Glass ceiling frustrates over-worked IT managers

IT managers work some of the longest hours of any manager in their organisation but they are feeling increasingly frustrated at the lack of recognition and opportunities for promotion and development, according to new research.

The Motivation Matters study by the Chartered Management Institute and recruitment company Adecco found that the UK's long-hours work culture still exists with managers at all levels, who work an average of 8.2 hours extra each week.

Corporate UK needs to capture and nurture motivated managers, not lock them in a pressure cooker of glass ceilings, bureaucracy and old school ties.

In fact IT managers appear highly motivated with more than half (55 per cent) saying they can't wait to begin the working week and only 18 per cent admitting to suffering the 'Monday morning blues'.

But the research claims there is a mismatch between this desire to succeed and the restrictions of flat organisational structures and 'old boys' networks. Almost 40 per cent of IT managers joined their current organisation because of the development opportunities it offered, yet 41 per cent also said their employer had no specific training and development budget.

Richard Macmillan, MD of Adecco UK and Ireland, said in the report: "Corporate UK needs to capture and nurture motivated managers, not lock them in a pressure cooker of glass ceilings, bureaucracy and old school ties. Most employees are willing to make personal sacrifices to develop careers but the milk soon turns sour if those efforts are not rewarded."

The survey questioned 1,800 managers across all sectors during August 2005.