Nonverbal communication cues of CEOs and CEO labor market in time of financial crisis

• Main Authors: Dharmawan, Nico, You, Ye, Li, Rui
• Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Public relations::Crisis communication; DRNTU::Business::Industries and labor; DRNTU::Social sciences::Communication::Visual communication
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51559
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study investigates the impact of nonverbal cues of CEO on CEO labor market. We aim to find correlation between audio cues namely voice pitch and speech rate, and CEO labor market. We also aim to find correlation between visual cues namely visual age of CEO and movement inhibition, and CEO labor market. Hypotheses were investigated through logistic regression and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The data was mostly collected from watching and transcribing 235 CEO interview videos on CNBC between 2008 and 2009. Voice pitch data was collected using Praat together with the aid of transcripts, speech rate was calculated using the speech corpus, visual age was collected by subtracting observed average perceived age from the actual age, and movement inhibition by subjective observer judgment. CEO compensation was retrieved from Execucomp while CEO forced dismissal data was mined from publicly available sources. It was found that each cue had a correlation towards CEO forced dismissal. Lower voice pitch is correlated with higher likelihood of forced CEO turnover, controlling for firm and CEO characteristics. While lower male voice pitch indicates physical and social dominance, it seems to be associated with overconfidence of the CEO, which makes him more likely to be fired, ceteris paribus. Visual cues, i.e. younger visual age and inhibited movements in the interview, are found to have significant correlation with the higher likelihood of forced CEO turnover. While all the independent variables have no significant relationship with current-year total compensation, voice pitch is found to have significant negative correlation with current-year equity-based compensation.