Received ideas are stubborn. Even more so when they are fueled by studies. Since the health crisis, numerous studies have highlighted the fact that young people would aspire less to positions of responsibility, or to lead a team. But a report produced by the publisher and psychometric expert PerformanSe challenges this preconceived idea: 58% of young French people, aged 20 to 30, would express the desire to put on the role of manager and 68% have a positive image of it.
“The problem with many studies lies in the fact that they offer very few comparisons either with previous periods or with other age groups, which means that we do not know whether “this is a phenomenon of our time or a normality”, explains to The Express Dominique Duquesnoy, CEO of PerfomanSe. Concerning the appetite for the role of manager, the report reveals that it decreases with age.
Women gain confidence with age
Only 46% of those over 56 want to take on a management role, compared to half of employees aged 31 to 45. For Dominique Duquesnoy, this decline is explained more by the fact that the less young have experience of constraints and difficulties, than by the search for salary increases. “However, we must not exaggerate, because even if the desire is less important among older employees, it remains high,” he emphasizes.
The same goes for the difference between women and men. While 49% of women aged 20 to 30 want to have a management role compared to 67% of men in the same age group, the gap is not significant when looking at all age groups. “The gap between young women and young men, which tends to close with age, can be explained by the fact that young women do not have not yet encoded the idea that they could become managers”, explains Dominique Duquesnoy.
Different visions of the manager’s role
On the other hand, motivations differ according to age. 52% of those under 30 express the need for diversity in activities, and at the same time think that becoming a manager would be an opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge. The majority of those over 31 are motivated by “strong and ambitious challenges, in a very collective approach” and by the fact that support and mutual assistance must be at the heart of their activities and their daily lives.
And these results are observed homogeneously across all European countries. “The differences between States are too insignificant to be interpreted, which testifies to a growing homogeneity of collective operations in Europe, from organizational logic to the expectations of employees and the aspirations of young people for their careers,” explains Dominique. Duquesnoy who is delighted to see that “the future of management” is not in danger.