Consider, for a moment, this compelling image: A charismatic leader sweeps into a troubled organization and, in the nick of time, saves it from certain demise. Larger than life, this heroic CEO has a seemingly magical ability to inspire and motivate the rank and file and to make needed change happen.Many of us like to think that such creatures exist. Indeed, some researchers argue that a talented CEO exerts the most powerful impact on an organization's fate. But others maintain that social structure —that intricate web of relationships among a company's employees, systems and processes — is most important in determining whether the organization will succeed or fail.An April 2001 working paper, “When Does Leadership Matter? The Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leadership,” shifts the debate away from this either-or approach. Rather than asking whether individual agency or social structure matters more, the researchers reframe the debate itself. They ask: Under what circumstances will a CEO have a major impact on his or her organization?To answer that question, authors Noam Wasserman, Nitin Nohria and Bharat Anand of Harvard Business School offer two critical dimensions that influence the magnitude of a CEO's impact on a company.Resource Availability.
