Corporate Size, Bureaucratization, and Managerial Succession

Two studies of the largest and smallest business corporations among the top five hundred were conducted. The positions of board chairman, presiden, treasurer, controller, and secretary were examined over a ten-year span to determine whether succession had taken place in each office. The findings indicated that frequency of succession was positively related to size of firm. An explanation was proposed which suggested that the process of succession be radically different in form and organizational consequence for the large, bureaucratized system than for the smaller, less bureaucratized one.