Mass media portrayals of chief executive officers (CEOs): the influence on the perceived likelihood of organisational success

Abstract

This thesis investigates the influence of mass media portrayals of CEOs on the perceived likelihood of organisational success. In corporate brand management, CEO image represents organisational leadership and success. For most stakeholders, the image is configured based on mass media portrayals. The thesis argues that the portrayals often activate leadership archetypes that are stored in the memory and have a biasing influence on stakeholders in predicting organisational success. However, little is known about what types of leadership are depicted in mass media and how likely the portrayals influence the perceived likelihood of organisational success. The thesis has three main research questions: What are the common leadership archetypes depicted in mass media, and do they correspond to those identified in the academic literature?; Does the presence of leadership archetypes in mass media profiles of CEOs have a biasing influence on stakeholders in predicting organisational success?; Does a match between CEO leadership archetypes and situational contexts have a larger biasing influence on stakeholders in predicting organisational success than a mismatch? The thesis used a framework that examines leadership through a situational lens, and a mixed methods approach. A content analysis addressed the first question, whilst an experiment addressed the second and third research questions. The analyses indicate that CEOs are depicted as having multiple leadership archetypes that fit into the framework, but some archetypes have not been captured in the academic literature, and media depictions of CEO leadership archetypes tend to bias stakeholders in predicting organisational success, but the leader-context match does not. The research bridges the studies of corporate marketing and leadership through an emerging approach, advances the representation of CEO leadership and a dimension of corporate brand image, notes the study limitations, and suggests areas for future research.