Journal of General Management

This study considers the implications for the future of the publicly traded corporation in terms of its leadership talent pipeline by considering the questions of succession, age and tenure, and recruitment of CEOs. It shows that the majority of 350 CEOs were recruited internally on the basis of similarity-attraction, ageing, having been in the role for over six years and close to retirement. They tend to be replaced by successors with similar age profile and recruitment characteristics and an implied tendency to longevity of tenure. The study questions the future talent pipeline due to the predominance of a rapidly ageing group of current leaders.

This paper examines the influence of the foreignness of an entrepreneur on the relationship between an entrepreneur's gender and business performance. It draws on current research on gender in entrepreneurship literature and foreignness, and argues that foreignness affects performance of men and women entrepreneurs differently. Data was collected from both domestic and foreign business owners in the US. The results suggest that while gender does not affect performance by itself, entrepreneur foreignness was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between gender and performance. Theoretical implications of the findings for both entrepreneurship and foreignness literature, practical implications for potential investors, managers of overseas operations and policymakers, and future directions of the study are also discussed.

This conceptual paper examines how managers, acting as organisational agents, can influence their firm's level of engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR). With CSR considered as a strategic choice, this paper undertakes to model the largely under-studied processes through which managers proactively pursue the enactment of their identity – their self – and their social role in their position of power in the firm's management team. The study offers a new framework connecting these multilevel influences, suggesting that firms present the highest level of CSR when led by managers who intrinsically value CSR, who perceive their social role as a salient identity, and who have the ability to exercise power in their management team. Implications for managers and researchers complete this article.

Although the development of others has been a recognised leadership activity since antiquity, there appears to be a dearth of literature specifically addressing the components of leadership that result in the greatest personal growth for others. This paper develops some tentative principles of subordinate development based on ideals of humanist, and transformational, leadership which appear to share common ground with psychotherapeutic theory and findings from ‘common factors’ research. These principles are then examined by original analysis of data (N = 103) captured as part of a wide-ranging study into leadership in the Royal Navy (RN). The results highlight: belief in the potential of others, the associated move from ‘own-authority’ to ‘others'-responsibility’, empowerment, and caring as being the basis of effective Subordinate Development. These findings are then situated within the broader social change literature as support for the assertion that ‘individualised consideration’ and ‘other-centeredness’ are a basis for successful human relations and growth, regardless of the field of endeavour.