Leadership Quality Survey
ECB boss Lagarde fails employees
01/17/2023 6:42 p.m
In the midst of record inflation and the energy crisis, 40 percent of ECB employees say their boss lacks assertiveness. Lagarde’s predecessor Draghi had received significantly better grades from central bank staff.
According to a survey by the ECB union IPSO, trust in the leadership of ECB President Christine Lagarde and her Governing Board is currently more than moderate among many central bank employees. According to the results, a combined 40 percent of 1,562 ECB employees surveyed have little (28.6 percent) or no trust (12.0 percent) in management. Just under half rated their trust in the leadership of the President and the other five members of the ECB’s Executive Board as moderate (34.3 percent) or high (14.6 percent).
The survey results were sent to ECB workers in an email that Reuters news agency was able to see. The survey was organized by IPSO in connection with negotiations on salaries and working from home arrangements in the autumn. The union considers the salary increase of around 4.07 percent planned for 2023 to be insufficient in view of inflation, which was recently more than twice as high in the euro area.
The poll results offer Lagarde and her leadership unflattering credentials at a time when the ECB’s fight against rampant inflation is being called on like never before. ‘This is a serious matter for our institution as no one can properly run an organization without the trust of its employees,’ said IPSO. According to the survey, many employees are also concerned about the central bank’s ability to protect their purchasing power. 63 percent of 1565 employees stated in the survey that they were concerned when asked a question. Only 24 percent were not. 13 percent replied that they could not state this.
ECB refers to its own survey with better results
An ECB spokeswoman did not comment directly on the survey results. She referred to the central bank’s own employee survey from last year, according to which 83 percent are proud to work for the ECB and 72 percent would also recommend it. ECB President Lagarde, who has headed the euro central bank since the end of 2019, praised her Governing Board in succinct terms at a staff event last month. “If it weren’t for them, I’d be a sad, lonely cowgirl, lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere in monetary policy,” she said, according to a Dec. 19 recording of a town hall event seen by Reuters.
The ECB was recently criticized by many economists and politicians for having underestimated the rise in inflation for a long time. A similar 2019 IPSO survey of ECB employees shortly before the departure of Lagarde’s predecessor, Mario Draghi, found that 54.5 percent of 735 employees rated his presidency as “very good” or “excellent”. Support for the monetary policy moves had been even higher. But even then there was plenty of criticism: ECB employees complained, among other things, about the lack of transparency in filling vacancies and the culture of favoritism.