Leadership from a Scientific and Practical Perspective

Führung aus der Perspektive von Wissenschaft und Unternehmenswelt

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, University of applied sciences, Cologne, course: Soft Skills & Leadership, language: English, abstract: In the scientific debate on business management topics, the relevance of leadership for corporate success is a central object of research. In this field, science has a long history and began its research in the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, scientists have promoted the understanding of leadership processes to a significant degree and further on have tried to stimulate companies to rethink management practices. During this period, several approaches have emerged - ranging from structure-functionalistic and personality-related to behavioral-scientific and transactional dispositions. Regardless of which perspective, in a number of studies leadership is expressed as having a great impact on corporate success. The majority of companies knows how important good leadership is - it holds it all together and is a make or break function - and every stakeholder fears the negative effects of management organizations that lack effective managers. Companies are in serious trouble if they are not able to develop promising young professionals or recruit competent managers. Rarely is it the case that companies underestimate the significance of a good leadership culture within their personnel policy. Unfortunately, even top managers with impressive track records are not always aware of their mistakes in management decisions and its consequences on the employee´s motivation, commitment and performance. If they were, they would act differently. At the same time, many companies and managers want to improve their leadership processes and methods, and therefore seek external support. In Germany, about 84.000 management consultants work in some 13.2000 personnel and management consulting companies.1 Those numbers show that the demand for management and leadership specialists remains high. On top of this, approximately 5.000 coaches are hired to work exclusively with managers. In this process, science as well as practice is seeking the essence of good leadership - what it stands for, which foundation it needs and how it is performed. Against this backdrop, this paper deals with leadership from a scientific and practical view. Chapter 2 analyzes the philosophy of powerful executives on leadership and afterwards leads through the development of science in the field of leadership. In chapter 3 the focus is exclusively on classical leadership theories. On this basis, chapter 4 will illustrate what good leadership is about. In chapter 5 I will apply this to Winterkorn...