Leadership qualities - Is there a perfect leader?

Table of Contents

  I. List of Illustrations  4

  II. List of abbreviation  5

1.  Introduction  6

2.  History  8

2.1.  Historical development of leadership  8

2.2.  Parallels with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs  9

3.  Theoretical Concepts  11

3.1.  Manager types  11

3.2.  Continuum of leadership behavior  13

3.3.  Fields of leadership qualities  15

3.3.1.  Visions  15

3.3.2.  Sense Management  16

3.3.3.  Social Competence  16

3.3.4.  Analysis Capabilities  17

3.3.5.  Authenticity  17

3.3.6.  Leading Others  18

3.3.7.  Expert Knowledge  19

3.3.8.  Power to resist/Staying power  19

3.3.9.  Translation into action  20

4.  Synthesis  21

4.1.  The Expert  21

4.2.  The Helper  21

4.3.  The Defender  21

4.4.  The Innovator/The Self-Developer  22

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5.  Practical orientation  23

5.1.  Portraits: Frank Appel and Thomas Enders  23

5.2.  Classification of Enders and Appel into the fields  24

5.2.1.  Specification of the attributes for Appel and Enders  24

5.2.2.  Comparison of Appel and Enders  26

5.3.  Classification into Syntheses types  27

6.  Critical Analysis  29

7.  Conclusion  30

  III. List of references  32

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  I. List of Illustrations  

  Illustration 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs  9

  Illustration 2: Continuum of leadership behavior  14

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II. List of abbreviation

AG: Aktiengesellschaft (German Corporation)

CEO: Chief Executive Officer DAX: Deutscher Aktienindex (Germen stock index) N.V.: Naamloze Vennootschap (Dutch Corporation) S.A.S.: Société par Actions Simplifiée (Simple form of a French Corporation) USA: United States of America

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1. Introduction

The first thing most people think of when they hear leadership quality is the leading of other people. But there is more to it than that.

“In companies (…) people work towards a specific goal. Companies (…) are therefore (…) organizations. The activities, which are directed towards coordinating and arranging the different (resources and, added by authors) behavior patterns of the members of an organization can be named as leading and management activities.” 1

To be successful in the above-mentioned activities requires leadership qualities.

Proceeding globalization leads to tougher competition on the markets. Companies have to encounter this situation. To reach this goal the innovation and knowledge potential of the organization has to be activated. Therefore the significance of leadership increases.

The goal of the report is to give the reader an insight on what leadership qualities are about, to bring together several existing approaches and to structure leadership qualities. It will be analyzed whether it is possible to find a set of leadership qualities, which constitutes an ideal leader.

At first leadership will be described in a historical context. Then three theoretical concepts will be explained and brought in line with a synthesis. Those are the manager types by Maccoby, The continuum of leadership behavior of Tannenbaum and Schmidt and the fields of leadership qualities by Kets de Vries with amendments of the authors. To find out whether an ideal leader exists the theory will be applied on two Chief Executive Officers.

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The basic literature and sources used in this report are mostly from the USA. The theory developed and used in this report is based on the sources and will be applied to two German CEOs. 2

The focus is on leadership in economic environments but leadership is also present in politics which will be taken into account as well.

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2. History

This chapter deals with the history of leadership from the early beginnings to the present. The historical development will be presented in five phases.

2.1. Historical development of leadership

In a time of stable property and power circumstances dominated a Regulation characterized by the social status. People were born to be a leader just as to be a subordinate. The social top and bottom of society was accepted as being god wanted. There was no historically proven alternative to these fixed social classes. 3

This period was characterized by a strong social order which was legitimized by god.

By liberating the work because of different social developments a work-force emerged, which had to be educated by reliable, constant, regular and methodical factory work. There was no longer a duty to care for the lazy and incapable workers. They could only be forced by hunger and misery to subordinate to the discipline of their masters. 4

The influence of the church and the faith in a god given social status decreased. People had to work in order to survive.

Everybody had the possibility to reach a higher social status by working himself to the top. Those who took their chance proved to be superior. ⁵ The social status order more and more disappeared because of the rising importance of economical power. This time was named as social Darwinism with elements of Adam Smith “The invisible hand”.

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Personal reign placed by scie E ^ follow the sam ^ D common objec

Because of th ign with all its coincident and irrationalitie possibilities we cientific rational conducts. Leaders and sub 9 approaches we me rules and both should see themselves

Growing wealt ject. 6 lities should be restricted the po the rising expansions and broader techn ubordinates had to the social rela were searched to rationalize. To reach th es as servant of the were used. leader should a

Leading becam alth and especially increasing legal and l hnical applications, tance of hierar possibilities to lead by force and pressure

2.2. Parallel elation to its subordinates by consideratio In this chapter ld achieve their trust. 7 this goal scientific ship and Maslo came a more collective and cooperative s

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