A LinkedIn exchange questioning workplace challenges facing women executives has cost McKinsey & Co. senior partner Chris Bradley his leadership role at the consulting firm’s research unit, Bloomberg reported.
Bradley has been removed as a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, the firm’s high-profile business and economic research unit, said in a statement on Sunday. He will however continue as a senior partner at the firm.
“Following our conduct review process, we have removed the partner from his leadership roles, including at the McKinsey Global Institute. His public comments fell well short of the standards we expect at our firm,” McKinsey spokesman Taylor Burns said in an emailed statement.
Bradley also served as a leader on some internal committees, Burns said, according to the news report.
What were the comments all about?
The decision followed an internal review triggered by Bradley’s LinkedIn back-and-forth last month with one of the authors of a new book that discusses the “glass cliff” phenomenon faced by women in the workplace.
McKinsey had previously distanced itself from Bradley’s comments on the subject, which were later deleted.
The term “glass cliff” is coined by academics to describe a pattern in which women are more likely to be appointed to leadership roles at companies facing a crisis or struggling to turn around their .
Proponents of the theory argue that research shows female executives are often given opportunities to become chief executive officers when the risk of failure is higher in a certain organisation.
Bradley, who is based in Australia, questioned whether the phenomenon existed at all. In the now-deleted posts, he described the glass cliff as “a very convenient way to always be a victim in the rain”.
McKinsey has long sought to advance the conversation about challenges women face in the workplace. It also published a “Women in the Workplace” study, compiled with Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In advocacy group, for more than a decade.
All we know about Chris Bradley
Bradley holds a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he majored in industrial organisation and graduated in 2003.
He also holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce and , with a focus on finance and mathematics from the University of New South Wales.
Bradley has also worked as senior brand manager at Sainsbury’s Supermarkets in the United Kingdom, according to his LinkedIn profile.
According to company profile, Bradley brings insights from a wide repertoire of industries and 25 years McKinsey experience.
He previously led McKinsey’s Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice across Asia and developed many of our firm’s modern strategy frameworks.
He is also the co-author of the internationally best-selling book Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick (John Wiley & Sons, 2018) and originated McKinsey’s Ten Timeless Tests of Strategy, according to the company records.