Will we soon be electing our superiors ourselves?

A majority of the Swiss want co-determination in the question of leadership: What is astonishing is that even an overwhelming majority of the managers surveyed (76 percent) would be willing to be elected or even voted out of office by their employees. This is the result of the study 'Switzerland leads?!' by Information Factory in cooperation with jobs.ch and Persorama on the topic of leadership and the new role of employees.

Not a generational issue

Anyone who now believes that this result is primarily due to the age of the managers surveyed is mistaken: managers between 30 and 50 years of age lead the group with 78 percent, followed by baby boomers (over 50 years of age) with 73 percent and younger managers from Generation Y with 72 percent. But although participation is part of everyday life in Switzerland, it is still the exception that managers are allowed to be elected by employees themselves.

Employees must have (almost) the same skills as managers 

The study also examined the question of whether there are skills that managers in particular possess and employees do not. The interesting result: almost all the skills examined are just as important for employees as they are for managers. These include professional communication, building and maintaining work-related relationships, and the ability to organize oneself well.

The most frequently mentioned tasks/skills that, according to study participants, are primarily possessed by executives include: making far-reaching decisions (40 percent) and taking responsibility (24 percent). According to their own assessment, managers are also stronger when it comes to thinking and acting strategically and conceptually, as well as successfully shaping change processes. Only 43 percent see the latter skills in their employees.

Leadership also works without exercising power

"Our study shows that exercising power as a component of leadership activity is moving further into the background. The question that then arises is how strong leadership is supposed to function with less and less power," explains Claudia Conrads, a consultant at Information Factory, Zurich. "In addition, 58 percent of all study participants indicated that their company is currently undergoing a change process. When you consider that the responsibility for successful change is supposed to lie more or less solely with the executives, it's understandable that more than half of the respondents don't believe their company can master these change processes."

Further study results

A total of 2,414 people took part in the online survey, including 1,353 employees without management responsibility, 788 managers and 273 HR specialists. The survey was conducted from March to June 2016. The study also brought other findings to light:

• A clear difference was found in the identification with the work: Managers identify with their own work in an overwhelming 75 percent of cases. And HR professionals are also very satisfied with their own job (72 percent). By contrast, only 54 percent of employees said they could identify with their work.
• Identification and sense of meaning comparatively poor among the younger generation: Do you feel called to your work? If yes, then you most likely belong to the age group over 30. Baby boomers, people over 50, feel the strongest calling (74%) and Generation Y, people under 30, the least (49%).
• The fact that there is still catching up to do in terms of employer attractiveness is confirmed by the results of the probability of recommendation, which was surveyed on a 10-point scale. A full 56 percent would not recommend their company to others (detractors). And only 17 percent of employees would recommend their company without reservation (Promoters). 26 percent are neutral about recommending their company (Neutrals).
• The increasing networking of markets is increasing the complexity of the tasks to be handled in companies. Teamwork is becoming increasingly important because many tasks can only be solved by combining different specializations.
• The most important skill for managers and employees is the ability to communicate. The most commonly cited reason why teamwork fails is lack of or poor communication.
• Leading virtual teams places new demands on managers. Leadership is becoming more global and thus also digital. In Switzerland, leadership with electronic media such as online feedback systems is already established in many industries. At the forefront of the industry comparison: IT, insurance and banking.
• What makes employers attractive? The most important factors are a nice team (51 percent), fun at work (50 percent), work-life balance (48 percent), career (42 percent), and good pay (38 percent).