When CEOs step down from their positions, they face a unique psychological transition that differs markedly from the average retiree’s experience. Mark Lamberti, himself a former CEO of several major South African public companies, including Imperial Holdings, Transaction Capital, and Massmart, has turned this transition into the subject of academic inquiry through his doctoral research at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science.
The Void: Understanding the CEO Retirement Crisis
Lamberti’s research, conducted with Professor Charlene Lew and published in the journal Personnel Review, explores what happens in the psychological space between leaving a role that has profoundly shaped one’s identity and establishing a new sense of self in retirement. Their paper, “Filling the void: the underlying processes of CEO post-retirement role identity reformation,” offers an analysis based on 30 in-depth interviews with 17 former CEOs of public companies in South Africa.
“All of a sudden… I wasn’t connected to anything. I found that very unsettling,” one participant told Lamberti and Lew. “There were some days where I actually thought I was going to sort of fall apart completely”.
The research identifies six interconnected process elements that shape how retired CEOs reform their identities. These processes fall into two clusters: liminality (the transitional state) and role identity emergence.
Six Elements of Identity Reformation in Retired Executives
In the liminality cluster, three processes unfold concurrently: epiphanies (sudden realizations about the magnitude of change), role identity cues (signals from family, colleagues, and society about expected retirement behaviors), and evaluation of resources (taking stock of health, wealth, networks, and skills).
“I’m very fortunate. I have the biggest advantages. I am healthy and I think if you didn’t have that, you know, everything changes,” one participant reflected, highlighting how health emerged as a crucial resource for successful transitions.
The role identity emergence cluster comprises three additional processes: sensemaking (interpreting and understanding their new reality), narrative construction (creating credible stories about who they are now), and identity enactment (testing new roles and ways of being).
Contextual Challenges in South African CEO Transitions
Lamberti’s research reveals that despite their considerable resources and capabilities, many CEOs find themselves unprepared for retirement’s psychological impact. Most focused primarily on ensuring and elegant departure; company performance, succession, and finalising outstanding corporate transactions, rather than preparing for their own transition.
The findings also illuminate how the South African context adds complexity to CEO retirement. With an unemployment rate of 32.9% in 2024, many participants felt strong obligations to contribute to society but sometimes found their efforts constrained by political dynamics.
“Society, my friends, my colleagues would expect me to give back,” one participant explained. “If there are corporates that you can play a role in as a non-exec and add value, you should do that, because it is needed.”
Lamberti’s work appears particularly authentic given his own background. After a 33-year executive career leading major corporations, he experienced this transition firsthand before studying it academically. His doctoral research, completed in 2024, brings both insider knowledge and scholarly rigor to a process that has received limited qualitative research attention.
For organizations, Lamberti and Lew’s research suggests value in providing structured support for retiring executives’ psychological transitions, not just practical handovers. For executives, it underscores the importance of considering post-retirement identity well before departure.
The study ultimately portrays CEO retirement not merely as an ending but as a complex process of intellectual, emotiona, and psychological reconstruction – one that requires letting go of old identities while actively building meaningful new ones.