Leadership qualities - Is there a perfect leader?

Table of Contents

I. List of Illustrations

II. List of abbreviation

1. Introduction

2. History
2.1. Historical development of leadership
2.2. Parallels with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

3. Theoretical Concepts
3.1. Manager types
3.2. Continuum of leadership behavior
3.3. Fields of leadership qualities
3.3.1. Visions
3.3.2. Sense Management
3.3.3. Social Competence
3.3.4. Analysis Capabilities
3.3.5. Authenticity
3.3.6. Leading Others
3.3.7. Expert Knowledge
3.3.8. Power to resist/Staying power
3.3.9. Translation into action

4. Synthesis
4.1. The Expert
4.2. The Helper
4.3. The Defender
4.4. The Innovator/The Self-Developer

5. Practical orientation
5.1. Portraits: Frank Appel and Thomas Enders
5.2. Classification of Enders and Appel into the fields
5.2.1. Specification of the attributes for Appel and Enders
5.2.2. Comparison of Appel and Enders
5.3. Classification into Syntheses types

6. Critical Analysis

7. Conclusion

III. List of references

I. List of Illustrations

Illustration 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Illustration 2: Continuum of leadership behavior

II. List of abbreviation

illustration not visible in this excerpt

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.

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.

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 workforce 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”.

Personal reign with all its coincident and irrationalities should be replaced by scientific rational conducts. Leaders and subordinates had to follow the same rules and both should see themselves as servant of the common object.^[6]

Because of the rising expansions and broader technical applications, possibilities were searched to rationalize. To reach this goal scientific approaches were used.

Growing wealth and especially increasing legal and labor security restricted the possibilities to lead by force and pressure. By intensifying the social relation to its subordinates by consideration and respect a leader should achieve their trust.^[7]

Leading became a more collective and cooperative tance of hierarchical positions decreased.

2.2. Parallels with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

In this chapter parallels between the historical development of leadership and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs will be shown.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Illustration 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs^[8]

[...]

^[1] (Jeuschede, 1994, S. 1)

^[2] It can’t be excluded that the conclusion made in this report fit to other civilizations. But this was not examined part of this report.

^[3] see (Neuberger, 1990, S. 24)

^[4] see (Neuberger, 1990, S. 24)

^[5] see (Neuberger, 1990, S. 25)

^[6] see (Neuberger, 1990, S. 25)

^[7] see (Neuberger, 1990, S. 25)

^[8] (Digitalrights Manifesto)