The effects of CEO-TMT interaction on organizational performance

Abstract

Purpose

Upper echelons theory regards the CEO as a top management team (TMT) member. Research has rarely distinguished the CEO from other TMT members and has not explained the boundaries between them, which causes little attention to be paid to the interaction between the CEO and TMT members. The authors want to divide the CEO and other TMT members into two independent parts and explore the types of interactions between them and the impact of these interactions on organizational performance. The two independent parts and their interactions are important for the integration, supplementation and refinement of leader-team research in the empirical field.

Design/methodology/approach

A-share listed companies in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange with continuous operation from 2012 to 2015 were selected as samples. The data in the sample were mainly from the CSMAR database and the obtained data were checked with the data in RESSET, Sina Finance, Phoenix New Media and Eastmoney to ensure their accuracy and completeness. Finally, 209 companies were selected as the sample. The authors used SPSS 22.0 to process data.

Findings

The results showed that social network interaction, skill interaction and social experience interaction between the CEO and TMT members significantly affected organizational performance and the effects are more significant than those of the CEO and TMT members individually.

Originality/value

Such consideration can more clearly clarify the organizational use of CEO and TMT members and the complementary and overlapping relationships between them. Further, such consideration is instructive for the rational allocation and efficient operation of leaders and their team members in practice.

Citation

Qiao, K., Yang, C.-L. and Yin, X. (2021), "The effects of CEO-TMT interaction on organizational performance", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 585-602. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-01-2020-1996