MOTIVES OF MANAGEMENT STUDENTS FOR CHOOSING MANAGERIAL PROFESSION IN THE SOCIETY OF POST-SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATION

The paper presents the analysis of the motives of management students for choosing managerial profession and their overview of the social position of managerial profession. The main focus is on identifying the reasons why students of management enroll and study business colleges in the society of post-socialist transformation. The authors try to indentify whether higher social position of managers is one of the main motives for management students to opt for managerial profession and business studies. The research was conducted in the period January-October 2017 and it included 510 students of management and 294 managers in 30 companies/institutions. The information for this research was collected by the method of questioning. In the data processing of the information received by the questionnaire, comparative method and statistical methods were used: χ2 test of independence of two attributes and descriptive statistics designated by convention as P = 0.05. Research results consist of several relevant thematic scopes: socio-demographic characteristics of the interviewed students of management and managers, motives of the interviewed students for choosing the managerial profession and the living standards of managers in the society of post-socialist transformation. Moreover, for the purpose of the research the authors also analyzed the social influence of managers and the perception of the social influence and reputation of managerial profession from the viewpoint of both students of management and managers. The results indicate that managerial profession is a significant channel of social mobility in the society of post-socialist transformation. A majority of interviewed management students and managers estimated their profession above the general average according to the influence, reputation and incomes. Also, a relatively high social position of managers is a significant motivator for the youth to decide to study management and business.