As 25 years ago, the ideal boss is seen by Russians as a severe mature innovation-oriented man. Over this period the number of Russians who want to have a powerful leader has doubled.  

MOSCOW, October 15, 2014. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the attitudes of Russians concerning the following questions: whether Russians have leadership skills; how they portray an ideal boss; whether they happened to work for a tough boss; whether Russians need a powerful leader or not.  

To some extent
, more than half of Russians (58%) believe that they have leadership skills (48% in 1989). At the same time, 10% are confident that people will follow them; 19% used to be in charge of a group of people; 29% can lead only a small group. Thirty-nine percent of Russians have never been a leader: 27% think it is not typical for them to be a leader; 12% could be a leader.

Two-thirds of respondents (62%) report that they happened to work for a tough leader; over the recent 25 years this share has not changed substantially (56% in 1989). However the share of those who think that it is important to be subordinated to any, even very powerful, person has considerably increased (from 22% in 1989 to 35% in 2014); on the contrary, the share of those Russians who would like to escape that has decreased  (from 34% to 27%, respectively ). Thirty-four percent of Russians have never had a tough boss (in 1989 – 44%).

An ideal boss should be calm, according to 71% of Russians.  It is more essential for a leader to be mature rather than young (56% vs 16%). Every second Russian prefers male boss (53% in 1989 and 2014); female boss is appreciated by 17% of Russians which is higher than it was 25 years ago (6%); at the same time, gender does not matter for 30% of Russians (in 1989 – 41%). Russians choose tough boss (52% in 2014 and 53% in 1989) rather than gentle (26% and 21%). Fifty-one percent of Russians would like to have an innovation-oriented boss; only 23% of Russians choose conservative leader.

Ethnicity is more important today; 53% of Russians would like to have a leader who is the same ethnicity (in 1989 – 26%); ethnicity does not matter for 43% (in 1989 – 74%). Thirty-two percent of Russians would like to have a boss who practice a religion; atheists are chosen by 12% of Russians; 56% of respondents pay no attention to the religion of the boss.

More Russians would like to have an authoritarian boss (23% in 1989 vs 53% today). In 1989, 15% of Russians appreciated authoritarian style but under certain circumstances (today – 32%). The share of respondents who support the concentration of all power in the same hands has sharply decreased (from 50% to 13%).

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on October 4-5, 2014. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 communities in 42 regions of Russia. Data are weighted by gender, age, education, working status and type of settlement.  The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

* In 1989 the opinion poll was representative of the population across the USSR; it involved 2753 respondents aged over 16.

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!