Flying too close to the sun? Hubris among CEOs and how to prevent it. (2012)

“Hubris among CEOs is generally considered to be undesirable.. however the literature fails to provide a precise definition of CEO hubris and is silent on how to prevent it.

Valérie Petit, EDHEC Business School

Helen Bollaert, SKEMA Business School, Univ. Lille Nord de France.

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS Volume 108, Number 3 (2012), 265-283, DOI: 10.1007/s10551-011-1097-1

Hubris among CEOs is generally considered to be undesirable: researchers in finance and in management have documented its unwelcome effects and the media ascribe many corporate failings to CEO hubris. However, the literature fails to provide a precise definition of CEO hubris and is mostly silent on how to prevent it.

Petit and Bollaert use work on hubris in the fields of mythology, psychology, and ethics to develop a framework defining CEO hubris. Their framework describes a set of beliefs and behaviors, both psycho-pathological and unethical in nature, which characterize the problematic relationship of the hubris-infected CEO towards his or her own self, others and the world at large.

They then demonstrate how the development of authentic leadership may contribute to preventing or attenuating hubris by addressing its psycho-pathological nature through the true self and meaningful relationships with others. In addition to its psycho-pathological dimension, CEO hubris also contains an ethical dimension. Petit and Bollaert therefore propose that the development of the virtue of reverence might contribute to the prevention or attenuation of CEO hubris, because reverence makes the individual aware of his or her place in the world order and membership of the community of humans.

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICSVolume 108, Number 3 (2012), 265-283, DOI: 10.1007/s10551-011-1097-1

Read the full paper here: Flying too close to the sun