Managing High-Potential Employees: Current Practices in Thirty-three U.S. Corporations: INTRODUCTION

How to manage high-potential employees (HIPOs), the future leaders of their companies, is a significant concern to most major U.S. corporations. Fortune, in a recent article, noted that the CEOs of the 50 largest U.S. industrial corporations have typically spent their entire careers with one company, working their way up stepby-step to the corner office (Pare and Woods, 1987). This pattern of career-long training to advance to the executive suite corroborates the common perception that many companies identify high-potential...