Towards a Relational Framework for CEO Capability: A Conceptual Paper with Pilot Evidence from the Top Management Perspective

This conceptual paper develops a relational framework for understanding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) capability as it operates within the CEO–top management team (TMT) dyad, and illustrates that framework with pilot evidence from a small qualitative inquiry. The paper argues that dominant structural and economic accounts of CEO capability, anchored in Upper Echelons and agency-theoretic traditions, are usefully complemented by a relational reading. On this reading, capability is co-produced in specific dyadic relationships and received, interpreted, and responded to by the senior managers who work most closely with CEOs. Drawing on role theory, relational leadership, and adjacent work on emotional intelligence and humble leadership, the paper synthesises these literatures into a framework in which personal characteristics function as a foundational layer shaping team collaborative skills, which in turn shape management style. Analytical skills operate as a baseline prerequisite rather than a relational differentiator. Pilot evidence from Critical Incident Interviewing (CII) with four senior line managers in multinational organisations, producing 117 inductive codes organised into nine categories and four themes, illustrates the framework and supports its use as a basis for a larger doctoral inquiry. The paper makes three contributions: a conceptual framework for CEO–TMT relational capability grounded in the receiving side of the dyad; a methodological evaluation of CII as a technique for elite C-suite research, with specific adaptations identified; and an insider, practitioner-informed register with implications for CEO selection, development, and board oversight. The pilot material is offered as illustrative and as justification for the larger study that will follow, not as generalisable empirical findings in its own right.