CEO Style and Hiring Decisions for Management Committees in Spain

This study examines how CEO leadership style shapes decisions to hire, or not hire, highly qualified professionals over 50 into management committees in Spain. Drawing on leadership styles theory, upper echelons theory, research on ageism and cognitive bias, and social capital perspectives, it adopts a qualitative, interpretive design with in-depth interviews of 15–20 Spanish CEOs, deliberately including those who have and have not incorporated senior talent, complemented by documentary review. It aims to integrate ageism scholarship into executive leadership research and identify conditions that make inclusive hiring decisions more likely.