Estonians don't trust managers

TALLINN -- A survey conducted by Enterprise Estonia reveals a significant lack of confidence in managers from the people they manage. Only 15% of the Estonian population believe in the honesty and ethical nature of managers, with a majority believing that managers put short-term results before long-term goals.

"While only 15% of respondents thought that Estonianmanagers are honest and ethical in their activities, managers sawthemselves as significantly more honest and ethical," said Veigo Kell,Manager of the Management Awareness Programme of Enterprise Estonia.Non-Estonians also regarded managers as more ethical, but the majoritystill thought otherwise. 62% of the respondents believe that managersin Estonia are looking for fast success and fail to set any long-termgoals for themselves.

74% of the people did not think Estonian companies aredoing well, and found that this is why the Estonian managers must keepdeveloping themselves. A third of the respondents thought there is aconfrontation between managers and employees at the workplace, and thatthe authoritarian management style is predominant. The managers whoresponded also agreed with these statements. Young people were moreoptimistic, being less eager to agree with the domination of theauthoritarian management style. However, there were more young peoplewho believed that leadership skills are inborn and do not need to bedeveloped.

According to Veigo Kell, Manager of the ManagementAwareness Programme of Enterprise Estonia, the survey revealed severalshortcomings regarding management awareness, which the ManagementAwareness Programme will definitely pay more attention to in thefuture. "We have already launched the website juhtimine.ee; the TV-show"Juhtimisaju" helps to educate the wider public, and we also organiseevents related to management awareness," commented Kell on the optionsfor educating people. "I believe that both for us and Estonianmanagers, the results of this survey provide a lot to think about,"Kell added.

The survey was conducted by Turu-uuringute AS at therequest of Enterprise Estonia in the framework of the ManagementAwareness Programme. It was an omnibus-survey with the size of thesample being 1000 people of Estonia aged 15-74.

The purpose of the Management Awareness Programmeco-funded by the European Social Fund is to raise the awareness ofEstonian society to the importance of management quality and enhancethe competitiveness of Estonian companies, raising the awareness ofmanagers regarding modern efficient management concepts and methods.The target group of the Management Awareness Programme, taking placefor the fourth year, are mainly the managers of small and medium-sizedenterprises and business operators, as well as specialists and students.