Set Up to Fail

Poor design of C-suite jobs can block executives from succeeding in their roles.

Kimberly A. Whitler, Ed Tazzia, and Stephen Mann

May 18, 2022

The Research

• The authors set out to investigate the quality and within-role alignment of C-level job design.
• They analyzed a total of 185 C-level job specifications that included descriptions of CFO, CIO, and CMO jobs.
• These confidential job specifications were created by the four largest executive recruiting firms and some midsize and boutique firms and were sourced from the firms and individual candidates.
• The authors thus obtained a convenience sample (what was available) rather than a random sample.
• Key elements were coded, including expectations, responsibilities, and the experience ...