Unconscious Influences on Career Choice: Entrepreneur Vs. Manager

Abstract

While a large and rapidly growing literature attests to the interest in managers and entrepreneurs, relatively little research focused on comparing these two ‘leaders of the organisational stage’. This type of comparison has a special significance for career counsellors. The current paper addresses the unconscious influences on the career choice of managers and entrepreneurs using a psychoanalytic-existential framework and two case studies that demonstrate its application. The two examples demonstrate the manager's positive identification with their father compared to the entrepreneur's negative identification with father. Implications for career counselling are suggested.