What is the ‘glass cliff’? McKinsey demotes senior partner over remarks on women CEOs

McKinsey has removed senior partner Chris Bradley from his leadership roles after comments he made on LinkedIn questioning the “glass cliff” phenomenon drew criticism. Bradley, who is based in Australia, was until recently one of a handful of directors at the McKinsey Global Institute, the consulting firm’s business and economics research arm.

His removal from the leadership roles took effect on October 11. He remains a senior partner at the firm.

A McKinsey spokesperson said Bradley’s comments fell short of the standards expected at the company.

“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 a statement Sunday.

Bradley also served as a leader on some internal committees, Burns said.

A friend of Carreon had shared a post about the “glass cliff” phenomenon, which describes a situation in which women are appointed to senior leadership positions at organisations already facing difficulties.

Bradley questioned the concept in his response to the post.

“This theory is a very convenient way to always be a victim in the rain and empowered in the sunshine,” he wrote, “I am not going to start researching glass cliffs as I don’t think it ranks in the top 1,000 problems of the world."

In another post, Bradley questioned whether women leaders faced a distinct disadvantage when taking on difficult roles.

“We once had a problem of female advancement to CEO (chief executive officer), but now we have a new problem that the jobs they get are too hard? Is this actually a thing?”

His remarks about women CEOs were considered disparaging by many. The posts were subsequently deleted.

The concept was coined in 2005 by British psychologists Michelle K Ryan and Alexander Haslam of the University of Exeter.

Their research examined the performance of FTSE 100 companies before and after women joined their boards. They found that companies appointing women were more likely to have experienced poor performance in the months leading up to those appointments.

The concept suggests that women who break through into senior leadership may face a different set of challenges from those encountered by leaders appointed under more favourable circumstances.

The term builds on the idea of the “glass ceiling”, which refers to invisible barriers that prevent women from advancing to senior positions.

While the glass ceiling concerns obstacles to reaching leadership roles, the glass cliff focuses on the circumstances in which those roles are offered and the risks leaders may inherit.

The distinction is central to the debate surrounding Bradley’s comments: the glass cliff is a specific hypothesis about leadership appointments and organisational performance, rather than a claim that every woman appointed as CEO is being set up to fail.

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