The relative stability of national career patterns in European top management careers in the age of globalisation: A comparative study in France/Germany/Great Britain and Switzerland

SummaryWhile top management career patterns are highly embedded in national institutional contexts, the phenomenon of globalization has recently called into question the future of these patterns. In this article we discuss the stability of certain features of national top management profiles as well as the emergence of a new globalized managerial elite characterized by new elements legitimating top management authority. We collected biographical and career related information from 916 top managers employed by 111 companies located in France, Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland. Our data shows a certain erosion of national models due to the gradual arrival of non-national top managers, but this process occurs very slowly despite the strong international dimension of the companies studied.