Co-Worker Complementarity and the Stability of Top Management Teams

We analyze changes in the composition of top management teams when a key member of the team (the CEO) departs. We find that the probability of non-CEO top manager turnover increases markedly around times of CEO turnover. Further, the magnitude of this increase depends on the relations between the tenure of the manager and tenures of the departing and incoming CEOs. Departure of a long-tenured CEO increases the marginal effect of manager tenure on the CEO/manager turnover association. Succession of a long-tenured CEO decreases the marginal effect of manager tenure on the CEO/manager turnover association. We argue that these findings are at least partially the result of complementarities across these groups of co-workers that affect the value of employment relationships between senior executives and firms.