Ethical lapses caused more CEOs to be ousted in 2018 compared to a company's financial performance or struggles with the board of directors, a PwC Strategy study found and cited by CNBC.
This is the first time in 19 years that the study found a majority of CEOs were dismissed due to scandals.
PwC analyzed 2,5000 public companies. The study defined CEO dismissal because of ethical lapses as "the removal of the CEO as the result of a scandal or improper conduct by the CEO or the other employees; examples include fraud, bribery, insider trading, environmental disaster, inflated resumes and sexual indiscretion."
The rate of forced turnovers among CEOs in 2018 remained consistent with previous trends, at 20 percent.
The PwC report of CEO oustings found that 39 percent were dismissed in 2018 because of ethical lapses, 35 percent due to performance and 13 percent were due to conflicts with the board, CNBC reports.
The breakdown of dismissals is different from 10 years ago. In 2008, 52 percent of CEOs were dismissed due to financial performance while 35 percent were ousted because of board conflicts and 10 percent because of misconduct.
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