Employees no longer see management as an aspirational career path, research suggests. Where does this disillusionment come from? And can HR leaders reverse the trend? Cath Everett investigates
Employers have traditionally relied on the carrot of a potential management promotion as a means of encouraging people to work above and beyond. But for younger generations, it appears this incentive no longer holds the appeal it once did. More than half of British workers in middle manager roles and below, no longer consider management an aspirational career path, according to a report published by Investors in People on 27 May.
Around two in five of the UK employees polled believe management to be necessary but unappealing, while 12% see it as overwhelming and undesirable. As a result, they would actively avoid it as a career option.
The trend is particularly marked among under 35s, where 68% say they have no desire to take on the role. The main reason for this disillusion, the report indicates, is that management is perceived as being too stressful (54%).
Sania Khan is a labour economist and founder of future of work consultancy, Inflection Point. She points out that young Millennials and Generation Z are more focused on health and wellbeing, which includes having a positive work/life balance, than former generations. They are also less interested in conventional linear career paths, preferring to pursue roles that align with their personal values, interests and current life circumstances, Khan says.
“What they experienced in the years between the 2008 recession and the Covid-19 pandemic shaped who they are and how they see work,” she explains. “Their parents and older siblings were working 70-to-80-hour weeks as the norm, but they don’t see that as appealing and don’t want to go down that path.”
Read more: Half of British employees are put off by management careers
Management’s negative image
Another problem is the negative image that middle management roles currently have. Zofi a Bajorek is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies. She points to research over the last five years, which consistently indicates high levels of poor middle manager wellbeing and disengagement.
“Not only are many managers overloaded and experience conflicting views from stakeholders as to what their priorities are, but there’s also a lot of vilification of the role too,” Bajorek says. “For example, if organisational change hasn’t worked well, it’s usually seen as the manager’s fault.”
This is at least partially because the position tends to be poorly defined and subject to inflated expectations, she believes. To make matters worse, too many people have ended up as ‘accidental managers’. This means they were promoted due to their technical competency rather than their suitability, or desire, for the role, often with little training or support.
All too frequently, such a situation has a detrimental impact on both individuals themselves and their team. This, in turn, puts many younger people off the role, not least because of a widespread desire to do something they enjoy, feel has a purpose and can make a real difference.
“Younger generations aren’t necessarily disengaging from the role, they’re disengaging from a bad role,” Bajorek says. “It’s not always that they don’t want to be a manager, they just don’t want to be an overworked manager in a toxic environment, so they’re protecting themselves.”
Read more: Manager engagement is falling fast. How can HR help?
A wakeup call for HR
Bajorek sees the current situation as a wakeup call for HR leaders to reevaluate how management positions are defined, developed and supported. Andrew Lokenauth, who leads up advisory firm Fractional CFO Solutions, is even more forthright. He warns: “The traditional leadership pipeline is basically broken. We can’t assume high performers want to move into management anymore.
“The bottom line is that organisations that stick to rigid management hierarchies will continue to lose young talent. I’ve seen it happen repeatedly.”
Tia Katz, founder and CEO of leadership and executive development consultancy, Hu-X, agrees. She saw the so-called ‘conscious unbossing’ trend first appear about six years ago in the US, but is now seeing it spread around the world.
“When many people bypass the ladder, succession pipelines shrink and organisations must rethink rewards, recognition and performance management to stay viable,” she points out. “If nothing changes, succession benches will thin within three-to-five years, creating expensive leadership gaps.”
Kerry Anne Eales is chief HR officer at business services firm, Smith and Howard. In her experience, the trend is most prevalent in companies with more traditional hierarchical structures, such as financial services, law and the public sector.
Everyone we spoke to agreed that the time is now right for employers to rethink traditional organisational structures and approaches. This includes redefining and redesigning roles, particularly conventional management positions.
Read more: “Transform management models, to harness Gen Z’s creativity and passion”
A dual-track approach
So, what might such a shift look like? Khan points to the tech industry as a potential model. For the last decade, many tech employers have created two pathways for individuals to pursue: either traditional line management or highly skilled individual contributor roles, focusing on a chosen technical specialism but without team management duties.
It is an approach that car finance firm Zuto has chosen to adopt. Mary Beighton, the company’s people and culture director, first noticed a couple of years ago that there was a reluctance among some – although not all – younger workers across the business to go down the management route.
As three quarters of the firm’s 550-strong workforce are in this demographic, she recognised the importance of taking action, or risk future retention issues. Her action plan involved providing employees, particularly within the tech team, with clear pathways to move either upwards or sideways.
Such options might entail an individual transferring from a sales to a product role. It could also mean expanding their remit and providing more collaborative teamworking opportunities so they can broaden their sphere of influence.
But adopting such an approach does have knock-on effects elsewhere. As a result, the company is currently in the process of re-evaluating its organisational design. To this end, it is undertaking role analysis, defining a competency framework, and working out how to restructure remuneration. It is also revamping its leadership development programme.
“It’s about getting ahead of what’s required, making a balanced assessment of the skills needed, having a clear competency framework and being objective on the value of individual roles,” Beighton says. “It’s also important to bring transparency into pay and rewards, and ensure it’s fair and objective. Many things need to feed into getting this right.”
Read more: Why AI contributes to the silent disappearance of middle managers
Flattening organisational structures
Smith and Howard is taking a somewhat different tack. It has opted to flatten its organisational structure, which includes creating various cross-functional teams.
The aim here is to support collaborative leadership and enable more decentralised decision-making and accountability at the small group level. Staff are also encouraged to share ideas, lead initiatives outside of core roles, and take ownership of projects that align with their interests and strengths.
“One example [of this] is rotating leadership roles, in which employees, regardless of title or tenure, take on responsibilities like ‘culture and engagement champion’ or ‘brand ambassador’ for a set period,” Eales explains. “These roles allow employees to contribute meaningfully beyond their job description, while developing new skills and perspectives.”
The company also gives staff the freedom to choose their own guided development programmes in areas such as people or project leadership, and technical expertise. This enables individuals to explore possible new career pathways based on their interests rather than their current roles, and without having to climb pre-defined career ladders. They can also take advantage of internal mobility options to gain experience of working in other departments.
Read more: Managers want, but aren’t getting, emotional intelligence training
New ways of leading
At Fractional CFO Solutions, Lokenauth has taken things a step further by separating management skills from management titles. This means that people do not need to manage direct reports to be considered leaders. As an example, one of its top performers runs a knowledge-sharing programme and mentors more junior employees – and is paid a director-level salary for doing so.
“She has massive influence without traditional management responsibilities,” Lokenauth says. “Folks can develop and apply leadership skills, such as strategic thinking and coaching, without taking on full management roles, which has opened up new career paths for technical experts who want to lead differently.”
The company has also introduced a distributed leadership model rather than concentrate power at the top. As a result, technical experts lead major projects on rotation based on their expertise rather than their job title.
A further innovation is the creation of hybrid roles to enable employees to gradually transition into management over time as they build confidence. This means that, while retaining some individual contributor work, staff take on some people management responsibilities too.
For example, one hybrid manager started out with just one direct report; after eight months she was asked to take on more, after finding she enjoyed developing others. She now manages full-time.
“Here’s the hard truth: we need to fundamentally reimagine what management means,” Lokenauth says. “The future belongs to companies willing to blow up traditional structures and create new ways of leading.”
This article was published in the July/August 2025 edition of HR magazine.
Subscribe today to have our latest articles delivered to your desk.
link