Upper echelons research has long argued that organizational outcomes reflect the characteristics of those who lead them. Scholars have shown that personality plays a central role in shaping how executives interpret information, make decisions, interact with stakeholders, and steer their organizations. Yet, despite a rapidly expanding literature on CEO personality and related constructs, recent reviews highlight persistent challenges: conceptual narrowness, methodological limitations, geographic concentration, and a tendency toward insularity rather than theoretical integration.

This Special Issue seeks to advance the study of personality in the upper echelons by encouraging submissions that challenge existing assumptions, expand theoretical lenses, deepen methodological rigor, and broaden contextual diversity. A recent comprehensive review emphasizes the need to move beyond overreliance on broad traits such as the Big Five and narcissism, integrate insights from personality psychology, employ multi-method assessment and reduce dependence on proxy measures, articulate mechanisms linking personality to organizational outcomes, explore non-Western contexts and alternative governance systems, and bridge macro–micro perspectives to understand how individual dispositions influence firm-level outcomes.

The Special Issue aims to deepen theoretical understanding of how personality operates within and shapes the upper echelons, encourage methodological innovation in assessing executive personality including multi-method designs and longitudinal approaches, broaden contextual relevance by examining executive personality across diverse governance systems and cultural settings, and integrate micro- and macro-level perspectives to illuminate how leaders' psychological characteristics influence organizational structures, strategic actions, culture, and performance.

Potential topics

• How do motives, values, traits, and narratives of organizational leaders shape firm behavior?
• Under what conditions do personality effects strengthen or weaken?
• How can scholars better measure personality in the upper echelons?
• How do institutional, cultural, and governance contexts shape the expression and consequences of executive personality?
• Broadening the conceptualization of executive personality beyond Big Five and narcissism traits
• Integrating insights from personality psychology including motives, values, identity, and life stories
• Mechanisms linking personality to strategic outcomes such as CSR, M&A, innovation, and risk-taking
• Personality dynamics over time including personality change and developmental experiences
• TMT dynamics, leadership styles, and power distributions shaped by executive personality
• Contextual, cultural, and institutional moderators of personality effects across national cultures and governance systems
• Measurement and assessment of executive personality using multi-method designs and unobtrusive indicators
• Personality composition and complementarities within boards, TMTs, and collective leadership
• CEO selection, evaluation, and succession planning incorporating personality
• Executive personality influence on ethical decision making and societal outcomes

Timeline

• August 1, 2026: Submission window opens
• September 30, 2026: Submission window closes
• December 31, 2026: Decision notification
• June 1, 2027: Target publication