How Do Organizations Expect New CEOs to Communicate? An Analysis of CEO Recruitment Notices as Expressions of Desired Management Communication Styles

Abstract

There is growing acceptance of recruitment advertising as a rich source of information that communications organizational identity and expectations of employees. This article conducts a content analysis of recruitment notices for CEO-level positions which were published in the six most extensive Irish newspaper appointment sections over a twelve month period, and uses the data to construct a double axis model of how organizations expect managers to communicate. Rather than asking ‘how do managers really communicate’?; this paper asks, ‘how does the organization expect managers to communicate?’ Data on the content is presented and a model for how organizations expect their senior managers to communicate is presented. The model suggests four types of expectations regarding how managers will communicate: promotional communicators; open communicators; directive communicators, and; supportive communicators. Concerns about the methodology are raised, further avenues for investigation are suggested, and the utility of this model to organizations, communications and HR departments and recruitment agencies is discussed.