Cultural traits of the future managers from generation Y – an example of young Europeans

On the one hand, internationalization and globalization processes influence the fact that attitudes and behaviours of representatives of different cultures become similar. On the other one, opposite processes which aim at the manifestation of cultural differences can be observed.

The aim of this article is to find an answer to the question whether young people, students of higher schools of economics, future managers show similar cultural traits or whether the influence of the native environment is so strong that young Europeans manifest different values. In order to answer this question selected characteristics, which are significantly applicable at work in an enterprise have been used.

The answer to the aforementioned question has been searched both in the literature on the subject as well as in empirical studies conducted in ten European countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Great Britain). Their results show significant similarities of cultural traits among the young respondents coming from the surveyed countries. These characteristics are manifested in various attitudes, hypothetical behaviours and the judgment of behaviour of others.