Career Problems of Young Managers

Over 50 percent of all MBA's leave their first employer within five years. De Pasquale J. A. Lange R. A. , “Job-Hopping and the MBA,” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1971), p. 4ff. See also, De Pasquale J. A. , The Young Executive: A Summary of the Career Paths of Young Executives in Business (New York: MBA Enterprises, Inc., 1970); and Farris G. F. , “A Predictive Study of Turnover,” Personnel Psychology (1971), pp. 311–328. When a young graduate joins an organization, a “psychological contract” is forged between individual and organization. If the organization doesn't live up to the individual's perception of the contract, he feels offended and leaves. Unfortunately, the specific terms of this implied contract are seldom discussed. Kotter J. P. , “The Psychological Contract: Managing the Joining-up Process,” California Management Review (Spring 1973), pp. 91–99. The reasons why the relationship is initially vague lie in the implicit bargaining and selling that take place in the attraction and selection process. No one really wants to communicate “truth.” See Porter L. W. Lawler E. E. III Hackman J. R. , “Choice Processes: Individuals and Organizations Attracting and Selecting Each Other,” in Behavior in Organizations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975), pp. 131–158.

Lawler argues that expectation of immediate gratification means that management should shorten periods between evaluation and award frequent small raises rather than yearly. Lawler E. E. , “Compensating the New Life-style Worker,” Personnel (1971), pp. 19–25. See also, Stroh T. F. , Managing the New Generation in Business (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971).

In general, the younger the managers, the higher the level they expect to reach in their careers. Thus, virtually all are disappointed at some time. Moore M. L. Miller E. Fossum J. , “Predictors of Managerial Career Expectations,” Journal of Applied Psychology (January 1974), pp. 90–92. Some executives are highly skeptical of MBA'S in particular. Here is a portion of a letter written to the editors of Columbia Journal of World Business (May-June 1968), p. 5.

“I can't agree completely with Mr. [ Vincent T. ] Learson's statement (Jan.-Feb. 1968) that the salvation of the business world is the “scientifically trained man that comes from the ranks of the graduate schools.” I have found many of these people; have no concept of the value of a dollar. They are theorists only and for the most part have no desire to learn the basic fundamentals of the business they are engaged in, but rather consider themselves above finding out the basic principles of the business by experience. They want everyone to hand them experience on a velvet pillow and are too concerned with taking over the presidency of an organization six months after they enter an organization. I do believe the scientifically trained graduate student does have his place in industry, but. …”

Athos A. G. , “Is the Corporation Next to Fall?” Harvard Business Review (January-February 1970), pp. 49–60. For more on characteristics and expectation of young managers and specialists, see Gooding J. , “The Accelerated Generation Moves into Management,” Fortune (March 1971), p. 101ff.; and Ward L. B. Athos A. G. , Student Expectations of Corporate Life (Boston: Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1972).

Porter L. M. , “Where is the Organization Man?” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1963), pp. 53–61.

Livingston J. A. , “Pygmalion in Management,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1969), pp. 81–89.

Berlow D. E. Hall D. T. , “The Socialization of Managers: Effects of Expectations on Performance,” Administrative Science Quarterly (September 1966), pp. 207–223.

In general, a superior's stringent personal standards are associated with higher subordinate performance than lower personal standards. The superior's personal standards also seem to exert more influence on subordinate performance than subordinate's personal standards. The best performance, however, is where both superior and subordinates have high personal standards. Campbell J. P. Dunnette M. D. Lawler E. E. Weick K. E. , Managerial Behavior, Performance and Effectiveness (New York: McGraw-Hill 1970), pp. 447–551.

For some case studies of sensitive and insensitive young managers, see Dill W. R. Hilton T. L. Reitman W. R. , The New Managers (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962).

Jennings E. E. , The Mobile Manager: A Study of the New Generation of Top Executives (Ann Arbor: Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Michigan,: 1967). For examples of the critical importance of sponsors or mentors for ambitious females, see Sheehy Gail , Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1976) and Thompson J. , “Patrons, Rabbis, Mentors—Whatever You Call Them, Women Need Them, Too” MBA (February 1976), p. 26.

On the importance of power, McMurry writes: “The most important and unyielding necessity of organizational life is not better communications, human relations or employee participation, but power… . Without power there can be no authority; without authority there can be no discipline;” without discipline there can be difficulty in maintaining order, system and productivity. An executive without power is, therefore, all too often a figurehead—or worse, headless… . If the executive owns the business, that fact may ensure his power. If he does not, and sometimes even when he does, his power must be acquired and held by means which are essentially political.”— McMurry R. N. , “Power and the Ambitious Executive,” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1973), p. 140.

Livingston J. S. , “Myth of the Well-educated Manager,” Harvard Business Review (January-February 1971), pp. 79–88. In general, Livingston argues that there is no relation between managerial success and school performance and that schools don't develop important attributes. That “wisdom” is the neglected attribute is maintained by Urwick L. , “What Have the Universities Done for Business Management?” Management of Personnel Quarterly (Summer 1967), pp. 35–40.

One survey indicates that MBA students express more authoritarian and Machiavellian views than do practicing managers, but that business school professors were more Machiavellian than either! Siegel J. P. , “Machiavellianism, MBA's and Managers: Leadership Correlates and Socialization Effects,” Academy of Management Journal (September 1973), pp. 404–411. A similar finding is in Burke R. J. , “Effects of Organizational Experience on Managerial Attitudes and Beliefs: A Better Press for Managers,” Journal of Business Research (Summer 1973), pp. 21–30.

Moment D. Fisher D. , “Managerial Career Development and the Generational Confrontation,” California Management Review (Spring 1973), pp. 46–55. See also, Moment D. Fisher D. , Autonomy in Organizational Life (Cambridge: Schenkman, 1975).

Three-dimensional cone model of organization from Schein E. H. , “The Individual, The Organization and The Career. A Conceptual Scheme,” in Kolb D. A. Rubin I. M. McIntyre J. M. , Organizational Psychology: A Book of Readings (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971), pp. 301–316.

Porter , op. cit.

Campbell , op. cit.

The study compared three regional managers of different styles—“authoritarian,” “permissive,” and “recessive” (laissez-faire). Objective measurements indicated no difference in regional performance, but higher management consistently rated the authoritarian as most effective and promotable. Mullen J. H. , Personality and Productivity in Management (New York: Temple University Publications, Columbia University Press, 1966).

Levinson H. , “On Being a Middle-Aged Manager”, Harvard Business Review (July-August 1969), pp. 51–60.

That not obeying may be loyalty is demonstrated by D. Wise in The Politics of Lying (New York: Random House, 1973). Minow Newton , appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission by President Kennedy John F. , is quoted as saying that in April 1962, after a story that was highly critical of the President was broadcast on the NBC “Huntley-Brinkley Report,” Kennedy called Minow. As Minow recalls the conversation, it went like this:

JFK: “Did you see that goddamn thing in ‘Huntley-Brinkley’?”

Minow : “Yes.”

JFK: “I thought they were supposed to be our friends. I want you to do something about that.”

Minow says he did not do anything, instead calling a Kennedy aide the next morning and asking him to tell the President he was lucky to have an FCC chairman who doesn't do what the President tells him.

For a disturbing example of the retribution heaped on a manager who reported his firm's shortcomings to the press, see Vandivier K. , “The Aircraft Brake Scandal,” Harper's Magazine (April 1972), pp. 45–52.

On changing career identities, see Hall D. T. , “A Theoretical Model of Career Subidentity Development in Organizational Settings,” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance (January 1972), pp. 50–76; and Veiga J. F. , “The Mobile Manager at Mid-Career,” Harvard Business Review (January-February 1973), p. 115ff.

Hirschman suggests that economists will tend to exaggerate the power of leaving while political scientists and sociologists conversely underrate it. Hirschman A. , Exit, Voice and Loyalty (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1970). On new careers see Hiestand D. L. , Changing Careers After Thirty-Five (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971). Connor Fielder recommend that firms pay for the reeducation of unhappy managers who could then move on to other careers. Connor S. R. Fielder J. S. , “Rx for Managerial Shelf Sitters,” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1973), pp. 113–120. See also, Pearse R. F. Pelzer B. P. , Self-directed Change for the Mid-career Manager (New York: Amacom, 1975).

Zaleznik A. Dalton G. W. Barnes L. B. Laurin P. , Orientation and Conflict in Career (Boston: Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1970). The authors suggest that many people never reconcile this conflict between personal identity and organizational values, yet those in conflict may be more effective than those who are “oriented” toward the organization. See also, Schein E. H. , “Organizational Socialization and the Profession of Management,” in Kolb , Organizational Psychology: A Book of Readings pp. 1–16. Stoess reports a study indicating that managers are relatively more conforming than the general population. Stoess A. E. , “Conformity Behavior of Managers and Their Wives,” Academy of Management Journal (September 1973), pp. 433–441.

Jennings E. E. , Executive Success: Stresses, Problems and Adjustments (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1967): And Jennings E. E. , The Executive in Crisis (East Lansing Graduate School of Business Administration, Michigan State University, 1965).

Fromm E. , The Art of Loving (New York: Harper & Row, 1956).

Steiner J. , “What Price Success,” Harvard Business Review (March-April 1972), pp. 69–74. For optimistic advice on how open communication between husbands and wives can help to solve many of the conflicts at home caused by an executive's commitment to career, see Walker E. J. , “Til Business Us Do Part?” Harvard Business Review (January-February 1976), pp. 94–101.

The conceptions of ethics are from Baumhart R. , Ethics in Business (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968). See also Miller S. H. , “The Tangle of Ethics,” Harvard Business Review (January-February 1960), pp. 59–62; Towle J. W. (ed.), Ethics and Standards in American Business (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964); Garrett T. M. , Business Ethics (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966); Walton C. C. , Ethos and the Executive (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969).

Lombard G. F. F. , “Relativism in Organizations,” Harvard Business Review (March-April 1971), pp. 55–65; Fletcher J. F. , Situation Ethics (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966); Fletcher J. F. , Moral Responsibility: Situation Ethics at Work (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967).

Baram M. S. , “Trade Secrets: What Price Loyalty,” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1968), pp. 66–74. On various horror stories of managers who supposedly put profits over ethics, see Cook F. J. , The Corrupted Land (New York: Macmillan, 1966) and Heilbroner R. L. , In the Name of Profit (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972).

Freedman M. , Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962). Carr argues that it is dangerous to a manager's career to act purely upon personal beliefs, but he can help his organization if he can show how unethical policies actually harm economic performance. Carr A. Z. , “Can An Executive Afford a Conscience?” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1970), pp. 58–64. Thus, Carr is both pessimistic and optimistic—pessimistic that only economics guides business behavior, but optimistic that many dilemmas may be converted to economic terms where economics and public interest correspond. That good ethics is good economics and good business is argued by G. Gilman, “The Ethical Dimension in American Management,” California Management Review (Fall 1964), pp. 45–52.

Galbraith J. K. , The New Industrial State (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967).

Chayes A. , “The Modern Corporation and the Rule of Law,” in Mason E. S. (ed.), The Corporation in Modern Society (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959), p. 25ff.

Walton C. C. Cleveland F. W. Jr. , Corporations on Trial: The Electrical Cases (Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth, 1967).

A former chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank writes about ethical problems:

“Government's response to the problem, characteristically, has been that ‘there oughta be a law.’ In the first session of this Congress, more than 20,000 bills and resolutions were introduced, 20 percent more than in the first session of the previous Congress. The same approach has been in evidence on the state and local levels. The objective seems to be to hold together our fractured moral structure by wrapping it in endless layers of new laws—a kind of LSD trip by legislation. Yet it should be clear by now, even to busy lawmakers, that the great lesson to be learned from our attempts to legislate morality is that it can't be done. For morality must come from the heart and the conscience of each individual.” George Champion, “Our Moral Deficit,” The MBA (October 1968), p. 39.

Johnson H. L. , “Can the Businessman Apply Christianity?” Harvard Business Review (September-October 1957), pp. 68–76; Clark J. W. , Religion and the Moral Standards of American Businessmen (Cincinnati: Southwestern, 1966).

McMahon T. F. , “Moral Responsibility and Business Management,” Social Forces (December 1963), pp. 5–17.

See Fortune editorial in response to Paul's Pope encyclical “On the Development of Peoples” (May 1967), p. 115. The editors argue that the Church's view would hinder growth and harm the underdeveloped nations more than a few unethical companies do.

Carr A. Z. , “Is Business Bluffing Ethical?” Harvard Business Review (January-February 1968), pp. 143–153. In a similar vein, Levitt argues that advertising is like art: It is not reality, but illusion and everyone knows it. Therefore, some distortion is acceptable. Levitt T. , “The Morality of Advertising,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1970), pp. 84–92.

Baumhart , op. cit.

On the difficulties of managers who are confronted with accepting questionable conduct of their superiors, see Fendrock J. J. , “Crisis in Conscience at Quasar,” Harvard Business Review (March-April 1968), pp. 112–120. For reader response to the situation, see Fendrock J. J. , “Sequel to Quasar Stellar,” Harvard Business Review (September-October 1968), pp. 14–22. Ninety-eight percent said it was wrong to keep quiet, but 64 percent admitted they would be tempted to.

Andrews K. R. , “Toward Professionalism in Business Management,” Harvard Business Review (March-April 1969), pp. 49–60. Some are skeptical about whether business schools really affect the ethics of their graduates. An executive observes, “They tend to get the notion up at Harvard that some things are more important than profits. But that doesn't affect them when they come here. They're not really contaminated. They're typical, intelligent, ambitious, greedy, grafting, ordinary American males.” Quoted in Klaw S. , “Harvard's Degree in the Higher Materialism,” Esquire (October 1965), p. 103. Schein argues that educational institutions tend to accept the values of the enterprises they prepare students for. Schein E. H. , “The Problems of Moral Education for the Business Manager,” Industrial Management Review (Fall 1966), pp. 3–14.

On different career perspectives, see Prudent H. O. , “The Upward Mobile, Indifferent and Ambivalent Typology of Managers,” Academy of Management Journal (September 1973), pp. 454–464.

Career advice is summarized in Jennings E. E. , Routes to the Executive Suite (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971). See also, Buskirk R. H. , Your Career: How to Plan It, Manage It, Change It (Boston: Cahners, 1976). A summary of books on career planning may be found in Feingold K. , “Information; Sources on Life Style/Career Planning,” Harvard Business Review (January-February), p. 144ff.

Bass B. M. Eldridge L. D. , “Accelerated Managers: Objectives in Twelve Countries,” Industrial Relations (May 1973), pp. 158–170.