The CEO’s ability to influence executives is important for management team effectiveness. But if you ask a psychologist, a strategist, and a sociologist how CEOs influence their execs, you might get three different answers. The first channel, emphasised by psychologists, considers influence from behavioural interactions between the CEO and the executives, e.g., charisma and other inspirational behaviours.
The second channel, studied by strategists, occurs according to the boundaries of formal functional roles, e.g., CEO and executives interact according to the titles they have been prescribed, CEO-CFO, CEO-COO. The last channel, studied by sociologists, considers influence that happens through power dynamics. This is the formal or informal influence executives accumulate over people and resources. Skilful CEOs will leverage all three channels.
Source: Georgakakis, Heyden, Oehmichen & Ekanayake (2022). Four decades of CEO-TMT interface research: A review inspired by role theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 33(3), 101354.
