CEO-speak Amernic, Joel H; Craig, Russell
CEO-speak,
2006, 20060222, 2006-02-22, 20060101
eBook
CEO-Speak explores the metaphors and persuasive strategies used by leaders at Enron, Microsoft, AOL-TimeWarner, General Electric, IBM, Nortel, Canadian National Railways, Andersen, Disney, and ...Alcan-Pechiney-Alusuisse. Amernic and Craig show that CEOs are frequently presented as heroes engaged in "the war of business" who can effect astonishing miracles of financial performance and reinvention. Contesting the notion that accounting is objective, CEO-Speak serves as an introduction to the controversies and ambiguities in corporate accountability and provides rich examples of the excesses of corporate communication.
We add texture to the conclusion of Duchon and Drake (Journal of Business Ethics, 85, 2009, 301) that extreme narcissism is associated with unethical conduct. We argue that the special features ...possessed by financial accounting facilitate extreme narcissism in susceptible CEOs. In particular, we propose that extremely narcissistic CEOs are key players in a recurring discourse cycle facilitated by financial accounting language and measures. Such CEOs project themselves as the corporation they lead, construct a narrative about the corporation and themselves using financial accounting measures, and then reflect on how their accounting-constructed performance is perceived by stakeholders. We do not present empirical evidence about whether the use of accounting language and measures leads to unethical behaviour by extreme narcissistic CEOs — although the conclusions of Duchon and Drake (2009) suggest empirical support is probable. Rather, we focus on developing alertness to the potential for accounting, when engaged by an extremely narcissistic CEO, to be a precursor or implement of unethical behaviour.
This paper explores the relationship between leadership language and the safety culture at British Petroleum BP prior to the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The ...discursive construction of important aspects of safety culture in a large, risky, global company such as BP is a central feature of the CEO’s role. Using a social constructionist perspective, we conduct an interpretative close reading analysis of the speech of BP’s then CEO, Tony Hayward, at the Annual General Meeting of BP on April 15, 2010. We also analyse the transcripts of 18 other speeches Hayward delivered before the Deepwater Horizon explosion. We find that the language used contributed rhetorically to an ideology of economic efficiency and cost control, in a manner that was inconsistent with an enduring safety culture. We highlight important insights that close reading analysis of the narrative in CEO speeches can provide to help understand a corporation’s ambient safety culture.
This paper explores whether DICTION text analysis software reveals distinctive language markers of a verbal tone of hubris in annual letters to shareholders signed by CEOs of major companies. We ...analyze 193 letters to shareholders, comprising about 368,000 words, focusing initially on 23 letters signed by CEOs who are alleged to be hubristic: Browne (BP), Goodwin (Royal Bank of Scotland), and Murdoch (News). Their language use is statistically significantly high in terms of the DICTION master variable, REALISM. Based on further analysis, we contend that language high in REALISM is not a distinctive marker of hubris but is likely to be a genre effect that is common in CEO letters to shareholders. We draw attention to the restricted capacity of DICTION to capture subtlety of language in CEO letters to shareholders.
We explore the language used by the CEO of Wells Fargo, Timothy Sloan, to sustain claims that Wells Fargo and its staff would behave in an ethically appropriate way in the future. We focus on Sloan’s ...opening written statement to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the United States Senate on 3 October 2017. This statement was intended to salvage Wells Fargo’s reputation after it had been savaged by widespread allegations of unethical conduct. Sloan sought to display ethical leadership by drawing the senators’ and other stakeholders’ attention to an (alleged) epiphany in the managerial mindset of the company. This paper contributes by proposing three desirable hallmarks by which to analyze claims of ethical leadership: balanced framing, principled use of ideology and metaphor, and justified rhetoric. These hallmarks are then explored to assess the ethical leadership discourse in Sloan’s statement. The paper demonstrates that analysis of the micro discourse of a CEO can reveal lack of a sound appreciation of the human complexity of a large organization, superficial assumptions of leadership and followership, and cloud the location of agency for ethical lapses. We conclude that the written statement submitted to the senate committee by CEO Sloan was unconvincing in enlisting belief that Wells Fargo would ‘return to ethical conduct’.
Destructive narcissism is recognized increasingly as a serious impairment to good corporate leadership and ethical conduct. The Chief Executive Officer's letter to shareholders (an important formal ...corporate communications medium) has potential to provide linguistic traces of destructive narcissism and insight to aspects of corporate leadership and the ambient ethical culture of a company. We demonstrate this potential through selective analyses of the letters of the Chief Executive Officers of Enron, Starbucks, and General Motors.
This article presents a wide-ranging analysis of the use of PowerPoint technology in higher education. It addresses four overlapping issues. Has PowerPoint led to more effective learning? What impact ...has PowerPoint had on the dynamics of classrooms? What are some important aspects of the culture that accompanies PowerPoint? How has PowerPoint affected orality, visuality and literacy? The purpose of our article is to stimulate beneficial conversations about a prevalent educational software technology.
We explore the language of leadership of global media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 2010, the year before the phone-hacking scandal in the UK came to public attention. Subsequent public enquiries in the UK ...exposed unethical conduct by staff of News Corporation, a global corporation whose Chairman and CEO was Rupert Murdoch. We focus on the ethical climate fashioned by 'A Letter from Rupert Murdoch' that appeared in the opening pages of the annual report of News Corporation for the year ended 30 June 2010. Plausibly, Murdoch's discourse in that letter helped condition the inapt, unethical conduct of News Corporation staff. We highlight the cultural and ethical signs that were embedded in Murdoch's letter and which reflected the company's tone at the top and ethical values. We identify signs of a perverse leadership thinking that possibly help explain the inappropriate cultural values and ethical behaviours that were revealed subsequently in evidence presented to public inquiries.
Purpose
This paper addresses leadership and strategy issues associated with the management of safety. The paper proposes that companies conduct an annual safety leadership audit involving ...collaboration between their external financial auditors and their internal operational safety experts.
Design/methodology/approach
Three possible questions auditors should address in such a safety leadership audit are highlighted. The railroad industry is drawn upon for empirical support, including by reference to recent major railroa0d crashes in the US, Greece, and India.
Findings
The paper highlights the potential benefits of conducting a safety leadership audit, including that it will help assess whether a leader’s claims regarding safety are verifiable and accord with the data reported in financial statements. Several matters of critical but under emphasized importance in good safety leadership are highlighted.
Originality/value
This paper explores the somewhat novel idea of using audit procedures and external financial auditors to address matters of safety strategy and leadership. The paper proposes that a leader’s claims in respect of safety should be assessed in terms of whether they encourage a climate of “psychological safety,” report meaningful safety indicators, and use a “vocabulary of safety leadership.”
Purpose
This paper points to five features that CEO language should have to help enable a robust safety culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws empirical support mainly from the ...CEO-speak of the CEO of Norfolk Southern Railway in the year prior to the major derailment of a company train and subsequent toxic chemical spill in East Palestine Ohio in February 2023.
Findings
CEOs should incorporate the following five features into their CEO-speak. They should actually use the word safety but “in doing so” avoid platitudes about safety. They should exude genuine commitment to safety “cite meaningful safety performance measures” and not ignore operating risks.
Originality/value
Safety is a critically important aspect of corporate endeavor. Yet discussion of it is grossly under-represented in the professional and academic literature. This paper offers sound suggestions that reinforce the need for CEOs to write and speak in a way that ensures their company’s commitments to a strong safety culture are not merely platitudinous buzzwords but are genuinely key strategic elements of their company’s business model.
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