WHAT happened to interim managers? Were they another passing fad? Or are they so entrenched that they are hardly noticed any more? Not so long ago you would find them networking at all sorts of events, frantically searching for their next appointment.

An interim manager was usually hired for a specific purpose and time. There were several reasons to search them out. Often it was to fill a temporary gap or plug a hole when a key person left.

Sometimes they were hired as agents of change: to re-energise, refocus and redirect tired, demoralised groups that had lost their way.

Interim managers were also thought to be useful in start-ups. They could bring experience, steadiness and a sense of priority to the volatile, capricious world of starting, building and stabilising a new business.

Perhaps the most common reason they were sought and summoned was for crisis management. Organisations have all sorts of crises: sudden and huge drops in share price or morale, a haemorrhaging of specialist staff or the sudden emergence of powerful competitors.

But who are these managers? Here I must admit to a sneaking suspicion: do really successful executives move into interim management? Aren’t many of these managers little more than prematurely “let go” middle-ranking executives — one-man bands young enough to supplement their pension but not important enough to be kept on? And if I am right, how good are they? Does the CV of a typical interim manager really show evidence of all those wonderful skills, competences and wisdom so desperately sought by prospective employers? Of course, there are advantages to the job. The most obvious advantage of being a peripatetic temporary person is that one moves on.

Paper-thin edifices, dodgy strategic plans and inconsistent performance- management systems may collapse within weeks — not even months — after the departure of a sought-after saviour.

But there is also a downside. A job done very well may result not in the enhanced reputation of the interim manager responsible for the improvement, but in somebody else in the organisation claiming all the glory.

The real irony is this: management gurus repeatedly suggest that the long-term, full-time career is dead. Instead, portfolio management is the future. If this is true, we are all interim managers now.

Individual executives, it is presumed, only plan a sojourn with any organisation. They may choose interesting workplaces that are undergoing great change or they may prefer organisations known for their solidity and stability.

So maybe we need to clarify terms. After all, language and labels are everything. In the 21st century there are interim managers and sojourning executives.

Adrian Furnham is professor of psychology at University College London

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