The Shocks and Difficulties of Young Managers in the Organizations Abstract Younger Organizations and Younger Managers are the trend in the world. The topic of Young Managers is also popular among people¡¦s talking, but there is no academic study about the related issue in Taiwan. This is an exploratory study, based on literatures to develop the questionnaires for quantitative studies. The targets of this study are 121 young managers who are 35-year-old below and supervise at least 2 direct report staffs. The data was analyzed by applying statistical methods, i.e., factor analysis, one-way ANOVA, descriptive statistics analysis, and correlation analysis. The purpose of the study is to find out the shocks and difficulties of young managers in the organizations, the relation of individual factors with the shocks and difficulties, the relations of ¡§the behaviors of the organizations¡¨ with the shocks and difficulties, as well as the relations of ¡§the behaviors of young managers¡¨ with the shocks and difficulties. Many important findings of this study are as below: Majority of young managers face the shocks and difficulties of ¡§Up & Peers Management¡¨, and sequently is ¡§Down Management¡¨, ¡§Professionalism & Authority be challenged¡¨, and ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨. This study also found young managers in local companies have more difficulties in ¡§Down Management¡¨, ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨, and ¡§Professionalism and Authority be challenged¡¨ then those who are working in foreign companies. Female young managers have more difficulties in ¡§Down Management¡¨ than males. Those young managers have been working with current supervisors for 1 ~ 3 years have more difficulties in ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨ than those for over three years and below one year. Young Managers with over 10 years of working experience have less difficulty in ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨ than those below 10 years of working experience. Young managers have more difficulties in ¡§Down Management¡¨ on staffs of college or lower education level than on those of university or graduate school. No matter what individual backgrounds or conditions the young managers have, their difficulties in ¡§Up & Peers Management¡¨ are the same. This study also found that if the organizations get the young managers involved in top management strategy will increase the young managers¡¦ difficulties in ¡§Down Management¡¨ and ¡§Up & Peers Management¡¨. If the organizations do too much job arrangement (e.g. workload, degree of working difficulty, and level of reporting line), it will increase the young managers¡¦ difficulties in ¡§Down Management¡¨ and ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨. This study also found when young managers purposely build up their authority and professional image, their difficulties in ¡§Down Management¡¨, ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨, ¡§Authority & Professionalism be challenged¡¨, and ¡§Up & Peers Management¡¨ are increasing. And if young managers manipulate power game too much, it will increase their difficulties in ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨. This study also found it is great helpful for ¡§People Management & Leadership¡¨ if young managers can keep their physical in good condition and keep their information updated with the world and the market. Key words: young managers, shocks and difficulties, behaviors of the organizations, behaviors of the young managers.

Titel: Konsten att axla ett chefsuppdrag som ung - En studie om unga chefers karriärsutmaningarFörfattare: Emmy Johansson och Olivia Bengtsson Institution: Linnéuniversitetet, Fakultetsnämnden för ekonomi, Ekonomihögskolan Program: Human Resource Management Kurs: Företagsekonomi III - organisation, examensarbete (Kandidat) Handledare: Kjell Arvidsson Examinator: Mikael Lundgren Syfte: Syftet med studien är att identifiera vilka utmaningar unga chefer står inför i sina karriärer, samt hur de hade kunnat förberedas bättre på de upplevda karriärsutmaningarna. Genom att identifiera unga chefers utmaningar önskar vi kunna skapa en ökad medvetenhet hos blivande unga chefer, ledarskapsutbildningar, organisationer och företag. Metodik: Genom en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi har semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts med hjälp av unga chefer mellan åldrarna 25-35 år. De valda unga cheferna är verksamma i olika branscher och i olika geografiska områden i Sverige. I syfte att besvara problemformuleringarna har vi utgått från en abduktiv forskningsansats. Slutsats: Unga chefer upplever att chefskapet som ung innebär en del svårhanterliga karriärsutmaningar. Den första utmaningen är åldersskillnaden mellan den unga chefen och de äldre medarbetarna. Unga chefer saknar ofta den naturliga statusen som kommer med åldern, vilket gör det svårt för dem att utföra chefskapet. Unga chefer upplever även svårigheter i att skapa förtroende gentemot sina medarbetare. Orsaken till utmaningen att skapa förtroende grundar sig främst i att de ständigt behöver bevisa sin kompetens och lämplighet för chefsrollen. Unga chefer upplever att det stora ansvaret är en ständig utmaning. Ansvaret leder till stora uppoffringar av privatlivet och kräver både tid och energi av den unga chefen, vilket kan upplevas som övermäktigt. Vidare är digitaliseringen och den ständiga uppkopplingen en återkommande utmaning som många unga chefer upplever svårhanterlig. Den ständiga uppkopplingen och att alltid finnas tillgänglig för sina medarbetare har visat sig vara både stressande och har en negativ effekt på arbetslivet och privatlivet. Det finns även svårigheter i att delegera och prioritera arbetsuppgifter. Unga chefer behöver förberedas bättre med hjälp av en praktik under studietiden och med en större inblick i hur chefsrollen ser ut under tiden som medarbetare. Slutligen har det visat sig att unga chefers tidigare förväntningar på chefsrollen kan vara avgörande för hur de upplever och hanterar karriärsutmaningarna. Nyckelord: Unga chefer, karriärsutmaningar, chefskap, förväntningar / Title: To undertake a management position as a young person - A study about young managers career challenges Authors: Emmy Johansson and Olivia Bengtsson Institution: Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics Program: Human Resource Management Course: Business Administration III – Organization (Bachelor thesis) Supervisor: Kjell Arvidsson Examiner: Mikael Lundgren Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the challenges young managers faces in their careers, as well as how young managers could be better prepared for the perceived career challenges. By identifying the challenges of young managers, we wish to create increased awareness among prospective young managers, organizations and leadership programs. Methodology: Through a qualitative research strategy, semi-structured interviews has been conducted using young managers between the ages of 25-35 years. The chosen young managers are active in different industries and in different geographic areas in Sweden. In order to answer the problem formulations, we have assumed an abductive research effort.Conclusion: Young managers experience management as challenging and difficult to manage. One of the challenges is the age difference between the young manager and the older employees. Young managers lack the natural status that comes with age which makes it difficult for them to execute the managership. Young managers experience difficulties in creating confidence in their employees. The reason for the challenge of trust is the fact that they constantly need to prove their competence and suitability for their management position. Young managers feels that the large responsibility is a constant challenge. The responsibility leads to large sacrifices of the personal life and requires both time and energy, which can be perceived as hard to handle. The digitization and the constant availability are a recurring challenge which many young managers find difficult to handle. This challenge has been proved to be both stressful and affecting working life and privacy life. There are also difficulties in delegating and prioritizing tasks. Young managers needs to be better prepared for a manager position by using an internship during their studies and with a better knowledge of what a manager's role involves. Finally it has been proved that young managers previous expectations of the management position can be decisive for how they perceive and manage the career challenges. Keywords: Young managers, career challenges, management, expectations

An aging population results in retirement ages going up and the age difference between subordinates and managers growing bigger. Despite an extensive literature review on trust within organizations, we have not been able to identify studies related to the influence of age difference between managers and their subordinates. The main purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of the influence of age difference on trust in relationships between managers and subordinates, and more specifically how the age difference influences the trust in the relationship with their older subordinates. Our research question has been formulated as follows: How does age difference influence trust between young managers and their older subordinates? Despite studies on trust increasing in popularity over the last years, we identified a research gap since there is no previous studies addressing the influence of age difference on trust between managers and subordinates. Specifically, the influence of the age difference between young managers and older subordinates and the trust between them in their relationship. In order to fulfil the purpose of our thesis we have conducted a qualitative research, where we gathered qualitative data through the use of semi-structured interviews. These interviews were conducted in a Dutch multinational production company employing approximately 25.000 employees. By analysing the data we gathered through our semi-structured interviews and relating it to the theoretical framework we built up from pre-existing literature, we were able to answer our research question. As a theoretical foundation, we have used the key theories on trust: trust, factors of perceived trustworthiness, antecedent of trustworthy behaviour and employee-organisation relationship. The findings demonstrate that the age difference has influence on an individual’s behaviour, employee expectations and factors of trust. We found an influence of the age difference on benevolence as well as for ability. Young managers are perceived to have different values than older subordinates, resulting in an influence on integrity. Factors related to the social exchange influence trust in other ways as interpersonal relationships have been found to influence the age difference. Finally, the age difference does influence individuals and relational factors due to the expectations of young managers being perceived as strengthening trust with their subordinates. Our thesis has contributed to the theory of trust by gaining a deeper knowledge of the influence of age difference on trust between managers and their subordinates. Also we have opened up new areas for research concerning the influence of age difference on trust in other industries or reversed situations. Our thesis has provided management scholars and managers with a deeper understanding of trust in manager-subordinate relationships, providing young managers with theories on how to improve their relationships with their older subordinates.

The younger generation is often expected to be part of changes in management gender distribution, concepts of leadership and gender power relations. Parallel with this, there are ongoing gender segregation processes within the organisations resulting in the dominance of men among managers. The aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the transition from staff to management, and in particular how gender is done in this process. The perspective on organisation and gender adopted is social constructionist. Thestudy was carried out in a large Swedish banking company between 2000 and 2005. Analysis was drawn up in order to successively answer four research questions: 1) in what way is the management sourcing process designed and how are candidates for management evaluated?, 2) how do management candidates look upon their career opportunities?, 3) how is gender done in the sourcing of new managers?, and 4) how is gender done in the careers of future managers? The empirical material consists of observations of a management development programme for potential managers, statements on management sourcing and careers, and document material. The statements come from interviews with 11 staff members, six women and five men, identified as potential managers, as well as seven people working with HR at the bank. The 11 management candidates were interviewed three times during a two-year period. The thesis develops knowledge on how gender and management are done in situations characterised by a balanced gender distribution and simultaneous male dominance. The management development programme serves as a hub for those working with sourcing new managers through its importance in identifying, developing and evaluating candidates for management. The evaluation of women and men among management candidates shows that potential is linked to women and men in different ways and that women and men are evaluated on the basis of different expectations on them as managers. Career is almost exclusively conceived as linear hierarchical movements. Nevertheless, the hierarchical view of career is confirmed almost entirely in the way men orient themselves. The career themes of the men express expectations on having a career. The experiences of the women are diverse. But even among those who have experienced encouragement to develop, this is not reflected in expectations on the future. Instead, the hope expressed is one of being allowed to continue a career. The different empowerment of the women and men express the gender power relations in the organisation and the norm of men as managers, which both men and women relate to. Two aspects are involved in the doing of gender in management sourcing and careers: construction of gender and gender ordering. Firstly, gender is constructed and ordered in the sourcing of new managers through the gendering of potential, resulting in different opportunities for women and men in organisations. Secondly, gender is constructed and ordered in careers, where careers may be understood as gendered, i.e. where expectations are created in men and hopes in women. The result is different empowerment in women and men. And thirdly, the results point to a complexity in relation to change. Gender equality initiatives and radical practices in combination with individualism and gender neutrality both put gender hierarchy into question and preserve it. Management sourcing involves several practices where the doing of gender is integrated in different ways, both conscious through gender equality initiatives, and sub-conscious through individualised and gender-neutral ideology. Thus, change requires greater consciousness and new practice. / <p>QC 20100728</p>