Top management teams: a bibliometric research from 2005 to 2015

This article aims to identify the main characteristics of the works on top management team (TMT). Firstly, it was related to the classic and current authors who research TMT performing a bibliometric research in the scientific journals of Web of Science, in the period from 2005 to 2015 (inclusive). Later, in order to raise the main evolutionary approaches, the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 specifically were analysed and for the reason that this period reflects the current tendency of the theme. The results were processed in the software Bibexcel and this generated a matrix of citation and co-citations, whose data were submitted to an exploratory factor analysis, from which five factors were identified. These were named in accordance to the main approach of the classic and authors, namely: 1) competencies of top management team; 2) features of top managers; 3) effect of demographic lines failures; 4) salary disparities among CEOs; 5) organisational learning. Among the evolutionary approaches of the authors who continue researching the theme, we highlight the interest in the context of TMT in family companies, gender diversity in the team and the internal and external influences of TMT. From the study, it can be concluded that the researches on human and behavioural aspects of TMT are constantly growing, since they accompany the evolutionary process of organisations. There is an increase in the tendency to study decision making under the human and behavioural aspect and not only under the structured and rational aspect.