Our world is changing rapidly. This has direct consequences for companies and their management. As part of a Business Administration and Economics research project in the winter semester 2023/24, a team from The Hochschule Niederrhein led by Prof. Dr. Alexander Cisik first identified a number of skills that appear to be necessary to successfully master the leadership challenges of the future. The researchers then wanted to find out from employees in Germany how important these skills actually are to their direct managers (desire) and to what extent they are already being practiced (reality).
A representative sample of 362 employees in Germany was surveyed. The majority of employees are not really satisfied with their management. Only 43.36% see their expectations met or even exceeded. Although 26.57% are dissatisfied, they would like to help their manager to improve together. 20.63% of employees talk themselves into a better management situation or have reduced their expectations of their manager. For 9.44 %, the expectations placed on management are definitely not met.
Above all, employees expect their managers to have social skills. They want human and caring managers. However, managers primarily possess personal competence. Employees experience their direct managers primarily as digital and self-confident.
Overall, the quality of leadership in Germany averages 83.88%. Employees' expectations are primarily met in terms of digital skills (95.08%). The lowest quality is in terms of caring (77.74%).
However, satisfied and dissatisfied employees perceive the quality of leadership extremely differently. While the correspondence between desire and reality for satisfied employees is 97.00% overall, the figure for dissatisfied employees is only 49.04%.
Conclusion: Social skills are becoming increasingly important - the country needs new leaders! In view of these findings, there is an urgent call for more effective management development. This is correct in principle, but it will not work miracles. What is needed are people in management positions who are demonstrably suitable for this.
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