CEO's job description

 The CEO's job description can be either prescriptive or proscriptive. Historically, the job description has been set out prescriptively - a list of the responsibilities of the CEO. The problem with such an approach is that the list is often out of date before it is written and certainly out of date by the time a performance assessment is due. A prescriptive approach also implies that for the CEO to do anything which is not on the list, he/she must obtain board approval.

The preferred approach is to write the description proscriptively - the CEO is responsible for the performance of the organisation except for those matters the board reserves unto itself.

So the job description might read, "The job of the CEO is to manage the organisation in accordance with board policy, commonly accepted business practice, and not to do anything illegal or immoral."

Such a job description requires the board to do its work first and to be a policy oriented board.