People Are Strange when You’re a Stranger: Senior Executives Select Similar Successors

Previous research has established that organizations as well as TMTs tend to be homogeneous. It has, however, suggested three different explanations by which such homosocial reproduction occurs, i.e. existing individuals tending to reproduce their own characteristics in the selection decisions they make. One explanation regards the organization level, arguing that persons similar to the organization are attracted and selected into it. A second one proposes that it is the TMT’s characteristics that are reproduced and a third argues that the recruiter will select an individual similar to him- or herself. This article studies the homogeneity of Swedish senior executives in the variables gender, nationality, age and tenure. Findings suggest that both organizations and TMTs are more homogeneous than would occur by chance. Support is also found for the explanation that homosocial recruitment occurs on an individual level between recruiter and recruited, although an organization-level attraction explanation cannot be ruled out.