Somebody has called it "C-level title inflation." Has this gone too far?
Kenexa Corp. (Nasdaq: KNXA) this week announced the appointment of a
new "Chief People Officer" by the name of Phillip Stewart. His job will be to
"oversee the company's HR functions and support its continued global expansion." We wish Phillip luck. But isn't his job what used to called Director of Human Resources? And human resources itself used to be called "personnel." Is it time to call the whole thing off? It may be too late for this particular title, CPO, which already has been woven into the business models of several H.R. consultancies (See
www.chiefpeople.com and
www.thecpo.com). But what about Chief Reception Officer and Chief Mail Officer? Knowledge@Wharton, the business journal of the Wharton School, has
some quizzical insights on this trend by its Chief Smart People (we used to call them professors). They point out that title inflation exploded in the inflationary 1970s when companies, unable to give real raises, just gave bigger titles. The downside is that these hifalutin titles also can "cheapen," in Wharton's words, the value and achievements of the actual chiefs (insert crocodile tears here):
Job title inflation "seems to go hand in hand with the flattening of the organization. People want to be distinguished in some way from everyone else, but in a flat organization there is less hierarchy and therefore less opportunity to be distinguished. One good thing about hierarchy is you can climb a corporate ladder. If there is no ladder, there is nothing to climb." So says Betsey Stevenson, Wharton professor of business and public policy.
Ok. Is this true at Kenexa? (Anybody at Kenexa care to enlighten us? PhillyInc has put in a call to its Chief Communications Officer for comment).
Here's what we really want: Actual examples of unusual, creative or absurd "Chief" titles in your Philly-area company or organization. We need some more real examples.
- Chief Business News Blogging Officer
