Analysis: As the man in the grey flannel suit is replaced by the Head of Mischief, there are three likely explanations for the growth of quirky job titles
There was a time when the corporate world was stodgy, staid and predictable. Sloan Wilson's novel The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit depicted the smothering conformity of corporate culture and posed the question of whether a steady income justified the sale of one’s individuality.
One of the key features of this corporate culture was the organisational pyramid, which depicted the steady progression from staff to supervisory to managerial to executive positions, with a C-Suite at the top housing the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and the like. The distinctions between levels were stark, and they were marked by sometimes subtle marks of status.
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From RTÉ Brainstorm, how much does your job title matter?
I learned this vividly when I spent a summer as an intern at a major American corporation. They had run out of the cubbyholes usually used to house interns, but a manager had just left, and I was installed in his office. The office had a window with a pleasing view and a desk with two inches more overhang than the desks given to lower-level employees. Even though it was obvious that I was a student on an internship, I was treated with more consideration and respect than any of the other interns because of my cushy office.
The organisational pyramid features an utterly predictable set of job titles, and at one time, every ambitious young manager aspired to be Chief something or other. Recently, many corporations have started using more imaginative job titles, like Head of Getting Stuff Done or Head of Mischief.
Sometimes, these job titles convey important information about the role, such as Innocent Drinks' "peoples" champ" (community manager) or "head of force for good" (who oversees sustainability and public affairs). Such titles often reflect the organisation’s culture: Nike calls store workers "athletes", while Lululemon calls their store assistants "educators". People might even adopt job titles that seem to inflate their importance, such as calling a receptionist "director of first impressions".
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From RTÉ Radio 1's The Business, Elaine Burke from Silicon Republic on the meaning behind such 21st century job titles as content strategist, a mischief champion and a digit prophet
The use of whimsical job titles is not an entirely new phenomenon. Since the 1950s, the Walt Disney Corporation has had an Imagineering Department whose job is to "make the impossible possible" by building robots, rides, special effects, and the like to bring Disney stories and parks to life. Imagineer is one of the prized jobs in the Walt Disney Corporation, even though it is not at the top of a traditional organisational pyramid.
There are three likely explanations for the growth of quirky job titles. Corporations are more likely to be viewed as villains than as saviors; the Evil Corporation has become a staple of movies and is a popular meme. Google, possibly to their regret, once adopted the motto "don't be evil", a motto they dropped when they became Alphabet. Whimsical job titles might help convey the message that your corporation is not one of the Evil Brigade.
If you are Chief of Getting Stuff Done, it might be difficult to move to another company
These titles might help attract employees who do not want to become The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. A funky title conveys the promise (which may or may not be upheld) that the job will not be the typical stultifying exercise in corporate bootlicking. Finally, these titles are often the product of a CEO (who might have an imaginative title that conveys he or she is Grand Poohbah), who wants to convey individuality and creativity.
There are possible downsides to a quirky job title. If you are Chief of Getting Stuff Done, it might be difficult to move to another company. Because this type of title does not fit into the traditional organisational pyramid, it might be difficult for recruiters or hiring officers to determine where a Chief of Getting Stuff Done might fit in their organization. Nevertheless, this trend might have some legs, and it would not surprise me to see more executive and managerial titles become more creative. Whether this will translate into meaningful changes in the work or workplace itself is yet to be seen.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
