Interesting article about title inflation in wharton’s knowledge newsletter — knowledge@wharton. One sentence certainly caught my eye since I am Weber Shandwick’s chief reputation strategist. “But what about chief talent officer, chief cultural officer, chief innovation officer, chief reputation officer, chief apology oficer and chief geek, to name just some of the more contemporary titles that have cropped up in today’s companies?”
The article went on to say that these newly emerging titles are not really the result of title promotion but instead evidence of increasingly flattened hierarchies. Wharton professor Betsey Stevenson is cited as saying that since people in flatter organizations need to be distinguished in some way and there are fewer rungs on the corporate ladder to climb, new titles get invented. The professor goes on to say that these unique titles help attract talent along with a little more money.
Other reasons for title invention include signaling the importance to the organization of a particular function or initiative. I buy that.
I guess I am part of the you-name-it club.
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