The results of a survey conducted among 1,360 middle and senior managers in five European countries highlight the fact that the Maltese live in a very compact society as demonstrated by the core life values that respondents said they give most importance to.
The survey was conducted by the European Management Association (EMA) among middle and senior managers across Germany, Lithuania, Malta, Spain and the UK.
The Malta Institute of Management (MIM), which conducted the survey locally, held a breakfast meeting yesterday to discuss conclusions drawn from the results.
Professor Edward Zammit, deputy dean of the University of Malta’s Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy, gave a critical analysis of the results, saying it was interesting to note that 81 per cent of the 165 Maltese respondents were female.
“While we might already know certain things by intuition, such surveys are important because they provide insight into present realities, such as globalisation, for example,” Prof. Zammit said.
In fact, the EMA research was carried out to see whether there was such a concept as a European Manager and to obtain a better understanding of cultural differences.
Prof. Zammit said the results revealed that Maltese managers were among the ones who worked most; the findings suggested that managers in the five countries allocated fairly similar proportions of their time to work, family, sport/leisure and rest, but the most noticeable difference was in the length of the average working day.
According to the survey, Maltese managers worked about 9.9 hours per day, ranking second after Germany (10.7 hours), but Malta ranked lower as regards time spent on sport/leisure activities and rest.
Maria Pia Chircop, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Human Resources Development (FHRD), pointed out that it would be interesting to look at stress levels registered among women in middle and senior management since the majority of respondents were women and since the survey showed that they dedicated little time to themselves.
The survey results also showed that the Maltese give a lot of importance to values like happiness, friendship, fairness, peace and success, but Ms Chircop questioned these values, saying “it is about time we look outwards”.
“We must take stock of our values; the world is taking environmental issues very seriously, but they don’t seem to be high on our priority list, as the survey itself shows,” stated Ms Chircop.
On a positive note, she said that according to the survey, Maltese managers were among those in the countries where the survey was carried out, who focused on self-management and on communication.
Marcel Mizzi, vice-president of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) agreed with her, saying that Maltese people liked to network; at the same time however, Mr Mizzi said “we might need to consider the fact that we spent too much time communicating”.
The director-general of the Malta Employers Association, Joe Farrugia, stressed that while the survey intended to identify trans-national similarities and differences, it brought out the national way of doing business.
“The survey raises scope for additional research; one of its merits, for us, is that it leaves us room to pose additional questions, and to look into the reasons behind the results,” he said.