Ask young workers in the UK to name a leadership role model and they will list Richard Branson or Jamie Oliver, even Jade Goody. Not successful managers like John Browne, CEO at BP, or Justin King, Sainsbury’s chief executive. Encouraging entrepreneurs is all very well, but it is essential for UK business that enough young talent makes the transition into management. The problem is, their experiences at the hands of bad managers are discouraging them from pursuing a career in management. As a survey of young workers’ attitudes towards management by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) reveals, the potential executives of the future have witnessed management in action, and many of them don’t like what they see.

There are some very pressing reasons why the UK needs to encourage a new cohort of young workers to move through to management positions. For a start, Britain has long lagged behind economic rivals such as France, Germany and the US in terms of productivity. Measured by output per hour worked, for example, the UK has consistently been between 20% and 40% behind these countries. Now, in the global economy, it faces competition from a new wave of emerging economies, as well as its traditional economic competitors.

A new generation

Improving productivity is key to the UK’s prosperity. And productivity improvement will be driven by innovation, particularly innovation in management practices. Who will be responsible for implementing many of these new management innovations? The next generation of managers: Generation Y – loosely defined as those people born between 1978 and 2000.

In the modern knowledge economy the demand for talented individuals in organisations is greater than ever before. Hence all the talk about talent wars, with HR departments flagging up the intense competition for the best young people – the organisational leaders and managers of the future. ‘We need as much talent as we can get to handle the massively complex jobs that are emerging; where you have to balance a huge number of semi-conflicting criteria against each other,’ says David Sims, professor of organisational behaviour at Cass Business School in the City of London.

While there has always been competition for top talent, in the past it has been less of an issue. Employees may have been unimpressed by their managers, but mobility and choice were limited. A career usually involved progressing through the ranks of one or two organisations, with promotion depending on seniority. Command and control was the management method of choice in all but a few enlightened organisations.

Today, job tenure is much less secure. Plus some significant shifts in working patterns are underway. Portfolio careers have become a reality. ‘The idea that your security lies in your employment contract is going,’ says Sims. ‘There is a whole generation of young people, well qualified and very bright, who do not believe that the only way of earning a crust is to sign a long-term deal with an organisation.’

Generation Y appears to have adjusted to the new working landscape, and comes equipped with a new set of values. Two obvious examples of this shift in attitude are the increasing numbers of young people heading for careers as entrepreneurs, as well as the work-to-live rather than a live-to-work mentality common among members of Gen Y.

Steven Worsley, 22, is currently a freelance film editor, following several years working in a classic office environment. ‘I know I will never have stability in the work that I do, but I still want to be freelance, as do a lot of my friends. I would never take up a management job, it is something that none of us would ever enjoy doing,’ he says.

A willingness among Generation Y to embrace a more risky career strategy is accompanied by a desire to make sure that they enjoy work, and that it has some meaning for them in their lives.

‘Older people seem to have taken on jobs to go through management and get stability, not to do jobs that they 100% enjoy,’ says Worsley. ‘Younger people of my age want to do jobs that they enjoy. Not necessarily for the money. We want to enjoy what we are doing; life is too short to worry about security.’

On top of this there is a high level of cynicism about management in general, across all ages. ‘Dilbert probably gets his ideas from all generations,’ says Robin Wensley, director of the Advanced Institute of Management. ‘There is a loss of respect for management and that is partly because what management can achieve has been hyped up, so people become cynical when the reality doesn’t match up to the claims.’

Management disconnect

While it is clear that organisations need to encourage a cohort of managers from Generation Y to come through for the future, the evidence suggests that it is a challenge organisations are struggling to meet. Take the results of the recent ILM survey, which reveals a worrying disenchantment with management and managers among a significant proportion of young people.

While 96% acknowledge the importance of having a good relationship with their line manager, over a quarter do not have a positive relationship with their manager, and almost 40% do not get along well with their manager. Almost a third of the respondents say they are not managed well.

Many of those surveyed also report unwelcome management traits in their line managers. Over a quarter feel that their manager does not foster a team environment, is usually tense and stressed, and focuses on who to blame if something goes wrong. A third (33%) feel that they are told what to do without any debate taking place. Over half (52%) do not feel that their manager is helping them to progress.

The young people surveyed are quite clear about what kind of managers they want: approachable, team oriented, participative and empowering. What a lot of them are getting, however, are dictatorial, overbearing, untrusting managers, looking for someone to blame at the first sign of trouble.

Tom Butcher, 26, is typical of the kind of employee organisations need to engage and encourage into higher levels of management. Having graduated from Keele University with a 2.1 in international relations, he has worked in the insurance industry for five years now, but hasn’t always been managed in the way that he expected, or had hoped would be the case.

‘The way I’ve been managed in the past has been very top down,’ says Butcher. ‘It is almost like an adult-child relationship at times. Not so much “we are colleagues, how do we work this out together?” but more of an “I’ll tell you how to do this and you will do it” approach.’

Tom says several of his peers in other organisations feel the same way about their careers. ‘I often hear tales of managers where, when things go wrong, it is never a question of discussing how to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, but about finding someone to blame,’ he says.

However technically proficient they may be in their roles, managers could generally do with brushing up on their people skills by all accounts. ‘Most managers I have worked with have had a real sense of arrogance, of superiority,’ says flexi-worker Matt Landsman, 21. ‘It just seems for the most part that managers aren’t really approachable people. You get to that level of employment and social skills go out of the window.’

One of the most significant findings in the ILM survey was how the young workers were being affected by their experiences of management. Just under a third (27%) said they would leave the organisation because of poor management. In other words, good management is not just for show, it is essential organisational best practice, as part of a process of retaining talented young individuals.

Changing attitudes

So how should organisations meet the challenge of engaging young employees? There are several things all employers can and must do. They need a change of mindset, top down, but particularly among the line managers for Generation Y.

‘Quite a lot of middle managers have been trained in how to manage conscripts, just like it is a labour camp; but, as Peter Drucker [the Austrian management guru] said, in the knowledge economy people are never conscripts, they are volunteers,’ says Sims. ‘If people let themselves be managed, that is voluntary, if they do their best, then that is voluntary. Treat them as if it is compulsory and you will not get the best from them.’

Rather than being ordered around, young workers need to be led by example. ‘This generation expects to be treated like adults and involved in meaningful relationships right from the start. They are keen to learn and want coaching and mentoring support to help them progress,’ says Julie Hodges, a senior lecturer at Durham Business School. ‘Role modelling of effective management behaviour is the best way forward.’

Education will play a key role in adjusting organisational attitudes, and creating appropriate role models, at first-line and middle management levels. There is far less automatic respect for authority these days – it needs to be earned by managers. And to do this they need the appropriate skills.

‘Just calling someone a manager – simply promoting them to a management role – is not enough. To succeed in that role they need the skills to engage, motivate and develop their staff,’ says Kim Parish, chief executive of ILM. ‘While some people will have a natural affinity for this, our survey clearly shows that many managers do not – they need training and ongoing support if they are to really achieve results.’

It is a situation that occurs far too often in organisations, says June Hawkins, head of development at ILM. Managers are thrown into a management role without the benefit of a formal management education. Often the reason they have been promoted to management is because they are excellent practitioners, not because of their people and relationship skills.

‘The way in which they engage with staff, particularly younger people, will not be as effective as it would be if they had some formal management education,’ says Hawkins. ‘It isn’t rocket science. It’s about sitting down and thinking how our own behaviours impact upon the people we work with. But at the same time it’s invaluable. If an organisation doesn’t invest in educating its managers to provide Generation Y with the kind of management it demands, then it’s clear that talented young workers will leave and go to an organisation that does.’

As well as educating the managers, the business community and government have a responsibility to manage the expectations of young workers. While Generation Y might aspire to be Richard Branson or Jamie Oliver, the UK needs good managers, not just entrepreneurs. There is even a place for prescriptive management alongside more participative styles.

‘There is an obligation not to mislead young people, and to get them to see that there are interesting challenges in larger organisations,’ says Wensley. ‘You have to dampen expectations in some cases, about empowerment and autonomy, for example. You can’t just have people who are doing their own thing all of the time, but you want them to feel that when they are being told what to do there is good reason for it.’

Facing the future

Meeting the raised expectations of today’s younger workers is one of the critical challenges facing employers, and the management community as a whole. To avoid disillusionment and disengagement among the potential leaders of tomorrow, we need to sell management to Generation Y in a way that really connects with them.

After all, good management is fundamental to the success of all types of enterprise and organisation, and the economy as a whole. Even if their current manager doesn’t inspire them, young people must not be allowed to lose sight of the fact that, done right, management offers a hugely rewarding career path – both financially and emotionally.

Fortunately, organisations are still working with a reasonable amount of goodwill from Generation Y. Over half of the young people surveyed planned to become managers in the future. Not just any kind of manager either, but managers that are approachable, progressive and receptive to new ideas, who foster a team environment and encourage people to reach goals. In other words, the kind of managers they want to be managed by. Let’s hope they still feel that way in five years’ time.