Job-seeking and discrimination in Ukraine

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 389.

Leadership styles in Ukraine

Foreigners from the West will find somewhat different leadership styles in Ukrainian organizations. Ukrainians do not take on personal responsibility as easily as westerners, whose society prepares them for leadership roles from kindergarten up. After gaining a leadership position, many Ukrainians become rather authoritarian and change their attitude towards their coworkers, who themselves have an ingrained subservient attitude toward authority — a well-known trait of Ukrainians and especially Russians.

Among western business managers, a democratic and egalitarian leadership style is definitely more common, and leaders are more likely to delegate authority. In Ukraine, leaders tend more to concentrate decision-making powers in their own hands and demand loyalty and subservience from their employees in addition to work-related skills. In the new capitalistic Ukraine, many employers resort to grueling and aggressive interviewing techniques designed to weed out "weak" potential employees who can't take the heat or dislike pressure.

It is common for job vacancies in Ukraine to specify the age and sex of potential employees. Fortunately, this and other personal information such as marital status is supplied at the top of almost all Ukrainians' CVs. In the new economic realities of post-Soviet Ukraine, many people find it virtually impossible to find work after 45. In addition, job discrimination against young, married women is common, and sometimes women are even asked if they plan on having children soon in their job interviews. Of course, such questions are perfectly rational from an employer's point of view, but it grates with westerners' ethical sense and modern ideas of human rights. With Ukraine's more traditional values, discrimination is often not viewed with the same disgust as it is in the U.S.

Western businesswomen often encounter interesting situations when they come over to Ukraine to do business. On the one hand, their business partners have to treat them as equals in order to perform the necessary tasks. On the other hand, social etiquette demands that they treat the woman "like a woman," with all the typical macho-type gestures or with a particular leniency and a more emotional attitude than usual. Effective businesswomen learn to use this to their advantage rather than take constant offense. If your business partners use what might be called "manipulative" tactics, you have every right to manipulate them in return, feigning supreme gratitude as they open doors for you and demonstrate fondness for you around their subordinates.