Striking Out In The Corner Office

Who needs baseball? There have been almost as many top-level shuffles this year as on any baseball roster.

Last week, for instance, chief executives at Zenith Electronics Corp., Northern Trust Corp. and Outboard Marine Corp. announced their retirements and named successors.

Earlier this month, Boise, Idaho-based Morrison Knudsen Corp. ousted its flamboyant chief executive, William Agee; and in January, Kmart Corp. stripped longtime chief Joseph Antonini of one of his titles, bringing in former Jewel Food Stores Chairman Donald S. Perkins as chairman.

Is it some sort of executive-suite flu? Or just corporate America’s version of spring cleaning?

It’s hard to say, because reasons for departure differ at all these companies.

But executive search firms say executive turnover will become increasingly common as companies and their boards ready themselves for the 21st century.