Editing Chief executive officer (section)

==Celebrity CEOs==
Business publicists since the days of [[Edward Bernays]] (1891–1995) and his client [[John D. Rockefeller]] (1839–1937) and even more successfully the corporate publicists for [[Henry Ford]], promoted the concept of the "[[celebrity]] CEO". [[Business journalism|Business journalists]] have often adopted this approach, which assumes that the corporate achievements, especially in the arena of manufacturing, are produced by uniquely talented individuals, especially the "heroic CEO". In effect, journalists celebrate a CEO who takes distinctive strategic actions. The model is the celebrity in entertainment, sports, and politics – compare the "[[great man theory]]". Guthey ''et al.'' argues that "...these individuals are not self-made, but rather are created by a process of widespread media exposure to the point that their actions, personalities, and even private lives function symbolically to represent significant dynamics and tensions prevalent in the contemporary business atmosphere".<ref>Eric Guthey and Timothy Clark, ''Demystifying Business Celebrity'' (2009).</ref> Journalism thereby exaggerates the importance of the CEO and tends to neglect harder-to-describe broader corporate factors. There is little attention to the intricately organized technical bureaucracy that actually does the work. Hubris sets in when the CEO internalizes the celebrity and becomes excessively self-confident in making complex decisions. There may be an emphasis on the sort of decisions that attract the [[celebrity journalism|celebrity journalists]].<ref>
Mathew L.A. Hayward, Violina P. Rindova, and Timothy G. Pollock. "Believing one's own press: The causes and consequences of CEO celebrity". ''Strategic Management Journal'' 25#7 (2004): 637–653.
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Research published in 2009 by [[Ulrike Malmendier]] and Geoffrey Tate indicates that "firms with award-winning CEOs subsequently underperform, in terms both of stock and of operating performance".<ref>
{{cite web
 |url= https://eml.berkeley.edu/~ulrike/Papers/SuperstarCEOs_FINAL.pdf
 |title= Superstar CEOs
 |last1= Malmendier
 |first1= Ulrike
 |author-link= Ulrike Malmendier
 |last2= Tate
 |first2= Geoffrey
 |author-link2=
 |date= 14 June 2020
 |page= 1
 |access-date= 11 September 2021
 |quote= We find that firms with award-winning CEOs subsequently underperform, in terms both of stock and of operating performance.
 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150911203153/https://eml.berkeley.edu/~ulrike/Papers/SuperstarCEOs_FINAL.pdf
 |archive-date= 11 September 2015
 |url-status= live
}}
</ref>