Personality requirements for ukrainian and czech managers creating brands as a competitive advantage

Abstract

A strong brand has become increasingly important for success in global competition across market segments. There is no doubt that to succeed in their job role, brand managers must possess abilities, personality traits and concomitant soft skills that arise from these traits. The staff responsible for the brand management process deserves the attention of the professional community. The purpose of this article is to analyse, compare and discuss requirements for brand managers when they are first approached by their prospective employers in Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The research project was conducted to confirm that innovative and analytical skills are among the most frequent demands that candidates for the post of brand manager are confronted with at the beginning of the recruitment process. Using a summative content analysis, the word/phrase frequency of personality traits and skill requirements in job advertisements was studied. A requirement occurrence comparison between Ukraine and the Czech Republic showed some differences. Creativity requirements were predicted to appear more often in the Ukrainian set of job advertisements due to the emphasis placed in this country on an innovative approach in an internationally competitive environment. The differences in employer expectations supported by a set of psychological requirements placed on candidates for the position of brand manager inspire the discussion of the role the brand manager.