Definition

Cinderella

There have been a couple of references to "executives" on the forum lately. I'm just curious...as HR people, how do you all define "executive"? Has it been different at different companies? How many of you are one of your company's executives?

The last company I was at had a culture that included director's (as in manager's bosses), vp's, president's and officer's as executives. The company I'm at now is the same except it doesn't include directors in the definition.

Just curious. x:-)

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-09-04 AT 06:43PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I consider executives to be the top level or the next level down from the chief executive officer (excluding executive assistants, secretaries, etc). These levels generally have the authority to a meaningful degree to commit the company in a major contractual arrangements, or to make significant decisions on the operations or financial status of the companies, or to direct a significant branch or division of the company.

Don D

When I questioned someone's decision making authority, I was summarily dressed down the other day by a member of the Forum who screamed at me, "I AM AN EXECUTIVE", as if that had some import of its own, and if to say, 'AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!". I nearly fell from my chair in laughter. I worked once for a company which basically let those who were amind to, call themselves whatever they wished. We had lots of directors and executives, yet it made no impact on profit, in fact the company almost went broke. At my last company, I put in a plea to change my title from manager to director and accomplished that at a small increase in salary, and a significant ego boost. At my current job, this corporation with over 200 US locations does not use the title of director at all. I currently direct more than I directed when I was a director. I make more now as a manager than I ever thought possible when I was a director. I suppose it's all largely lost in the mind of the incumbent and his or her analysis of self importance. I got caught up in that myself once. I suppose we could all turn to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and leaf through the definitions found there. But that would be a useless exercise. x:-)

deniseE

We define our executives by pay scale. Those that are eligible for bonuses are considered "executive"....the rest are just staff.

: )

AluminumBoy

Nice post. Titles are worthless. Actions count.

If someone is hung up on a title, they've got some issues.

AluminumBoy

Here's how my company is structured

10,000 total employees

Senior officers - 7 (CEO, VP HR, CFO, 4 operational EVP's_

VP / GM - 36 - These are the folks running our profit centers plus 7 staff GM's

Managers - 180 - They run our mfg departments, controllers, sales mgrs, engineering mgrs, etc...

Supervisors - 600 - production, IT, hr, etc...

That's it. 4 layers of mgt for 10,000 employees. And note - less than 250 at the manager level and above.

Lean good
Bureaucracy bad

We very rarely use the term executive

marc

Some good points have been made above, I would like to add the perspective that titles are often for everyone else - that is, titles are for outsiders and sometimes for staff - to denote some level of heirachy. It can cut through the chaff to let others know what level of decision making authority rests with the title holder. Just having the title though does not make a person effective - it is what they do that counts.

Don D

Speaking of 'Lean'; the lean concept and the Virtual Lean Journey has caused our Plant Superintendent to change titles multiple times in less than a year. From Supt., to Assembly/Maintenance Mgr. to Production Manager, to Shift Manager, to Value Stream Manager, to Value Stream Team Leader. Sounds like a downhill slide of demotions, but he actually got a pay increase along the way. Titles can be important and titles can be meaningless and anywhere in between. Having one is one thing. Thinking life revolves around it is quite another.

Another way to look at it: The small group of people who arguably run the most powerful nation on earth is composed of people with the title of Secretary.

HS

>Another way to look at it: The small group of
>people who arguably run the most powerful nation
>on earth is composed of people with the title of
>Secretary.

Oh Don, don't you know well enough by now that they like to be called Administrative Assistants? It's more PC.

Whatever

If they are Republicans, they are called Secretary. If they are Democrats, they are called Administrative Assistants.

Cinderella

Good point Marc - titles are for "everyone else". Unfortunately, "everyone else" is usually trying to sell you something!

Crout

My title is "manager," but I consider myself a soldier.

KathiHR

This thread has hit on one of my biggest pet peeves - "title inflation". I fight it constantly where I am now. My CEO loves to flatter people with titles, not money (like they can buy groceries with that title!) That philosophy just filters on down. I recently took on a manager over changing an administrative assistant to "office manager." Office manager?...she organizes paperwork & supervises no one. The only thing she "manages" is the OfficeMax list! Of course, he then thought he needed to be Director of Operations, not Operations Manager. There's no end! We have job descriptions, job titles, and salary ranges in place. And yet still, I have this conversation/debate at least once a month with some "executive." I'd love to hear how others are fighting "title inflation".

Kathi

Cinderella

Kathi - I feel your pain. Been there! Some of the titles that people come up with are pretty hysterical though. I say if it's more than three or four words it's overboard (i.e. Black Belt Value Stream Engineer of Quality Services - gimme a break!)

marc

Maybe we should all wear T-shirts with our job descriptions printed on them, sans titles. Then what we really do would be evident to the readers. Of course, the job descriptions are sometimes as inaccurate or misleading as titles are.

I've had many titles in the past but as Don has said, the meaning changes from company to company. A CFO job in one entity does less than a controller in another. Similar distinctions occur across the board. Getting the work done is the way to go.

I had an experience with one "executive" that we affectionately called "Goose." It was because this lady frequently came up with ideas that, when she executed them, turned into golden eggs. She outperformed her boss many times over, but no one harbored any illusions about her value and she eventually got the official recognition that her performance deserved.

mwild31

In our company an executive simply means a manager that directly reports to the President/Owner. A manager has the ability to enter into working agreements with customers/vendors, sign contracts, establish department vision and processes, assist the President with company direction, etc.

Don, Don, Don...if I didn't love 'ya, I would be offended. x:-)

AJ SPHR

In the company I work for, executives are the officers of the company - they are the President and VP's, were nominated and confirmed by the Board and are listed in our annual report as Officers/Executives.

I agree with others about title inflation - titles become meaningless. A similar pet peeve related to titles is pertaining to the big boom of the 1990's when mfg companies became more TEAM focused and changed everyone's title to "ASSOCIATE". My pet peeve with that concept is that changing the titles does not automatically produce a well-functioning team. Few companies actually realized that you need to change the culture, not just titles. Oh well ...

Dutch2

We have no Executives at our bank, but our President/CEO does have a Cabinet that reports directly to him, these are referred to as our Sr. Management Team. The Cabinet is made up of 1 Ex. VP, 4 Sr. VP's, and 2 VP's (the VP's are our CFO and Dir. of HR). We have a few other VP's and we hand out the title AVP to almost any exempt employee that has been on board for 3 or 4 years. The AVP titles are simply warm fuzzies, but to a few these titles are worth more than a huge increase in salary.
Have a great day,
Dutch2

Parabeagle

Kinda late in the game here, but all this talk of titles and distinctions between titles and people has brought to mind a lyric from an old Harry Chapin tune

"Sometimes words can serve you well,
And sometimes words can go to h*ll,
For all that they do..."

HRQ

In my past life in hospitality, the title HR Manager/Director/Queen was changed to "Team Services Manager/Director/Queen". The explanation was "a Guest Services Manager serves the guests. You serve the Team." This is true, but it confused the daylights out of just about everyone. People would call asking about job opportunities and couldn't figure out that I was the right person to talk to. "What is Team Services? I asked for Human Resources/Personnel/whatever."

Fortunately it wasn't long before we were good ol' Human Resources again. The job itself hadn't changed a bit.