Refine
Document type
- Bachelor Thesis (9)
- Article (peer-reviewed) (2)
- Master's Thesis (1)
Language
- English (12) (remove)
Keywords
- Leadership (12) (remove)
Course of studies
Digitalization is one of the global megatrends of the 21st century. With the increase of mobile technology, constant connectivity, and data analytics, organizations are forced to become more digital to keep up with the increasingly digital world.
This research addresses the changing role of leadership due to digitalization. It examines factors which need to be considered when driving digital transformation in organizations as well as leadership competencies necessary in the digital age. Finally, the research addresses the resistance to digital transformation in organizations.
To investigate how leadership is affected by digitalization, qualitative research is carried out. The research is based on published secondary data.
The findings of this research suggest the growing importance of leadership in the digital age. Leadership needs to approach digitalization actively, thus driving digital transformation in organizations to stay competitive in the increasingly digital world. Further, the research suggests six leadership competencies which are essential in times of digital transformation and identifies two leadership roles which have arisen in recent years due to digitalization. Finally, the research proposes ways to overcome resistance to digital transformation.
This research explores the meaning of inclusive behavior of team leaders and members in the context of GVTs. The author focuses on implicit biases underlying inclusive behaviors. By investigating biases, this bachelor thesis provides a collection of exemplary behavior and best practices to overcome them.
As inclusive behavior in GVTs is a field of expertise that has not been explored extensively in relation to implicit biases, this research aims to add to the existing research.
It is based on primary and secondary data. The literature review is used to develop a comprehensive understanding of the challenges of GVTs, the leadership responsibilities, and building trust. It also investigates team effectiveness on the example of Project Aristotle as well as the impact of implicit biases on GVTs. Survey results and in-depth interviews with members of two GVTs uncover realistic examples for the aspects comprised in the literature review.
The results show that literature and reality correspond to a large extent. Furthermore, they reveal the impact of different levels of inclusive behaviors on teams’ ability to work together over a distance. While GVTs face many challenges, they see new opportunities in technology to extend beyond those.
The conclusion centers the importance of various communication channels and informal encounters as key to inclusive behaviors for GVT. Moreover, limitations to the research and a critical assessment for future research are discussed in the conclusion.
Globalisation has significantly shaped the way international organisations operate nowadays. The increased connectivity is continuously raising the number of global virtual teams, connecting employees across borders for project work. With cultural diversity, geographic dispersion and virtuality increasing the complexity of collaboration, the leadership of virtual teams constitutes a critical challenge. Consequently, the topic of leadership and its behavioural implications is progressively gaining businesses’ attention. However, due to limited research in this field, this thesis aims at identifying whether and how leadership behaviour affects virtual team collaboration, specifically between German leaders and Chinese team members.
After outlining behavioural characteristics of virtual leaders as presented by literature, the empirical research focuses on expert interviews with German virtual leaders. Here, a specific focus is put on their perceptions of their Chinese teams, the emerging challenges, their behaviours and the creation of a new virtual culture.
The results show the importance of leadership behaviour in this setting. They emphasise the effect it has on the virtual team members and provide recommendations with regards to behavioural adaptation to master this challenge.
Many entrepreneurs are still conducting business today according to the principle "the purpose of business is business". The focus here is primarily placed on the corporation’s profits while human relations within the enterprise are almost completely ignored. Humanity and business are, after all, seen as two mutually exclusive concepts. However, results of studies undertaken by well-known research institutes, such as Gallup, indicate this management style to be inefficient for businesses in the long run as the resulting low emotional bond of employees with their companies generates high costs for organizations.
For this reason, the present paper examines the extent to which humanity and business are really two mutually exclusive ideas and provides an answer to the research question of whether taking a human approach in a business is a crucial factor for its success. In addition, the possible effects resulting through the integration of humanity in business are analyzed.
To provide an answer to the research question, the currently most recent working challenges in organizations as well as their corresponding demands were first worked out. Subsequently, the human being - with a specific focus on human emotions and emotional needs – was closer examined due to its significance in the company. Finally, the possible effects achieved by taking a human approach in a business were presented on the basis of two already human-oriented corporations. All researches were predominantly based on primary sources as well as on the results of a self-conducted qualitative interview.
The results of all investigations clearly suggest that taking a human approach in an organization is a decisive factor for its success. In addition, it was established that human interactions even help enterprises in achieving astonishingly quick and long-lasting financial successes.
It is therefore plain that it is necessary for companies pursuing the goal to be successful in the long-term to break free from the common principle of "the purpose of business is business" and instead be more open to new forms of management, such as "Humanity and Business".
Due to the great cultural distance between Germany and Thailand, German leaders who work in Thailand may encounter several intercultural concerns. In order to effectively lead Thai employees, these leaders may need to behave differently from what they used to do in their home country in some aspects. Thus, this study examines the changing perception of leadership due to the effect of Thai culture form German managers who are working in German organizations in Thailand.
GLOBE project and its culturally endorsed leadership theory were the key literature explored in this study. To attain the outcomes, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. Twenty-three questionnaires were collected from German expatriate managers in German organizations in Thailand. While two in-depth interview were acquired from Thai employees who worked closely with German superiors.
The results confirm German managers greatly value inspirational and trustworthy attributes as well as avoid being tyrannical, tender and provocateur in order to work in German-Thai boundary. The leadership styles such as Charismatic/Value-Based or Transformational and Team-Oriented leadership also suit German leaders to work in Thai culture.
With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns, the relevance of remote working has increased dramatically. The goal of this thesis is to answer the key question of what remote leadership looks like in German companies while also offering an outlook at the future of remote working.
In the first part of the paper, a literature review introduces the reader to current findings on digital transformation, leadership, remote working, remote leadership and the digital readiness of Germany.
In the second part, an interview study with ten leaders in German companies reveals how they think about and what suggestions they have on the remote leadership role, leading remotely, remote work as a concept, Germany as a place for remote working, future flexible working models and the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The results of this study show that the most common remote leadership approaches in German organizations seem to be democratic and transformational. Furthermore, remote employees need more feedback and motivation than office-based employees. Working times of remote employees are controlled less strictly while results become even more important. Instead of being controllers and supervisors, remote leaders are often becoming team players. Lastly, hybrid remote working models are here to stay after the pandemic.
Future research on the topic could look at remote leadership from an employee perspective or survey larger participant groups about remote leadership to gain a broader view on the topic.
This paper proposes to consider the influence of transparency in leadership styles on work performance and satisfaction. In an experimental setting, a pair of strangers were advised to solve a Sudoku in a digital environment under time pressure. With an induced hierarchy, the leader was able to view the task and the timer, whereas only the subordinate was enabled to actively edit the riddle. The treatment group was told to transparently communicate the intended leadership style during the preparation phase. The results indicate that transparency has a significant positive effect on the performance and the satisfaction of the teams. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that transparency may not be the direct cause of improved performance and satisfaction. Yet it might be crucial in establishing trust between the leader and subordinate, causing a positive effect on the two dependent variables. The paper is concluded by discussing limitations, practical implications and considerations for future research.
Many articles claim that the successful management of organizational change is from utmost importance to ensure the survival and prosperity of the company in the fast moving and ever-changing business environment. There are various techniques, models and theories that were created to help companies to cope with organizational change.
This thesis aims to conduct secondary research to answer the following research questions:
1. Are change management models still relevant in the 21st century concerning their applicability and expected outcome?
2. How can the Change Management models be compared?
3. What role does leadership play in organizational change management?
Therefore, the following eight change management models are considered:
• Lewin’s Change Model
• ADKAR Model
• Kotter’s 8-Step Model
• Kübler-Ross Change Curve
• McKinsey’s 7s Model
• Nudge Theory
• Bridges Transition Model
• The Satir change management model
It can be concluded that the eight change management models are still relevant in the 21st century but the implementation must be well planned and precisely organized and implemented in a faster pace than in the past. The models can be divided into two categories - organizational and individual change management theories. Through an analysis of the findings it can be stated that good leadership of the ongoing organizational change is indispensable. There is no doubt in the fact that change management needs to be well managed but in order to be well comprehended by the employees and sustained, effective leadership is necessary. It can be summarized that effective leadership of organizational
3
change needs to combine the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and behavioral dimension with a strong focus on vision, values, corporate culture, strategy, empowerment of the employees, motivation as well as inspiration.
Job contentment, interpersonal relationships at work, quality of life – for a long time, these aspects were not given importance in an organizational context. Companies were considered rational units, and emotional aspects were neglected. Where people are recognized as an increasingly important resource in a company, emotions play a significant role. In the course of this, the interest in emotional intelligence in the workplace emerged. Especially in the field of leadership, emotional intelligence is now being given more and more attention and has proven to be a cause for numerous positive effects. Due to the limited research on this relation, this thesis aims to find out if and how emotional intelligence in leadership influences employee job satisfaction, specifically in a Danish organization. After outlining the foundations of emotional intelligence in leadership, job satisfaction, and Danish business culture, the empirical research focuses on employee interviews and an evaluation of the emotional intelligence of two managers. Specific focus is put on the employees' perception of their job satisfaction and their assessment of the importance of emotionally intelligent leadership. The results show the importance of emotionally intelligent behavior, and recommendations regarding the implementation of emotional intelligence to overcome workplace challenges are given.