Psychological management: changing qualities of the ideal manager in Finland 1949‐2009

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to study the historical emergence of psychological management in Finnish working life from the viewpoint of recruitment process by examining the changing qualities of the ideal manager in Finland in the post-Second World War era. Design/methodology/approach -The study is conducted through an analysis of 1,305 manager position job advertisements in the major Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat between 1949 and 2009. Findings -The average number of references to personal skills and traits in manager position job advertisements grew from 0.7 to 3.8 between 1949 and 2009, and by the end of the 1990s exceeded the average number of references to technical and cognitive skills. During the same period, intrinsic job benefits largely replaced extrinsic benefits in job advertisements. The results suggest that the anthropocentric management of personalities and subjectivities was gradually introduced to Finnish organizations over a period of several decades. The complex historical process, deeply interlinked with organizational and societal developments, resulted in a highly multi-dimensional ideal manager of 2009. Originality/value -The study offers original knowledge regarding the emergence of psychological management, and sharpens the picture of changing management ideals in a national context.

The historical evolution of employee engagement and self-efficacy constructs

“…The Hawthorne studies are among the most popular and most criticized management research studies associated with interpersonal relations (Bedeian and Wren, 2001). The concern for the human factor in the workplace was associated with the human relations school that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s (Varje et al, 2013); however, the first management pioneer to spread the concern for human element in the industry was Robert Owen (1771-1858) (Evans et al, 2013). Moreover, Wren (2005Wren ( , 1987 argued that the Hawthorne studies did not really discover new things, as similar findings were anticipated in the work of Williams (1920), Mathewson (1931) and Taylor (1911).…”

“…One of Frederick Taylor's followers, Lillian Gilbreth (first lady of management), highlighted the importance of the human element in the scientific management movement (Greenwood et al, 1978;Varje et al, 2013). Lillian Gilbreth's first contribution was to examine the human element through the time and motion study (Wren, 2005).…”

“…Finally, to manage means to care, to drive and improve (Le Texier, 2013). So, as managers are expected to use their personal tools as means to fulfill managerial tasks, they are also expected to induce similar psychological presence in their subordinates (Kahn, 1992;Varje et al, 2013).…”

Content analysis of vacancy advertisements for employability skills: Challenges and opportunities for informing curriculum development

“…Several confirmed that generic skills were as, or more important, than discipline specific skills to secure a job, (Chipulu, Neoh, Udechukwu, & Williams, 2012;Varje et al, 2013;Lavy & Yadin, 2013;Broom & Gillen, 2014). Longitudinal studies showed changing skill requirements over time with increased emphasis on soft skills rather than job or profession-specific skills (Hawkins et al, 2000;Quinn & Rochford, 2013;Cramer & Tenzek, 2014).…”

“…The Finns have sought to find a country's ideal employee across all jobs, analysing national newspaper advertisements, making comparisons over the last three decades (Kuokkanen, Varje, & Vaananen, 2013). They have also profiled the ideal manager using the same data sources (Varje, Turtiainen, & Vaananen, 2013).…”