Summary
Companies are reducing management roles to create flatter organizational structures. This trend affects both middle management and high-level executive roles, like those in the C-suite. Many of the world's largest companies, including those in the Fortune Global 500, are seeing a decline in the number of top executive roles.
Key Facts
- Amazon plans to increase its ratio of individual workers to managers by 15%.
- Dell is cutting management positions and increasing how many people each manager oversees.
- Bayer AG removed 5,500 management positions to have some managers supervise up to 50 employees.
- The number of C-suite executives fell by 4.7% from 2022 to 2023.
- Among Fortune Global 500 companies, the average number of top executive roles declined by 9% from 2022 to 2025.
- The biggest drops in executive roles happened in finance companies and regions like Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) and North America.
- The role of chief marketing officer became less common, dropping by 13% in major companies from 2022 to 2025.
- Some newer executive roles in technology have continued to grow in these companies.
