The power of words: CEOs' psychological factors and CEO turnover types

We use the psycholinguistic analysis methods to investigate how CEOs' psychological factors influence their types of departure i.e. voluntary and involuntary CEO turnovers in the FTSE all share index companies. Apart from those conventional reasons, e.g. firms' prior performance, CEOs' power, their future focus attention (FFA) and negative emotion (NE) provide crucial explanations determining their turnover types. Empirically, this study identifies that the level of CEOs' FFA, signaling the planned career management behaviors, will increase the likelihood of voluntary CEO turnover. We also found that the level of CEOs' NE, reflecting the uncooperative behaviors, will increase the likelihood of involuntary CEO turnover. Integrating both cognitive and emotional factors, appreciating the proactive roles of CEOs in the leadership succession process, the comprehensive views of this research help us better understand whether the departing CEOs leave their positions voluntarily or involuntarily.