There will be fewer chief titles at Siemens in the future. Insiders from corporate circles reported this to the Handelsblatt and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The change is to be made as part of the streamlining of the company structure, the “One Tech Company program”. In total, hundreds of positions are set to lose their chief designation. Siemens itself did not want to comment on this when we asked, so it is unclear why the company is planning this step.
Axa Switzerland and DWS: Different experiences with title abolition
In the past, there have been other companies that have tried to abolish boss titles. At Axa Switzerland, the titles Assistant Vice President, Vice President and Director have no longer existed since the beginning of 2024. This step was intended to “promote a collaborative culture,” a spokeswoman for Axa Switzerland told our editorial team. The employees there are said to have reacted very positively to the new system from the start. Looking back, the insurance company says that it has proven successful to approach the issue holistically: “We not only abolished the titles, but also revised related aspects such as our remuneration system.”
But not in every company the abolition of titles was well received by employees. The fund subsidiary of Deutsche Bank DWS, for example, had to revise its 2020 decision again. The previously abolished titles were reintroduced after four years of long discussions, as Handelsblatt reported. At the time, this was due, among other things, to the complaints of those affected in the workforce. They saw themselves at an acute disadvantage in the financial sector because they were no longer seen on the job market as equal to colleagues with the title of boss.
Abolition of the chief title: These risks exist
Ursula Vranken, founder of the Institute for Personnel Development and Work Organization (IPA), also points out in her article that for many the title is “not a pure organizational question, but a question of identity”. For those affected, it is often not just a question of a job title, but rather a matter of self-image, the way in which one understands responsibility and the question of one’s own self-efficacy. As a consultant, Vranken has experienced, among other things, that the first impulse is almost always anger, frustration or the feeling of giving up everything. Companies must also be prepared for this reaction from employees if they want to abolish titles.
Tonia Schöler is a volunteer at Human Resources.
