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Executive Selection

Executive selection represents an important means of gaining competitive advantage for today's organizations. However, such selection has not traditionally used the rich history of conceptual and empirical research on personnel selection that exists within the domain of industrial and organizational psychology. The high failure rate of today's executives points to the need for more effective selection of top organizational leaders, and there has been a recent upsurge in research and development focused on sharpening knowledge and practices of executive selection.

In 2001, Ann Howard described four central topics reflect key issues in executive selection. The first issue refers to executive competencies that ought to guide the process of executive selection. These competencies are necessarily broader and more complex than those for lower- and middle-level organizational leaders. The second issue refers to the source of executive candidates, whether they come from within the organization or are recruited from external sources. The third issue pertains to the assessment strategies used to uncover levels of competencies in executive candidates. The final issue covers the actual selection decision, particularly who makes this decision and how the decision-making process reflects and influences organizational strategy.

Executive Competencies

Research has shown that performance requirements change significantly as leaders rise to the executive level. They need to attend to and interpret a vastly greater array of information. Their constituencies and stakeholders become more diverse, with more conflicting agendas. Although all leaders are responsible for monitoring and spanning the boundaries of their unit and the larger environment, leaders at the top must represent the organization to an external environment (and vice versa) that is increasingly complex, global, and dynamic. Thus, although all leaders in an organization are responsible for setting the direction and managing the operations of their units, these characteristics of executive work define some particular competencies for top organizational leaders that need to guide their selection.

The responsibility for leading a diverse organization and representing it within the industry suggests that executives need broad technological, financial, and professional knowledge, as well as an understanding of the industry and its operating environment. The high informational complexity of executive work means that they need to have the cognitive skills to make sense of and model this complexity for their subordinates. Executives also need high-level social competencies, including communication skills and the ability to develop broad social capital or a network of personal relationships that accrue trust, information exchange, normative expectations, and professional knowledge. Executives need to have the skill to develop these networks of social capital within and across organizational boundaries. Finally, given the highly dynamic industry environments of most organizations, executives also need an array of skills linked to an ability to manage change for themselves and for their organizations.

Executive Recruitment

Executive recruitment can focus exclusively within an organization or on external sources of executive candidates. In her 2001 review of executive selection research, Howard notes several advantages and disadvantages for both internal and external executive recruitment have advantages and disadvantages. Internal recruitment strategies link executive development with executive selection, providing a long-term growth perspective for lower-level managers. When executive development is systematic and tied to changing strategic considerations, the company can enhance its strategic flexibility and generate a pool of candidates particularly well suited to implement strategic changes. Internal candidates already have knowledge of the organization's culture and structure and already have the established social capital to quickly implement new initiatives. Internal recruitment can also engender greater loyalty and commitment to the organization among its lower-level managers.

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