In the world of MBA-level management education, it’s easy to assume that people working in big businesses are all eager to climb the corporate ladder and reach the top. However, new research from the University of Limerick’s Kemmy Business School has found that many employees are reluctant to step up to senior leadership roles. This is because of the perceived impact of higher levels of responsibility, with many sharing the view that such positions are “unbearably stressful, political, risky, lonely and unhealthy”. Among 550 professionals in Ireland surveyed for the Answering the Call to Lead report, approximately a third said that they didn’t want to step up to a leadership position despite thinking that they had the skills to do so. Concerns over a loss of work-life balance were the number one reason for not wishing to seek career advancement for 27 per cent of respondents. “The decision to step up to lead should be more exciting than daunting. Future leaders should feel ready and willing but that is not always the case. Understanding why some people feel ready and others do not, why some know they can do the job but chose not to right now (or not yet) is important for Ireland and its international competitive positioning,” declared Kemmy Business School assistant dean and associate professor Sarah Kieran. Men and women were equally likely to be worried about the impact of senior leadership roles on their family life, health and wellbeing. However, other respondents were not deterred by such considerations, with 28 per cent indicating that they would be ready to step up to senior leadership this year and 45 per cent hoping to do so within the next five years. Even so, the report believes that companies might be missing out on key leadership talent due to hesitations about what the position would mean for their personal and professional lives combined. As such, it urges businesses to support strong role models and reaffirm work-life balance policies. EB LEADERSHIP ROLES DEEMED UNATTRACTIVE TO A THIRD OF EMPLOYEES IN SURVEY SCHOOL : Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick COUNTRY : Ireland
Telfer School of Management is teaming up with IMD Business School in Switzerland to explore how mental health challenges affect family businesses in a new research partnership. “Mental health is a global challenge and we, as humanity, are starting to become more open and transparent about it. Yet, in the context of business-owning families, this topic is vastly ignored or swept under the carpet,” affirmed Peter Vogel, project co-lead and director of the IMD Global Family Business Centre. Elizabeth Tetzlaff, project co-lead at Telfer and member of its Family Enterprise Legacy Institute further expounded that the impact of mental health conditions on family businesses and the people within them is “still in its infancy. More research is needed to explore the nuances and how business families can develop healthy and effective coping strategies for both their business and their family.” The idea behind the alliance is to equip family businesses with insights, tools and techniques that can help them safeguard their members’ wellbeing and ensure their long-term success. “Mental health, like physical health, is something that no family or individual is immune to and the implications of being diagnosed with a mental health condition doesn’t only affect the individual, but also their family,” explained Tetzlaff. “In cases where the family is a business family, the implications of such a diagnosis become more complicated, as the impact extends to the business as well as the family.” For access to the lived experiences of family businesses across the world, the two institutions have joined forces with the Family Business Network (FBN), a Lausanne-based federation of member associations that span 65 countries and bring together 4,000 family businesses. The partnership aims to produce various research papers over several years in addition to a global mental health report that is set to be presented at the FBN Summit in Miami in November 2025. TBD MENTAL HEALTH’S IMPACT ON FAMILY BUSINESS IS THE FOCUS OF NEW PARTNERSHIP SCHOOL : Telfer School of Management University of Ottawa COUNTRY : Canada
10 | Ambition | NOVEMBER 2024
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