In late February 2007, the Free International University of Social Studies Guido Carli, along with several other institutions, presented in Rome the findings of a report on top-level managers. The report, entitled ‘Creating a managerial group – a plan to be carried out’, has two main objectives: to perform a census of Italian managers, indicating their numbers and characteristics, and to propose new models and values for the country’s future elite.
Structure of report
The Free International University of Social Studies Guido Carli (Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali, Luiss) of Rome is a private Italian university, from which a considerable number of people in managerial positions in Italy have graduated. Luiss is subsidised by the employer organisation Confindustria, and is also headed by the President of the organisation, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.
On 27 February 2007, Luiss presented the first report on the position of top-level managers in Rome. Luiss compiled the report entitled ‘Creating a managerial group – a plan to be carried out’ in collaboration with two other private universities, namely the Marche Polytechnic University (Università Politecnica delle Marche, UNIVPM) in Ancona on the east coast of Italy and the University of Bologna (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, UNIBO) in northern Italy, together with the Ermeneia Research Centre. The research took one year to complete and the researchers involved in the project intend to make it a permanent part of the political and economic debate in the future.
The report bases its analysis on statistical data and on interviews carried out among a sample of managers and members of the general public.
Findings of study
Analysis of the study’s findings indicated that Italian managers can be divided into three groups according to their role. The first group consists of 2,000 managers, who occupy the top positions of various companies and are well known to the public. The second group comprises 6,000 managers, who are less well known. The third group, with 17,000 managers, consists of intermediate and local managers of various organisations.
The study revealed an increase in the average age of managers by five years from 56.8 years of age in 1990 to 61.8 years of age in 2004.
The interviewees who took part in the study were asked which category of managers they thought were currently the most important. Judges were estimated to be top of the list, followed by managers of the mass media, trade unions, banks and financial institutions. The top-level hierarchy of public institutions and political bodies were considered the least important. However, differences of opinion emerged among the interviewees when they were asked which managerial group should be considered the most important. In fact, they stated that those holding the main positions at state level should be the most important, followed by top managers in trade unions and employer organisations, managers of medium-sized and large enterprises, professors, researchers and professionals in the cultural field.
Characteristics of managers
The research was carried out in the context of the current decline in the number of managers. This weakness manifests itself in two ways. First, no renewal of the professional category of managers has taken place, which is predominantly due to deterioration in the training centres that have traditionally selected the Italian elite, such as the Catholic Church, trade unions and employer organisations. Secondly, people in managerial positions lack confidence in their own capabilities. In fact, most Italian managers consider that their profession has limited appeal. They describe their professional category as one using negative stereotypes such as utilitarianism or limited predisposition regarding competences and collective values. Although this negative view is held for all managerial positions, managers in the financial sector received a more positive assessment in comparison with those in the political field.
The report includes an analysis of the characteristics a manager should ideally have. Most of the interviewees listed the following: a strategic vision, decision-making skills and good principles. The analysis also examined the negative aspects of managerial positions. In this case, the majority of managers were considered to be in their respective positions due to nepotism and their ability to maintain important and influential contacts. Moreover, these managers are inclined to protect and promote specific sectors of interest.
The managers interviewed also portrayed this negative image of themselves, referring to a low sense of responsibility towards common aims and objectives and a higher interest in specific aspects.
Conclusions
The report claims that the negative aspects mentioned in relation to managers’ jobs are due to a slow deterioration of their status in recent years, as a result of the ‘Mani pulite’ investigation in the 1990s. This nationwide police investigation into political corruption was led by magistrates from the Public Prosecution’s Office of Milan and resulted in the resignation and, in some cases, the arrest of a considerable number of Italian political and financial managers. Furthermore, the selection of the elite group through the use of personal contacts rather than through meritocratic considerations has further worsened the situation.
However, this deterioration in the status of the managerial profession is also due to problems in the political schools of this profession. In the past, these schools were represented by political parties, which failed to create new structures for the training and selection of people for top-level jobs.
Universities are not considered to be ideal places for the education and training of top-managers. The survey respondents were of the opinion that working in large companies, training on the job, working in close contact with managers in other sectors and gaining experience abroad represent better training opportunities.
Reactions to findings
A sociologist of the Department of Economics of the University of Ancona and one of the authors of the report, Carlo Carboni, thinks that a possible way to relaunch universities’ role in this field could be to provide them with a ‘more international’ profile.
The General Director of Luiss, Pier Luigi Celli, argues that the poor state of the Italian managerial profession is a result of the mechanisms that dominate selection processes where the ‘mediocre choose the mediocre’. Mr Celli declares that the gap left by training schools has been filled by technical schools, which train their students to become specialists and not managers. He is of the opinion that ‘managers must have a good vision and be generous. Furthermore, they must have a good cultural level, and not only technical. Managers currently in place do not engage in study’.
None of the trade union confederations reacted to the outcomes of this research.
Vilma Rinolfi, Cesos