We have become the culture of the Chief Anything Officer. Case in point is the proliferation of magazines dedicated to various Chief Something or Other Officers. But does it serve a business purpose?

Businesses are evolving at a furious pace to adapt to an ever increasingly competitive marketplace. The demands have been amplified as more and louder constituencies vie to impose their will on companies. Whether it is governments, social activist groups, international organizations, or bloggers, the scrutiny has become overwhelming.

Corporate leaders have tried every flavor of the month strategy fad to keep up. The result is that companies that should be focused on executing to their vision are finding their focus diffused into multiple areas. It is no longer enough to just make money; you must be invested in Diversity, mitigating Risk, facilitating Learning, cataloguing Knowledge, focusing on People, and actively monitoring Social Media.

As companies define more things as important, all of these things require someone to lead the cause. What might have had some usefulness takes on a life of its own, and before long a new fiefdom has been created. And at the top, the Chief Bigwig Officer reigns supreme. With everyone a chief, it is only a matter of time before we see the Chief Receptionist Officer.

There are two immediate implications as it applies to talent management. One is that job title inflation is not simply happening at the top. How many people with “manager” in their titles actually manage anything? The second point is that if it is happening at one company, it is happening everywhere else, so job titles provide little useful information when evaluating the career paths of candidates.

Looking beyond the obvious however is a more startling observation: the dawning of a new type of organization. In the next post, I will explain the reality of what job title inflation is showing us about the future of the corporate structure and the relationship with work.