McKinsey Sidelines Partner Over Comments on Women Leaders
Chris Bradley will remain a senior partner after the consulting firm concluded a conduct review into comments questioning the 'glass cliff' faced by women in leadership
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McKinsey and Co. has removed senior partner Chris Bradley from leadership positions including his role at the McKinsey Global Institute after an internal review of comments he made on LinkedIn about women in senior corporate jobs.
Bradley, who is based in Australia and remains a senior partner at the consulting firm, had been one of the directors of the McKinsey Global Institute, the company’s economic and business research arm.
The action followed an exchange last month in which Bradley challenged the idea of the “glass cliff,” a term used for the tendency of women to be appointed to senior positions when organizations are already struggling.
In the exchange, Bradley described the concept as “a very convenient way to always be a victim in the rain,” and said he did not believe it ranked among the world’s most important problems.
The comments were subsequently deleted.
McKinsey initially distanced itself from the remarks, saying in late September that the exchange was inconsistent with its views and the standards it expected.
After completing its conduct review, the firm went further.
“Following our conduct review process, we have removed the partner from his leadership roles, including at the McKinsey Global Institute,” McKinsey said in a statement reported by Australian media.
It said Bradley’s public comments had fallen short of the standards expected of its partners.
The controversy is particularly awkward for McKinsey because the firm publishes extensive research on gender inequality in corporate workplaces, including its long-running Women in the Workplace project.
The “glass cliff” was first documented in academic research by Michelle Ryan and Alexander Haslam at the University of Exeter.
Their 2005 study of FTSE 100 companies found that businesses appointing women to their boards were more likely to have suffered sustained poor performance before those appointments.
Later experimental work found women were more likely than equally qualified men to be selected for leadership jobs when the organization was described as being in crisis.
The researchers argued that such appointments can put women in positions where the chances of failure are already unusually high, leaving them exposed to criticism for problems that predate their arrival.
Bradley’s comments drew responses from women executives and researchers on LinkedIn, including Julia Carreon, co-author of a book dealing with the glass-cliff phenomenon.
McKinsey has not said whether Bradley will face any further action.
