Study on leadership positions: No desire for careers

Managers have a hard time: Especially in middle management, they often feel rubbed. Many middle management respondents believe that this leadership level will disappear over the longer term, according to a study. This is the result of an online survey by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Many middle management respondents do not feel comfortable in their overall position. "This is nothing new - they are somewhat lost between the roles of a specialist and manager," said BCG consultant and study author Nicolas Hunke.

New and surprising, however, is the high level of awareness that this management level may not be sustainable. Many respondents from middle management are convinced that their role will disappear.

28 percent of the surveyed superiors in Germany would not like to work anymore. That is the highest value among the analyzed countries. In China, however, it is only 13 percent. Of the interviewed employees without a management function, 37 percent would prefer not to work in Germany, compared to only four percent in China.

Only seven percent of employees aspire to leadership

For the study, the authors surveyed about 5,000 people, including 30 percent executives, in five countries. In addition to Germany, people in China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States were interviewed about their career plans. The survey was conducted by the Institute Ipsos.

Accordingly, the desire for leadership responsibility among the employees in Germany is particularly low: only seven percent of the employees would like to assume a leadership position in the next five to ten years. "A role in management in this country seems to be unattractive," said Hunke. In stark contrast to this is China: there are still 47 percent, who would like to lead a team.

Even the independence is unattractive for many employees. In Germany, only six percent of employees would want to work independently in the future. In the US, it is 29 percent.

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In Germany, 82 percent of managers find their job harder today than they used to. According to the survey, 85 percent of respondents in France also believe that, and 83 percent agree in the UK as well. Nevertheless, the managers in Germany seem to be better able to cope with their role compared to their colleagues from the four other countries considered.

"The results from Germany show that executives in Germany feel slightly better overall compared to their colleagues from Western countries," said BCG expert Hunke.

For example, managers in France and the UK are more stressed (74 percent) than in Germany (64 percent). Even just 34 percent of the leaders in this country complained that they were overwhelmed. In France (51 percent) and the United Kingdom (60 percent), on the other hand, it is more than half.

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On the other hand, in Germany there is still an outdated image of an executive who, above all, coordinates and makes decisions "or worse, but does less content-related work," said Hunke. This picture does not seem to be an attractive future model for respondents outside of management for their own careers.

Hunke urgently recommends companies to tackle the topic. Companies have to act in order to remain attractive to employees in the long term. "We see a lot of change in the role of management and the manager in the future, as the purely coordinative work decreases with modern working methods, but instead leads to new, more content-based leadership roles," said the BCG consultant.

Management position in China more attractive

The manager of tomorrow no longer determines alone. New models such as agile working methods and alternative career models, such as expert careers, could be part of the solution.

The international result: 81 percent of managers find their job harder than in previous years. Thirty-seven percent of them are certain that their job will no longer exist in the current form due to technological or structural developments in the next few years. The consequence: Just nine percent of employees strive for leadership over the next five to ten years.

However, the study reveals in which sectors workers and executives find it particularly difficult to see themselves as managers. After all, just under 40 percent of managers in this country want to remain in a leadership role in the future. There are fewer in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Only China stands out: Here, 70 percent can imagine remaining managers.