The Office of the CEO: Understanding the Executive Experience

Executive Overview What is the job of the senior executive? As organizations increase in size and complexity, today's executives find they spend more time in “symbol” management: formulating values, ideas, and ideals through continuous dialogue with others. In this article, based on a study of Cleveland CEOs, the authors explore how executives use language to describe their roles and in the process create meaning for themselves and others. These executives conceived of their roles in terms of three principal agendas: (1) creating a context for change: (2) building commitment and ownership: and (3) balancing stability and innovation. The authors also present a theoretical rationale for conceiving of the executive role in this way by focusing on three “cornerstones” of the executive task: continuity, transition, and novelty. The central argument—that executive work is mostly talk—suggests that today's executives pay as much attention to their words as their actions.