The Changing Role of the CEO

Leaders are under constant pressure from a rapidly changing environment, organizational transformation, the need to manage multiple boundaries, the irrational demands of staff, and their own psychology. To function in role, encourage a sense of community and authorize staff competence, CEO values and vulnerabilities must be visible to the staff. In order to respond to feelings as information, leaders must learn about irrationality and group dynamics and be able to contain and make organizational sense of these reactions in relation to the larger context. Staff can no longer readily find job security or a sense of belonging and identity in rapidly evolving organizations. Work commitments emerge from discovering links between the ideals of individuals, a meaningful organizational mission and larger social values. While many organizations have developed sets of ‘company values’, these are often limited to individual ideals that neither differentiate the organization nor place it in a larger context. In an increasingly interdependent world, even private organizations are now discovering their responsibilities toward the larger community. To effectively market themselves and energize their staff, organizations must join this wider system of meaning, including the discovery of their links to societal values. Leading a learning organization now requires a focus on organization-specific connections between personal, organizational and social values.

In a world of rapid change and little stability, the role of the CEO is under enormous pressure. Market turbulence, new technologies, demographic shifts and globalization have transformed organizational life. In contemporary organizations, the CEO must discern the shape of the institution, articulate and link the inputs of the various stakeholders and forge a clear mission that relates the institution to the larger society.