Exploring Signs of Hubris in CEO Language
This chapter focuses on the potential for DICTION to identify inaptly hubristic language of Chief Executive Officers. CEO hubris is examined as a syndrome possessing identifiable symptoms that have possible links to CEO language and DICTION measures. The authors make some exploratory predictions regarding the nature of these links and assess them using the text of speeches of the former long-serving CEO of British Petroleum, John Browne. In a quest for validation, they then apply the results of that assessment to some oral and written examples of the discourse of News Corporation’s CEO, Rupert Murdoch. The results, although mixed, show some promise regarding the usefulness of DICTION in identifying hubristic CEO-speak. One interesting finding is that DICTION’s calculated variable, Variety, is associated strongly and consistently with the language use of Browne and Murdoch, evidencing a high Type Token Ratio. The authors attribute this result to Browne and Murdoch possibly experiencing low anxiety as they strived to manage impressions of themselves by inducing the outside world to “know” what they were seemingly utterly convinced about - their own superiority. The chapter concludes by suggesting some refinements and extensions of the study.