A Profile of the Managerial Elite of New Zealand

Abstract

The study is designed to provide an understanding of the managerial elite of New Zealand. For the purpose of this study, the managerial elite of New Zealand is defined as the set of business owners and senior executives of large New Zealand companies. A sample was drawn consisting of executive directors of all New Zealand companies listed on the New Zealand stock exchange plus all New Zealand subsidiaries of large overseas companies, where an executive director was defined as an executive of a company who is also a member of the board of directors of that company. A profile of this elite group is presented in terms of career patterns, occupational origins (i.e. the occupations of their fathers), educational backgrounds of themselves and their fathers, their educational attainments in relation to the education of their fathers, to their places of birth, to their inter-firm mobility and to the total New Zealand male population. Questionnaires were sent to 530 executive directors from 331 companies and data from 314 respondents was used. Analysis of these replies showed that: i. They tend to form a closed social group. More than half the respondents came from three occupational origins (namely business owner, manager and professional) which represented less than 10% of the New Zealand work force at the time the respondents commenced work. Moreover, more than half of the wives of the respondents came from these same key occupational origins. ii. They are better educated than the New Zealand population as a whole. Proportionately, almost ten times as many of them have some tertiary education as do the New Zealand male population and about seven times as many of them are university graduates. iii. The stage of their business career at which they entered the managerial elite varied from almost immediately upon starting work up to 50 years in one extreme case. But it was found to be generally within twenty years, by which time 80% of the sample had become executive directors. iv. Working for a foreign owned company did not bring members into the group at an earlier age, in fact if anything it was to the contrary. Although the mean age of entry into the managerial elite was found to be 39 in each case, there was a tendency for those working in New Zealand owned companies to become executive directors at an earlier age. v. Little difference in terms of formal education was found between those members working for foreign owned companies and their counterparts in New Zealand companies, but foreign owned companies were found to place more emphasis on post- experience business education and experience assignments with associate companies. To summarise: this study showed that the New Zealand managerial elite are very well educated relative to the rest of the population, the majority become executive directors in their twenties and thirties; there is little difference between members with New Zealand owned companies and foreign owned companies and the group tends to perpetuate itself.