Company Executives: A Possible New Social Group

To a large extent the last few decades have been those of the manager. The training of managers, their selection, the way they are managed, their effective mission, their status, their duties and privileges, their character specifically in relation to French society… these are some of the many themes that have greatly fed debate and controversy, and fuelled a substantial body of literature. Will the next few decades be those of the ‘top executive’? Here again, their selection, training, and handling, their role and raison d’être, and their responsibilities and privileges, whether real or assumed, have for some time now apparently become a topical issue, as much for business as for society at large. Of course, as with every new phenomenon, the words to describe things are sometimes slow in coming. Vocabulary struggles, especially when it is trying to be international…