The Modern Russian Leader in the Representations of Civil Servants

Abstract

The article analyzes the results of the study of the content and structure of public servants’ representations about the most characteristic personal and activity properties of modern Russian leaders. The relevance of the research is determined, on the one hand, by the requirements of modern management practice to the structure of personal and activity characteristics of managers at all levels and in any field, and on the other hand, by the significance of social representations as subjective factors in the formation of relations between participants in managerial interactions and increasing the productivity of their joint activities. A questionnaire based on the method of free descriptions was used as a diagnostic tool. When processing the received data, content analysis and a set of statistical methods were used. The concepts identified with the help of content analysis describe the personal and activity properties of the head, which act as subjective factors that contribute to or hinder the implementation of the functions of the head as a subject of management. The analysis and generalization of the research results made it possible to obtain a psychological portrait of a modern Russian leader from the position of civil servants. It is shown that the most characteristic for the modern Russian leader in the view of the study participants are personal and activity properties related to the spheres of goal-setting and goal-attainment, communication and interaction and subjectivity. The hierarchically organized structure of representations of civil servants about the most characteristic personal and activity properties of modern Russian leaders is described. It is established that the core of ideas includes seven characteristics of a modern Russian leader (purposefulness, competence, education, responsibility, ability to assume the function of a leader, determination, sociability), which are complemented by personal and activity properties included in the semi-periphery of ideas (authoritarianism, benevolence, charisma, fairness, activity, self-confidence, stress tolerance, demanding, honest). It is also shown that part of the periphery of the ideas of the study participants are personal and activity characteristics, which largely contradict those that entered the core and semi-periphery. The practical significance of the research is connected with the fact that the identification of the content and structure of ideas about the most characteristic personal and activity properties of modern Russian leaders opens up great prognostic opportunities for use in the framework of personnel work, as well as in the process of individual counseling of management personnel and psychological support of their professional activities.