Managerial elite and market transition - the case of Slovenia

Andrej Rus (Author)

Abstract

Managers are the most critical resource of corporate restructuring. Given the scarcity of managerial talent in Eastern Europe, the managers became the bottleneck of the continuation of economic reforms and market adjustment. This article looks at the cultural, human, and social capital of the incumbent managerial elite in Slovenia to examine its managerial potential. The survey of transition managers in 160 companies showed that many of the common assumptions do not hold. Human capital of transition managers is higher than assumed. However, education is too often considered the goal by itself and not the means for getting business results. Credentialism is evident from the high priority of formal education and the neglect of management training. Cultural capital is as weak as expected. The incumbent management elite was recruited largely from lower parts of social hierarchy, which makes intergenerational skills transfer an unsuitable substitute for management training. Social capital of transition managers was to a large extent untouched by transition. Managers remained higly involved in business associations. The pattern that has its origin in the socialist system is most likely the result of attempts by managers to stay abreast of changes by networking and lobbying outside of their firms rather than by strategizing and mobilizing within them. All forms of capital contributed to the willingness of the mangers to restructure their firms. However, the attitudes of managers regarding privatization and transition issues had no effect whatsoever on their corporate strategy.

Keywords

Managerji;Vodilni kadri;Človeški kapital;Človeški viri;Kulturni kapital;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2000
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UL FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
UDC:	316.34
COBISS:	20182877
ISSN:	0352-3608
Views:	975
Downloads:	162
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Unknown
Secondary keywords:	Managers;Executives;Human capital;Human resources;
Type (COBISS):	Not categorized
Pages:	str. 101-125
Keywords (UDC):	social sciences;družbene vede;sociology;sociologija;social structure;society as a social system;družbena struktura;družba kot družbeni sistem;globalne družbe;social stratification;social differentiation;družbena slojevitost;družbena diferenciacija;
ID:	36486