction of embodied co-presence is mobilized by the sense of sight.
However, visibility alone is not enough. The ‘ideal’ executive needs to have a particular kind of physical presence. This becomes apparent in our material through negatively laden expressions such as ‘back office guy’ and ‘back office thinker’. The ‘back office’ is typically offered as opposite of being visible, which attains positive connotations in headhunters’ talk about candidates. The ‘back office’ becomes shorthand for imperceptibility, which is viewed in a questionable light in relation to executive management. Similarly, ‘activeness’ is generally preferred over ‘thinking’, although what exactly action refers to (as opposed to thinking) remains unspecified, as does the reason why the two should necessarily be opposing qualities in the first place. To put it crudely, if you look like a ‘back office guy’ or you come across as a ‘thinker’ rather than a ‘doer’, you do not meet the criteria for visibility and you do not qualify as an executive.
In addition to bodies-in-flesh, the executive search consultants talk about the embodied co-presence by referring to it as ‘energy’ and ‘intensity’. This appears in many forms in our material and seems to be one of the most significant criteria for sorting out the suitability of candidates: ‘Well, I’d say that it’s energy level and intensity level, those need to be high, and I don’t know if fitness is the right word, well, that’s difficult to say, but you can’t be flabby, there’s got to be intensity there’. The positive meaning and relevance of ‘energy level’ and ‘intensity level’–in contrast to being ‘flabby’–also become apparent through frequent references to ‘lighting up’, ‘being forthright’, ‘passion’ and ‘excitement’. In other words, to become a serious contender for the executive position on offer, the candidate needs to appear energetic and intensive. How exactly energy and intensity levels can be meaningfully assessed in the relatively brief encounters between headhunters and candidates remains undefined in our material, as in the case of ‘excitement’ below:
How exactly does excitement come out?
Smile, bodily posture, intonation of speech and …
What’s an excited bodily posture?
A little towards you … and not … well, not like that guy [takes a pose to mimic the last candidate].
This is one example among many that shows how difficult it is to talk about something that one senses. ‘Smile’ and ‘posture’ are descriptions of observations (and interpretations) based on sight, while ‘intonation of speech’ are based on sound. Susan’s apparently surprising quick follow-up question ‘what’s an excited body posture?’ is received with an embarrassed ‘a little towards you’ and a spontaneous demonstration by the headhunter who draws on culturally available body techniques (Mauss, 1973) or stylized performative acts (Butler, 1990) that seem appropriate in the situation. The topic is quickly dropped and the discussion moves on. The exchange of words above is exemplary of how talking about executive bodies is laden with taboos. It is possible that the headhunter bases his reading of what counts as ‘excitement’ not only on visual perception and sound, but also on touch and scent–on a mixture of sensual perceptions (Strati, 2007). However, references to touch and scent remain totally absent from our interviews. In an encounter with a researcher you apparently do not talk about how candidates feel and smell. Nevertheless, in Finland the first thing an executive search consultant does when meeting a candidate is to shake hands. A firm grip signifies self-confidence in the Finnish management context, whereas a limp handshake can be interpreted as lack of determination.
Embodied capability
The second discourse of embodiment in the executive search consultants’ talk relates to capability in the form of bodily capacity, manifest through three discursive constructions: fitness, strength and movement. In making sense of candidates, embodied capability frequently overrides the importance of appearance per se:
Do those kinds of things, well, appearance, play a role in that job [CEO in a growth business], or, in that environment?
Well, yeah, in that environment in the sense that you need to be, you can be informal, but you still have to appear clean-cut. … It goes without saying that you also need to be physically fit and competent.
While successful candidates can at times be ‘informal’ if they make sure they are ‘clean-cut’, physical ‘fitness cannot be compromised’, as Tom put it. ‘The difference between a low and a high level of vigor is easy to see’. This becomes apparent in our material when Tom describes a particular candidate and his suitability for the position at hand: ‘Well, I’d say that his physical presence is, on the face of it, well, no, the appearance [of the candidate] is in all respects appropriate, but he is a bit out of shape’. It is interesting to note that the headhunters constantly–perhaps, again, due to a lack of apt language–revert to animal metaphors when describing fitness and performance (or the lack of it). When asked to elaborate on the ‘hunting dog’ metaphor, for example, Carl flags up the ‘physical vigour’ of the candidates and refers to the need for ‘constant travelling’ to justify why it is of the uttermost importance to be in top physical condition. Through animal metaphors, headhunters can convey messages about the ideal executive’s body size and shape and, thus, what executive bodies are considered normal. Bodily capacity–fitness–is decisive when headhunters use the hunting dog metaphor to assess whether a ‘45 year-old’ is physically suitable for an executive position. A hunting dog is slim and stringy in comparison to a St Bernhard which is large and flabby. The former signifies fitness, whereas the latter reflects a state of being unfit.
The importance of fitness in the search process is also highlighted through expressions related to sports and the military. A ‘sports background’–a term frequently used by Carl and Tom in a positive way–gives them opportunities to predict the capabilities of candidates to perform under mental and physical pressure. ‘Sportiness’ is associated with stamina and being proactive, as in the discussion of a promising candidate below:
How old was he?
… around fifty …
Yeah.
… but he looks forty. He is a sporty guy. He set up his own company and he has now sold it. He’s looking for new challenges.
In a similar way, particular branches of the military are important in signifying fitness. Finland still runs a mandatory national service for all men. Since the mid-1990s the service has been available for women on a voluntary basis, but few women choose to take it. Most men choose military service instead of civil service, and officer training during the conscript period is traditionally valued highly in Finnish business life (Ainamo and Tienari, 2002). The training is physically challenging, and it is considered by the headhunters to ‘separate the men from the boys’. Especially in some branches of the military the training is associated with extreme conditions, mental strength and a fit body. Carl comments: Everyone wants that really good guy who has completed officer training in the guerrilla forces. He has no problems in taking the heaviest load on his shoulders, physically as well as mentally. These are the people whom all organizations want, without question. You’ve done that training, you endure all conditions, and you don’t whine. These are all important bits of information, and I can read them from the smallest of signs.
With the right background the (male) candidate radiates fitness, and the headhunter picks up the signs inscribed in the candidate’s body and evaluates them positively.
Overall, the infusion of Western fitness culture into processes of executive search is not surprising, but it is noteworthy precisely for its obviousness (Sinclair, 2011). Our examples above suggest that notions of fitness can take culturally elaborate forms (such as the Finnish male focus on military), on the one hand, and that the ‘ideal’ fit executive body is gendered, on the other. A particular kind of fitness that has been attained in male-dominated environments such as sports (in Finland, ice-hockey is an example) and the military is valued highly. However, in the end, it becomes clear in our material that the headhunters chase an elusive ideal of fitness. None of the candidates who had made it to the short-list phase in the three assignments fully satisfied the headhunters’ criteria. Time and again, both Carl and Tom made this very explicit to Susan.
In addition to fitness and strength, resilient movement also attains positive connotations in the headhunters’ talk. One example of this is another animal metaphor: the contrast between two northern predators, the eagle-owl and the ermine. Describing a candidate, Tom remarked as follows: ‘well, he isn’t proactive, he is someone who takes what comes his way, but he isn’t one who reaches out … it was a bit like, here’s a predator metaphor, he isn’t an ermine, he is an eagle-owl’. Both animals are typical of Finnish wildlife. Both are predators, but they are used differently as metaphors. While the small and agile ermine has a tough and mobile presence, the eagle-owl is the largest owl species in Europe, cautious and guarded, and apparently limited in its capabilities to be proactive. Further, as a contrast to the ‘hunting dog’ in Carl’s example quoted earlier, the ‘St Bernhard’ is presented as ‘comfort-seeking, sitting under the table in the pub while the master is having a drink’. This becomes shorthand for a low level of vigour and for staying put. According to Carl, the difference between the two is ‘easy to see’. Taking into consideration that the actual Finnish word used here for ‘hunting dog’ is ‘ajokoira’, which refers to a specific Finnish breed that is noted for strength and endurance but is not heavily-built, an additional layer of connotations can be discerned from the headhunters’ comments. An ‘ajokoira’ is agile, in marked contrast to a St Bernhard, which is not similarly nimble in its movements.
The shape and size of human bodies matter. It can be argued that being overweight (a ‘St Bernhard’) is unacceptable in executive management–a sign of not being fit–and that this concerns men in addition to women. However, shape and size also demonstrate the fluidity of body talk. Combined with small male body size, force of personality can be a burden. ‘To put it crudely, that guy suffers from a small man complex’, was the description of one of the candidates. When asked to elaborate on this, the headhunter said that the candidate was ‘small, uptight, and formal’. On another occasion, the large body size of the candidate turned against him: ‘he is a tall guy, two meters tall and this wide [gestures with hands]’ and ‘think about it, a guy of that size, and I’m small, 175 centimeters, and I’m thinking: “why is this guy so nervous?”’.
There is a variety of ways to reflect on body size in a negative light and to make it work against a particular candidate. As a result, the boundaries of ‘normality’ in executive management become extremely narrow. What is of interest in the last example is on which senses the executive search consultant’s interpretation of a candidate being ‘nervous’ is based. Most probably the headhunter’s reading of what counts as ‘nervousness’ is not only based on visual perception, but also on sound and touch, and perhaps even on scent. Again, men (in addition to women) who do not fit the norm in executive management are excluded. A physically small man who comes across as ‘uptight’ and a tall man who appears as ‘nervous’ have both lost it, even if they look to be in shape.
Embodied voice
The third discourse of embodiment in the executive search consultants’ talk is related to voice. The outcome of the inquiry carried out by Susan shows how headhunters make a lot of interpretations based on the candidate’s tone of voice and manner of speaking. The most evident interpretations are related to age, gender, experience, origin (e.g. urban or rural area in Finland) and education, whereas others are related to physical appearance (e.g. body size, way of dressing) and personal characteristics (e.g. action-oriented, uptight, conscientious or intellectual). The sense of hearing mobilizes interpretations on the basis of which the headhunters make judgments about the ability of the candidates to take up the executive position at hand. The following discussion is illustrative of how headhunters reproduce cultural interpretations in relation to the candidate’s tone of voice and manner of speaking. Carl and Tom have just heard a recorded voice and discuss it together:
This voice belongs to a guy who works in advertising.
Really? I thought it belongs to a consultant. Ok, well, maybe, yeah. Anyhow, [this is] a person in charge of an expert organization or something like that.
Definitely. A job that includes managing from within, from among the people … [and he appears to be] something of a little intellectual.
Yeah, and he’s got an academic degree.
Academic, modern, and …
[…]
Not a tough leader, no way.
[…]
This person is quite young, in his thirties …
Yes, a young person in his thirties …
… but he has potential.
The above discussion between the headhunters listening to and commenting on a recorded voice is an example of how the sense of hearing mobilizes particular constructions of a suitable age for a business executive. According to Carl and Tom, the voice belongs to a young man in his 30s and, consequently, to someone who is a bit too young for an executive position. This becomes evident in Carl’s comment about the voice belonging to ‘a little intellectual’ and Tom’s expressions ‘quite young’ and ‘he has potential’. The voice becomes embodied in reference to what is stated as the norm: an energetic and fit male in his 40s. It also tells us something of the gendered underpinnings of the headhunters’ interpretations. In the Finnish context, toughness is evaluated positively and associated with (and expected from) men. Carl points out that he does not hear this in the voice: ‘not a tough leader, no way’.
As a female business executive, in contrast, your tone of voice is expected to embody characteristics traditionally attached to femininity, such as warmth and empathy–your voice should not be too authoritative. Tom describes a female voice that he has just heard: ‘Well, she must be the head of a cleaning company. Entrepreneurial, and a leader in a female-dominated field, [manages] with warmth and empathy and a steady hand’. The following conversation further illustrates the gendered underpinnings of the headhunters’ interpretations of a female voice:
Well, this voice belongs to a personal assistant [laughing], to quite an efficient one, I’ll give her that … she is clearly from the city … and very action-oriented and uptight, but does not have any experience as a manager.
Very young, a finance major. […] Her voice is not such that it would enable managing others. […] There is no charisma in her voice, none …
156 centimeters. […] Blue eyes.
[…]
Glasses. […] There’s got to be either charisma or warmth in your voice. You need to have at least one of them to be a manager.
Constructions of gender and management mobilized by the sense of hearing are noteworthy. The headhunters’ casual interpretation of the tone of voice, which (unbeknownst to them) belongs to a woman in her 30s (the same age as the earlier male candidate), makes visible how gender plays a significant yet too often unrecognized role in the valuation and assessment of a candidate’s suitability for an executive position. The blunt message is that a woman needs to have ‘either charisma or warmth’ in her tone of voice in order to succeed as a business executive. Tom and Carl conclude that the woman’s voice does not meet their expectations. In all, our examples suggest that the headhunters interpret and evaluate male and female voices according to different, and gendered, criteria.
Discussion
In our study of executive search consultants, we have shown how notions of the ‘ideal’ executive body intertwine with embodied search practices. While earlier literature on the body, gender and management has highlighted the centrality of the visual gaze in the ways in which bodies are evaluated (Kenny and Bell, 2011; Longhurst, 2001; Sinclair, 2011), our study complements this research by demonstrating the importance of senses other than sight. The discourse of embodied co-presence shows how different sensory cues are interwoven in the ways in which the body of (potential) executives is evaluated. Knowing that is not restricted to the physical and objectively observable–but is nevertheless produced and preserved within bodily practices–becomes central to the headhunters’ expertise. How the candidate conveys a sense that the headhunter recognizes as competence becomes a crucial element in the evaluation. Embodied co-presence is more than physical presence. It is about energy and intensity, which cannot be recognized with sight and hearing alone. The evaluation involves sensing something that headhunters find difficult to articulate with words. In brief, it matters how the candidate looks, sounds and feels.
The importance of the visual gaze and its connections to considerations of competence becomes apparent in the discourse of embodied capability where the fitness of the executive body and its ability to be agile and mobile are elevated. To be seen to be in shape is of utmost importance. The headhunters’ eyes fasten on the physical condition of the candidates. This gives clues about their ability to take care of, control and manage their bodies (Connell and Wood, 2005). However, such evaluations are again difficult to put into words, and headhunters turn to metaphors in trying to articulate what they mean.
Apart from distinguishing between those who are considered to be fit and those who are not, metaphors bring to the fore the gendered nature of the appropriate executive body. This is also demonstrated by the discourse of embodied voice, which shows how much of the work of the executive search consultants is conducted ‘with the ear’ (Strati, 2007). This again challenges the prevalent notion that the visual, and the sense of sight, play a singularly dominant role in the ways in which ‘ideal’ bodily norms are constructed and enacted. The capacity to interpret human voices is developed as part of headhunters’ routine activities in evaluating candidates, and the voice and its cultural connectedness to perceptions of competence lies at the core of their work (Kenny and Bell, 2011).
Within our process of empirical research we developed methodological procedures that enabled us to study the inextricable connection between discourses and other social practices in the context of executive search. First, our decision to talk to headhunters right after they had met with candidates enabled us to capture their immediate impressions and embodied sensations and thereby to gain access to the importance of embodied co-presence and capability. Second, the embodied interaction between the researcher and the interviewees mobilized culturally laden metaphors. This enabled us to understand how the somewhat taboo issue of the executive body was made sense of and helped us to bring to the fore the genderedness of these metaphors. Third, our inquiry into the role of human voice rendered explicit how the ability to interpret candidates’ voices is a self-evident professional practice in executive search. All these methodological choices allowed us to access the ways in which sensory knowledge is entangled within the discourses specified and illustrated above.
The constructions of the ‘ideal’ executive mobilized by the headhunters’ sensory work reproduce a particular kind of masculinity that serves to maintain gendered (as well as age- and ethnicity-based) power relations in society. Our analysis suggests that particular understandings of the ‘ideal’ executive body that are reproduced in search practices disadvantage not only women but also many (if not most) men. What concerns both men and women is that perceived bodily normality is becoming increasingly narrow (Kenny and Bell, 2011; Longhurst, 2001; Sinclair, 2011). However, our study indicates that the starting point in the evaluations is different: the search process filters out most female bodies already at the outset, and thereby it is only the repertoire of male bodies whose normality is of concern in the later stages. Out of those bodies, as our analysis shows, the perceived normality does not only refer to bodily outlook, but also to other bodily characteristics such as intensity and voice. Narrowing of the ‘ideal’ seems to take many forms that merit further investigation, questioning and challenging their taken-for-granted nature.
Overall, our study gives support to recent research on managerial ‘super bodies’–with emphasis on explicit mastery of the healthy body as an ingredient of fitness to lead (Gill et al. 2005; Thanem, 2009). It resonates with Sinclair’s (2011: 126) argument that ‘there is a danger that new body awareness is recruited to the project of becoming a “corporate athlete”: a leader who can work harder and longer towards ends that are exploitative’. We suggest, however, that this ‘ideal’ is likely to be elusive. The headhunters we studied made it clear that they were not satisfied with the embodied capabilities they saw in any of the candidates. Nevertheless, the search for the ‘ideal’ affected the practice in how the candidates were evaluated.
Conclusions
In this article, we have explored how the senses and the enactment of a sensorial way of knowing permeate the socially situated activities through which candidates are evaluated in executive search (Hicks et al., 2009). We have elucidated how sensory filtering takes place in embodied search practices and how implicit qualifications related to the body credit and favour certain types of people while discrediting, marginalizing and excluding others from executive positions. Through discourse analysis of executive search consultants’ talk on their evaluation of candidates, our primary aim has been to contribute to the emerging research on the body, gender and management. Drawing upon the work of Judith Butler and Elisabeth Grosz we have moved beyond conceiving of the body as an unproblematic biological entity to understanding it as a complex constructed object of social discourses, always becoming embodied in reference to what is stated as the norm; the ‘ideal’.
We have also contributed to the literature on executive search. While the relevance of the body and the senses has typically remained unarticulated in earlier research, our study highlights its inevitable presence. We argue that it is precisely the mobilization of sensible knowing–the ability to interpret bodily signs and subsequent sensory cues–that constitutes the expertise of the executive search consultants who act as gatekeepers in elite labour markets (Faulconbridge et al., 2009). We argue in line with Strati (2007) and others that this form of knowing needs to be taken seriously. Recognizing the embodied and sensory forms of knowing enables us to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the various bases of knowledge upon which activities such as executive search are based (Hicks et al., 2009). Acknowledging the cultural and inevitably gendered (and ethnicized and racialized) nature of sensible knowing allows us to better reflect upon the unrecognized ways in which power operates through different forms of knowing and contributes to the dominance of a particular type of white man in executive management (Dreher et al., 2011).
In this way, we have begun to lay the groundwork for a more refined theoretical understanding of the body and sensible knowing in relation to executive management and the practices on the basis of which executives are recruited to their positions with the help of external experts. Much of the existing literature on the body in organization and management studies has been interested in the interplay between the body and the power (e.g. Acker, 1990; Ball, 2005; Bell and King, 2010; Trethewey, 1999). Our study adds a novel aspect to be considered: the senses. We have developed a unique theoretical frame to study the entanglement of the body, senses and power, and shown empirically the benefits of such an extended focus and unit of analysis. Further theorizing on the relation between the material, the corporeal, the social and the discursive in executive search and in recruitment practices more generally is still needed. Our analysis illuminates the discursive construction of what is ‘normal’ and what becomes taken-for-granted in relation to executive bodies. This can be complemented in future research by other modes of generating and analysing empirical materials. Introducing touch and scent to interviews would serve to elaborate our findings. Observation and shadowing are also viable options for exploring the ways in which (talk about) bodies figure in interaction between search consultants, clients and candidates. However, gaining such access may be very difficult due to the confidential nature of executive search.
The socio-cultural dimension in the inscription of executive bodies across societal contexts needs to be further addressed in comparative studies, elaborating on cultural specificities that inform it (Tienari et al., 2013). Our study has focused empirically on Finland, and it reflects the specific history and demographic make-up of this society. Why race and ethnicity are silenced in executive search therein while whiteness is taken for granted, and what implications this has for men and women, needs to be studied further. Literature on whiteness would be a relevant theoretical vantage point for such a study (Ahmed, 2007). In more multicultural and multiethnic societies such as the United States and the United Kingdom, assumptions about ethnicity and race are likely to be different and they are likely to be embedded in executive search practices in ways that differ from Finland. How gender intersects with assumptions about race and ethnicity in these practices remains a crucial research challenge both for studying the body, gender and management and for understanding inclusion and exclusion in practices of executive search.
Finally, the theoretical approach developed in this article can be applied to other types of organizational and managerial contexts and situations. The discriminatory effects of the use of sensory knowledge bears implications, for example, from mergers and acquisitions to strategy work and from interdisciplinary teams to multicultural business meetings. Taking seriously the use of the senses as a filtering technique helps organization studies scholars to develop their understandings of practices in organizations. While earlier studies have focused on bodies in organizations as a social surface of inscription, we have problematized the distinction between interiority and exteriority by showing how the sensible way of knowing (seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.) is also culturally mediated and generated by the social operation of power. This enables us to understand in novel ways the power relations and value-laden assumptions that render particular ways of producing difference in organizations as taken-for-granted and ‘natural’.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and helpful advice. We would also want to acknowledge the Foundation of Economic Education for financial support.