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The Managerial Elite and Some Dimensions of Socio-Economic Culture in Croatia

This paper presents an empirical material collected through interviews and questionnaires with foreign and domestic managers (N=35) working for Croatian companies or companies owned by foreign capital. These research findings were produced within the large (pilot) project “ After the Accession...: The Socio-economic Culture of Eastern Europe in the Enlarged Union: An Asset or a Liability?, which was coordinated by the Institut für Wissenschaften von Menschen, Wien and realized in 2002 in 8 EasternEuropean countries. Croatian part of the project was realized by the Institute of Social Sciences "Ivo Pilar", Zagreb. In accordance with the starting hypothesis and the goals of the “ Access...” project, we assumed that the search for ‘ adequate’ answers to cultural challenges brought by the new unification of Europe takes the form of an eminent theoretic-empirical question about the transformation of socio-economic culture of post-socialist countries. The main research problem is hidden in the question: What actually happens to the socio-economic culture of post-socialist countries when they are faced with the entrepreneurial and managerial practices of the political, managerial and administrative elite of the Western Europe? Is socio-economic culture of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia etc. their asset or their liability when meeting (economically speaking) the competitive practice of entrepreneurship and governance of developed European countries? What could be said about Croatia and its socio-economic culture? Can we speak about the cohabitation of different, however vital, socio-economic cultures or we can only speak about a sort of assimilation of the 'weak' cultures by the 'strong' socio-economic cultures , followed by extreme cultural conflicts? As regard Croatia we particulary observed different dimensions of socio-economic culture in the field of entrepreneurship and governance by tracking the relationship of foreign managers and their local environment in the following areas: a) relationships with employees, b) relationships with business actors (co-owners, vendors, competitors, etc), c) relationships with state institutions (local, central). The qualitative analysis of the interviews allows several general conclusions. First, when we talk about interaction of foreign and domestic managers at a personal level, most domestic managers have positive opinion on foreign managers working in Croatian companies. Second, the relationship between foreign owners and managers towards Croatian entrepreneurs and employees in some companies depends on some structural features of their companies and an industry as a whole. Third, domestic managers have a high opinion of their foreign colleagues’ openness towards them, and especially their willingness to openly share their knowledge and international business experience. When it comes to the perception of relevant characteristics of Croatian managers seen by their foreign colleagues in Croatia, available data on socio-cultural capital suggest that foreign managers in general have positive opinions about their Croatian colleagues. Most of them think that Croatian managers are very intelligent, honest, opposed to taking advantages of other people and they contribute a great deal to economy development with their activities. But they are also perceived as having a lot of political connections. We have got an impression that majority of foreign managers do not experience any special ‘ cultural shocks’ in contacts with managers and employees. The lack of big surprises regarding relationships of foreign managers with employees can be explained with a few arguments. First of all, their education and international business experience makes them behave correctly towards their associates in public. Second, they communicate mostly with domestic people with high education, with the knowledge of several foreign languages and with international careers. Third, individual foreign companies have started business transactions in Croatia mostly with younger and more educated work force or they have taken over (in the process of privatisation) companies with stressed ‘ cor Available data suggest that foreign owners/managers, Croatian top managers (especially younger, more educated ones, with international experience) and a part of Croatian entrepreneurs who cooperate as vendors or business partners with companies with majority foreign ownership, present major active participants in the introduction of a new type of socio-economic rationality in companies. It seems also that majority of foreign managers try to understand local culture, customs and mentality mostly from one functional perspective – to the extent to which these customs and institutions disable better business transactions of their companies. As a result, local mentality and appreciated knowledge of local managers are in most cases viewed instrumentally – in the function of “ the way one has to operate if one wishes to achieve a goal” ! Therefore, in searching for different forms of ‘ cultural encounters’ of ‘ the West’ and ‘ the East’ in the companies of different branch of industry, in accordance with the original framework of the project “ Access...” , we think that those interfusions occur without big cultural shocks. Of course, there are various tensions typical of structural processes of the cultural change in the analysed companies. We could say that there is an interfusion of different philosophies and managerial styles, with noticeable tensions between individual and collective participants of the process. Foreign and domestic top managers are the biggest winners in the process. From the conceptual point of view, all requests of foreign managers put on domestic management come from a new and preferred role of Croatian managers derived from the entrepreneurial capitalism organisational model.

managerial elite; Croatia; socio-economic culture; enterprise

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