The Executive Profile of Engineering and Non‐Engineering CEOs: US and Japan

Abstract

To what extent CEO profiles may be held responsible for differences in company performance in two countries is only partially answered by data retrieved from a questionnaire sent to 1,081 CEOs in Japan and 893 in America. Within the Japanese group, engineering managers seem to fill a fairly generalised role, while the US group shows non‐engineering types to be the more generalist. The specialist oriented management style of the US companies is effective in a market situation which calls for rapid technological progress, while the generalist oriented style of the Japanese is particularly effective where the integrated efforts of marketing, production and finance are required to stimulate consumers' satiated demand. The correlation needs further study.

Citation

Suzuki, N. (1985), "The Executive Profile of Engineering and Non‐Engineering CEOs: US and Japan", Management Research News, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 18-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027869