The managerial role in organizational culture as perceived by management students

Abstract

This paper aims at illustrating the multidimensional role of the manager and its mutual influence on organizational culture from a management students’ perspective. The main part of the text was based on own qualitative research – interviews, a questionnaire, and a narrative collage – which was conducted over a 10 year period among management students. Ninety-seven students from the Jagiellonian University and the Gdańsk University of Technology took part in the research. In order to gather, analyze and interpret the data, and to achieve reliable results, we followed the thematic analysis rules. We investigated the empirical material, provided by the management students responses to the research questions posed in the questionnaire, in the search for interesting threads, seeking a definition and an understanding of the term “manager” and the specifics of a manager’s work. We also presented several quotes from the data in accordance with the principles of data analysis in qualitative research methodology. Four different prisms were identified: gender, relational, constant learning and professional, described as the areas of managerial duties, features, and expectations. The article’s key value is the focus on students’ perception – an idealized construct of the managerial role, which states a benchmark for their own actual and prospect managerial performance. Such a perspective is very important for practice as well as for education. From a practical point of view, some management students will manage teams or organizations in the future. They should be aware of managerial duties’ elaborate character and the multiple demands on the role’s performance. They will shape the role by themselves. On the other hand, from an educational point of view, it is essential to give students some insight into their prospective role, understand the elaborate organizational relations, and the activities that appear in organizational culture that always influence management.