Swedish executives are in the pursuit of self-improvement. During the last two decades, extreme athleticism, practices like meditation and visiting retreats have been an increasingly common context within this pursuit, despite being costly in terms of time or simply being perceived as extreme. In an attempt to further understand these pursuits, the study seeks to answer the research question: How are the leader’s pursuit of self-improvement influencing leadership and what does it signal? The theoretical point of departure is previous research on athleticism and mindfulness amongst executives, through the perspective of signaling theory and charismatic leadership theory. The study is qualitative in nature with an abductive approach and consists of interviews with ten executives as well as a discourse of Swedish printed press. The data have been coded using the Gioia-methodology. The empirical findings consist of nine aggregated dimensions explaining executive behavior. How they began with their practice, what health benefits they achieved, what attributes were strengthened, the positive effect on leadership, the costs of their practice, how identity is involved, their own awareness of their practice, how they believed it influenced leadership, and what their leadership aspirations were. After analysis of the pursuits, it is concluded that the pursuits signal certain underlying qualities and attributes, an identity, and competence to lead oneself and others. Through actions inspired by their pursuits, signaling is reinforced and become signals of the organization as well as the individual leader and his or her leadership.

No description available.

The purpose of this dissertation is to employ simulation modeling to test theories of group formation as they pertain to hate groups: groups whose hate ideology may or may not condone violent criminal behavior. As of 2010, there were 1002 hate groups known to be active in the United States. Previous examinations of hate groups have assumed formation. This dissertation uses simulation modeling to test Hamm's (2004) criminological theory of collective hate and Weber's (1947) socio-political theory of charismatic leadership. Simulation modeling is designed to create a computer simulation that simplifies people and their interactions to mimic a real world event or phenomena. Three different experiments were tested using five models of hate group formation. These experiments test the importance of personal and societal levels of hate in group formation and the influence of charismatic leadership. These experiments also tested hypotheses regarding the number of groups that form, the speed of formation and group size. Data to test these hypotheses was collected from fifteen thousand model iterations. All three models successfully generated hate groups. Hate groups were generated at all levels of societal hate. An in-depth understanding of how hate groups form may assist in slowing the proliferation of these groups and decreasing their appeal. / Criminal Justice

<p>The meaning of the word leadership is changing over time, and so is the role of the leader. Organisational labour is today required to be more self-governing as organisational tasks are moving towards a more flexible and independent nature. This requires a leadership able to inspire and motivate independent performance by acting as an inspirational mentor or coach (Bass and Riggio (2005). Those leaders and that style of leadership have many names, but in our research they are titled as Transformational and Charismatic leaders, as well as Super Leaders. Perhaps they are best described by using Vardiman et al (2006:97) own words: <em>“the most effective leaders teach others to be effective leaders of themselves and others."</em></p><p>Identifying, selecting and recruiting the right leader are a competitive advantage and an important success factor (Fernández-Aráoz et al, 2009). The objective of this thesis is therefore to gain knowledge in the manners present when charismatic and inspirational leaders with the ability to lead others to lead themselves are identified, recruited and selected. We judge gaining understanding in how to identify, attract, select, recruit and keep leaders with this special leadership style as a vital knowledge in today’s highly competitive business world.</p><p><p><p>This thesis approaches leader recruitment from both an external and internal perspective by conveying dialogues with recruitment consultants as well as with a HR-manager. The thesis further raises the question whether the inspirational and charismatic leadership style is appropriate in all type of organisations and here focus on organisational culture as a key determinant when recruiting leaders.</p></p></p>

Over the last 2 decades of advances in technology, organizations have used virtual teams (VTs) as one way to expand globally. Strong leadership and communication skills with followers are essential qualities for successful VTs. It is important to conduct research related to charismatic leadership and communication satisfaction of team members as many organizations now use VTs. The purpose of the survey study was to examine the relationship of perceived charismatic leadership qualities in VT leaders and communication satisfaction in VT members. The research questions examined the association between charismatic leadership qualities and the subdimension of communication satisfaction. Charismatic leadership was the theoretical framework for the study, which posits that leadership and communication are contributing factors to successful VTs. Data were collected from property managers of a major student housing management company (n = 111) using convenience sampling. The Conger-Kanungo Charismatic Leadership Questionnaire and Communication Satisfaction Survey were e-mailed to the property managers through Survey Monkey. Multiple regression analysis showed that a number of charismatic leadership qualities were statistically associated with communication satisfaction. Inspiring strategic and organizational goals explained the most variance in conflict resolution (p < 0.001). The results may contribute to the body of knowledge on VTs, as the results suggest that a leadership-focused approach can transform VTs into highly communicative teams. Implications for positive social change are that management awareness of charismatic leadership qualities can have a positive effect on the enhancement of communication satisfaction and employee productivity.

A greater understanding of the nature of leadership can be gained by empirical analyses, such as this quantitative study, addressing the influence executive administrators have on their message recipients, their followers. This study sampled 64 non-teaching K-12 school, district, and state administrators and measured their perceptions of their immediate supervisors’ leadership behaviors by completing the ©Conger-Kanungo Charismatic Leadership Scale (Conger, Kanungo, Menon, & Mathur, 1997) and the ©Perceived Leadership Behavior Measures Inventory (Conger, Kanungo, & Menon, 2000). Analyses of variables measuring perceived leadership behaviors and those effects on the attitudes and perceptions of their followers may contribute to a better understanding of the phenomena of non-teaching administrator follower and leader interdependency in K-12 organizations. Leaders can develop more refined leadership skill characteristics that might enhance ones’ abilities in communicating exemplary characteristics and charismatic behaviors. In turn, these refined abilities can contribute to an organization’s effectiveness by lowering leader and teacher attrition, promoting team building and bonding, and contribute to K-12 administrative leadership development program effectiveness. A General Linear Model with multivariate tests analyses were used to examine correlations between the charismatic leadership behavioral components and the followers’ perceptions of their own motivation, trust, and satisfaction. A significant correlation existed (p =p =

The meaning of the word leadership is changing over time, and so is the role of the leader. Organisational labour is today required to be more self-governing as organisational tasks are moving towards a more flexible and independent nature. This requires a leadership able to inspire and motivate independent performance by acting as an inspirational mentor or coach (Bass and Riggio (2005). Those leaders and that style of leadership have many names, but in our research they are titled as Transformational and Charismatic leaders, as well as Super Leaders. Perhaps they are best described by using Vardiman et al (2006:97) own words: “the most effective leaders teach others to be effective leaders of themselves and others." Identifying, selecting and recruiting the right leader are a competitive advantage and an important success factor (Fernández-Aráoz et al, 2009). The objective of this thesis is therefore to gain knowledge in the manners present when charismatic and inspirational leaders with the ability to lead others to lead themselves are identified, recruited and selected. We judge gaining understanding in how to identify, attract, select, recruit and keep leaders with this special leadership style as a vital knowledge in today’s highly competitive business world. This thesis approaches leader recruitment from both an external and internal perspective by conveying dialogues with recruitment consultants as well as with a HR-manager. The thesis further raises the question whether the inspirational and charismatic leadership style is appropriate in all type of organisations and here focus on organisational culture as a key determinant when recruiting leaders.

Crisis represents an important contextual variable in the leader-follower relationship. Never is it as important as in times of “shock” when followers experience intense uncertainty and seek for sources of protection and guidance, that leaders are required to step in and find appropriate ways to alleviate fears, restore a sense normalcy, and maintain effective functioning. Over the years, studies from multiple disciplines have accumulated to a large body of literature on the topic of crisis leadership, informing the current understanding of how crises can be defined and the role of leadership in steering followers through them. However, despite a vast empirical base, important aspects in the analysis are missing, leaving the field to suffer from three fatal flaws. First, insights into the precise working of crisis leadership phenomena have remained restricted as the majority of existing studies limit their investigation to isolated and coarsely conceptualized crises. Second, past research efforts have focused on acute crisis management as the solitary leadership function, disregarding the potentially insightful study of crisis leadership across different stages of the crisis lifecycle. Third, a problematic imbalance is observable in the field that overemphasizes the analysis of particular leadership theories (i.e., charismatic-transformational leadership) to the neglect of testing the effectiveness of other leadership approaches as crisis responses. Altogether, there has been no effort to investigate crisis leadership in a systematic and integrative manner that acknowledges the breadth of what both the notions of crisis and crisis leadership encompass. This dissertation addresses these issues with the objective of gaining novel insights on the effectiveness of different leadership styles in different crisis contexts. Synthesizing the large and disparate body of literature of crisis leadership, the current work applies theories from the safety sciences, small group research, and the management field to widen the scope of previous analyses. Specifically, it develops a theoretical framework that integrates the insights gained from these domains by utilizing a tripartite crisis lifecycle approach, identifying the stages of pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis, as the basis for further study. Based on these stages, the notion of crisis is expanded by conceptualizing it in terms of (precursory) critical incidents, (acute) team crises, and (fully manifested) organizational crises. The framework broadens the research perspective by recognizing that prevention, intervention, and resolution of crisis are equally important functions of crisis leadership. Using this framework as a departure point for empirical investigation, relationship-based, motivation-based, and functionally-based leadership approaches are examined across the crisis stages in three empirical studies. Study 1 focuses on the pre-crisis stage and examines how relationship-oriented leadership forms support the preventive function of crisis leadership by promoting the reporting of critical incidents. Building on social exchange and social identity theory, this study disentangles how leader-member exchange (LMX) influences reporting of incidents in healthcare organizations through two different mechanisms. Using survey data of 15 hospitals in Germany (N = 436) and structural equation modelling, it reveals that LMX increases both reporting-specific trust and organizational identification of employees, which in turn positively affects reporting of incidents. Furthermore, top management support is found to moderate the link between LMX and reporting-specific trust, indicating a compensatory effect of LMX for followers who perceive management support to be low. In addition, codification of safety regulations is found to moderate the link between organizational identification and reporting of incidents, indicating that the institutionalization of safety norms through a strong follow-through of the organization facilitates reporting for highly-identified employees. The findings of Study 1 demonstrate that crisis leadership can be enacted at both the supervisory and top management level and illustrate that the resulting increase of followers’ crisis preventive behaviour can be motivated from different sources. Study 2 focuses on the crisis stage and examines how motivational leadership approaches aid the intervention function of crisis leadership by influencing follower performance in team crises. This study extends charismatic leadership research by identifying boundary conditions under which charismatic leadership in teams does not improve but can even hurt follower performance. Specifically, it proposes that while charismatic leadership generally leads to higher performance in team-based settings, the occurrence of a team crisis decreases performance. In addition, the follower attribute of self-direction is hypothesized to interact with charismatic leadership and team crisis such that charismatic leadership adversely impacts performance in a team crisis if followers’ self-direction is high rather than low. The theoretical propositions are tested in a laboratory setting that uses the cover story of a brainstorming competition (N = 88) intended to promote the sales of controversial consumer products, and experimentally manipulates team crisis in the form of value-based critical team events and leadership in the form of a rhetoric-based charismatic crisis intervention. The findings support the propositions of the three-way interaction. In sum, Study 2 provides first experimental evidence that charismatic leadership can have negative performance effects in specific types of team crises, if such leadership is enacted on highly self-directed followers. Study 3 focuses on the post-crisis stage and examines how functional leadership approaches assist the resolution function of crisis leadership in different types of organizational crisis. This study proposes that different crisis situations necessitate alternative leadership styles, which may additionally depend on follower characteristics. To this effect, it examines the interplay of (a) crisis types (sudden vs. gradual) with (b) leadership styles (pragmatic vs. charismatic), and (c) follower characteristics (pragmatism vs. idealism), hypothesizing favourable leader evaluations based on a principle of fit. The proposed relationships are tested in three experimental substudies (Ns = 62, 49, 204). Substudy 1 shows that pragmatic leadership is evaluated more favourably than charismatic leadership in gradual (vs. sudden) crises. Substudy 2 identifies the time horizon of crisis consequences as a further boundary condition and highlights that charismatic leadership can, conversely, be evaluated more favourably than pragmatic leadership if crisis consequences are perceived to manifest in the distant (vs. in the near) future. Substudy 3 replicates and extends the findings of Substudy 1 by providing evidence that the positive effects of pragmatic leadership are mediated by collective crisis efficacy and that this effect is enhanced for individuals high in pragmatism. The results of Study 3 indicate that both pragmatic and charismatic leadership represent a potentially effective approach to crisis leadership; however, their effectiveness depends on the specific crisis circumstances and the expectations that different types of followers have towards the ideal crisis leader. Combined, the findings of the three studies offer novel theoretical conclusions that are integrated in an overarching model of crisis leadership. This model advances four propositions concerning leadership in times of crisis related to (1) the formation of the leader-follower-relationship as a basis for crisis leaders’ social influence attempts, (2) the relevance of context factors found in the organizational environment, the individual follower, and the crisis itself, (3) the specific mechanisms that underlie the crisis leadership process, and (4) the different domains of organizational life that are affected by crisis leadership. The empirical studies contribute to research in unique ways. Study 1, in departure from research on organizations that have already achieved the goal of being “crisis-prepared” (i.e., high-reliability-organizations), extends the analysis to the healthcare sector by linking ideas and insights from the safety sciences with those from organizational behavior research. It tests a dual-process model of LMX that advances the social exchange and social identity literature and provides insights on how supervisory leadership interacts with higher level leadership functions in preventing crisis escalation. Study 2, in contrast to previous research on charismatic crisis leadership which has primarily found positive effects in large-scale crises, detects potentially negative effects at the team level. By applying a novel operationalization of crisis in the form of critical team events and considering the individual difference variable of self-direction, it adds to the event-based crisis literature and answers scholarly calls for a more follower-centric view of leadership. Study 3 takes up a new development in the leadership field by experimentally investigating pragmatic leadership approaches in a crisis context for the first time. It builds on a theoretically established, but as of yet empirically unexplored crisis typology in order to gain novel insights into the fit between crisis type, leadership style, and follower characteristics, and identifies boundary conditions in a moderated-mediation framework that simultaneously recognizes collective crisis efficacy as an important mechanism. Taken as a whole, the dissertation’s primary contribution is that it develops and empirically tests a theoretical framework that uniquely integrates multiple crisis conceptualizations situated at different stages of the crisis lifecycle with important, so far disregarded leadership approaches. In doing so, the current work informs the understanding of crisis leadership also from a practical point of view: The findings highlight the importance of leader adaptability and point out concrete ways of selecting and training leaders for assignment in crisis contexts. By virtue of a solid understanding of the nature of a crisis and its specific leadership requirements, crisis leaders can be better prepared to effectively engage their followers in different crisis situations with the aim of achieving desired outcomes despite difficult circumstances. / Krisen stellen eine wichtige Kontextvariable in der Beziehung zwischen Führungskraft und Geführten dar. Nie ist es so wichtig wie in Zeiten eines „Schocks“, wenn Geführte intensive Unsicherheit erleben und nach Schutz und Orientierung suchen, dass Führungspersonen eingreifen und angemessene Wege finden müssen, um Ängste zu lindern, ein Gefühl der Normalität wiederherzustellen, und die effektive Bearbeitung von vorhandenen Aufgaben sicherzustellen. Im Laufe der Jahre haben Studien aus den verschiedensten Disziplinen eine umfassende Literatur zum Thema Krisenführung zusammengetragen, die zum heutigen Verständnis des Krisenbegriffs sowie der Rolle der Führung in Zeiten der Krise beitragen. Trotz einer großen empirischen Basis sind allerdings wichtige Aspekte in der Analyse bisher noch nicht berücksichtigt und das Feld leidet an drei erheblichen Schwächen. Erstens ist die Kenntnis zu den genauen Wirkmustern der Krisenführung bisher begrenzt, da die meisten der vorhandenen Untersuchungen ihre Analysen auf voneinander isolierte und grob konzeptualisierte Krisen beschränkt haben. Zweitens haben sich vergangene Untersuchungen auf das aktive Krisen-Management als die einzige Führungsaufgabe konzentriert, ohne die potenziell interessante Analyse der Krisenführung in den verschiedenen Phasen einer Krise im Rahmen ihres Lebenszyklus zu berücksichtigen. Drittens ist im Forschungsfeld ein problematisches Ungleichgewicht zu beobachten, das die Analyse von bestimmten Führungstheorien (insb. die charismatisch-transformationale Führungstheorie) überbetont – zu Ungunsten einer Prüfung der Wirksamkeit anderer Führungsstile als alternative Krisenreaktionen. Insgesamt gab es bisher noch keine systematische und integrative Untersuchung der Führung in Krisenzeiten, welche der Bandbreite dessen, was sowohl der Begriff der Krise als auch der der Krisenführung umfasst, gerecht werden würde. Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit diesen Problemen und hat als Ziel, neue Erkenntnisse zu der Wirksamkeit verschiedener Führungsstile in unterschiedlichen Krisenkontexten zu gewinnen. Die vorliegende Arbeit synthetisiert die umfangreiche und verstreute Literatur zum Thema Krisenführung und zieht Theorien aus den Sicherheitswissenschaften, der Kleingruppenforschung und dem Management-Bereich heran, um den Umfang der bisherigen Analysen zu erweitern. Insbesondere entwickelt die Arbeit ein theoretisches Rahmenmodell, das die aus diesen Bereichen gewonnenen Erkenntnisse integriert und einen dreigliedrigen Ansatz des Lebenszyklus von Krisen nutzt, um die Phasen vor der Krise, während der Krise und nach der Krise als Grundlage für weitere Forschungsbemühungen zu identifizieren. Basierend auf diesen Phasen wird der Begriff der Krise durch die Konzeptualisierung als kritische Ereignisse (Vorläufer einer Krise), Teamkrise (akuter Zustand einer Krise) und Organisationskrise (volle Manifestation einer Krise) ausgeweitet. Das Rahmenmodell erweitert die Forschungsperspektive durch die Erkenntnis, dass Prävention, Intervention, und Resolution der Krise gleichermaßen wichtige Funktionen der Krisenführung sind. Mit diesem Rahmenmodell als Ausgangspunkt für die empirische Untersuchung werden sodann beziehungsbasierte, motivationsbasierte, und funktionsbasierte Ansätze der Führung entlang den Krisenphasen in drei empirischen Studien untersucht. Studie 1 konzentriert sich auf die Phase vor dem Eintreten der Krise und untersucht, wie beziehungsorientierte Formen der Führung die präventive Funktion der Krisenführung durch die Förderung des Meldens von kritischen Ereignissen unterstützen. Basierend auf der sozialen Austausch- und sozialen Identitätstheorie zeigt diese Studie auf, wie Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) auf das Melden von kritischen Ereignissen im Gesundheitswesen über zwei verschiedene Mechanismen wirkt. Unter Nutzung von Fragebogendaten aus 15 Krankenhäusern in Deutschland (N = 436) und mittels Strukturgleichungsanalyse zeigt sich, dass LMX sowohl das den Meldestrukturen entgegengebrachte Vertrauen sowie die organisationale Identifikation der Mitarbeiter erhöht, was sich wiederum positiv auf das Melden von kritischen Ereignissen auswirkt. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Befunde, dass Unterstützung vonseiten des Top-Managements die Beziehung zwischen LMX und Vertrauen moderiert, was auf eine kompensatorische Wirkung von LMX für Geführte hinweist, die eine geringe Management-Unterstützung wahrnehmen. Außerdem wird aufgedeckt, dass die Verschriftlichung von Sicherheitsrichtlinien die Beziehung zwischen organisationaler Identifikation und dem Melden von kritischen Ereignissen moderiert, was vermuten lässt, das die Institutionalisierung von Sicherheitsnormen im Sinne einer hohen Implementierungstiefe organisationaler Maßnahmen das Meldeverhalten für hoch identifizierte Mitarbeiter verbessert. Die Ergebnisse von Studie 1 zeigen, dass Krisenführung sowohl auf der Vorgesetzten- als auch der Top-Management-Ebene stattfinden kann und veranschaulicht, dass die daraus resultierende Anregung der Krisenpräventionsbemühungen der Geführten aus verschiedenen Quellen motiviert sein kann. Studie 2 konzentriert sich auf die akute Krisenphase und untersucht, wie motivationale Führungsansätze die Interventionsfunktion der Krisenführung durch Beeinflussung der Geführtenleistung in Teamkrisen fördert. Diese Studie erweitert die Literatur zur charismatischen Führung und identifiziert Randbedingungen, unter denen charismatische Führung in Teams die Leistung von Geführten nicht verbessert, sondern sogar verschlechtern kann. Obwohl charismatische Führung in der Regel zu einer höheren Leistung in teambasierten Kontexten führt, nimmt die Studie an, dass das Auftreten einer Teamkrise die Leistung senkt. Darüber hinaus wird erwartet, dass ein Persönlichkeitsmerkmal der Geführten, die Selbstbestimmung, mit charismatischer Führung und der Teamkrise so interagiert, dass charismatische Führung sich negativ auf die Leistung während einer Teamkrise auswirkt wenn die Geführten eine hohe statt einer geringen Selbstbestimmung aufweisen. Die theoretischen Annahmen werden in einer Laborstudie getestet, die als Coverstory einen Brainstorming-Wettbewerb (N = 88) nutzt, bei dem der Verkauf von umstrittenen Verbraucherprodukten gefördert werden soll, und manipuliert experimentell die Teamkrise in Form eines wertebasierten kritischen Team-Ereignisses sowie Führung in der Form einer Rhetorik-basierten charismatischen Krisenintervention. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die theoretischen Annahmen einer Dreifach-Interaktion. In der Summe erbringt Studie 2 den ersten experimentellen Nachweis dazu, dass charismatische Führung negative Leistungsauswirkungen in bestimmten Arten von Teamkrisen haben kann, wenn die Führung auf hoch selbstbestimmte Geführte trifft. Studie 3 konzentriert sich auf die Phase nach dem Eintreten der Krise und untersucht, wie funktionale Führungsansätze die Krisenresolution in unterschiedlichen organisationalen Krisen unterstützen. Diese Studie nimmt an, dass unterschiedliche Krisensituationen alternative Führungsstile erfordern, was zusätzlich von den Eigenschaften der Geführten abhängt. Zu diesem Zweck untersucht sie das Zusammenspiel von (a) Krisentypen (plötzlich vs. graduell) mit (b) Führungsstilen (pragmatisch vs. charismatisch) und (c) Geführteneigenschaften (Pragmatismus vs. Idealismus) und stellt die Hypothese auf, dass Führungskräfte bei Passung dieser Faktoren vorteilhaft bewertet werden. Die theoretischen Annahmen werden in drei experimentellen Teilstudien getestet (Ns = 62, 49, 204). Teilstudie 1 zeigt, dass pragmatische Führung im Vergleich zu charismatischer Führung als effektiver in graduellen (vs. plötzlichen) Krisen evaluiert wird. Teilstudie 2 identifiziert den Zeithorizont von Krisenfolgen als weitere Randbedingung und hebt hervor, dass charismatische Führung umgekehrt besser als pragmatische Führung bewertet werden kann, wenn die Krisenfolgen als weit entfernt in der Zukunft (vs. nah in der Zukunft) wahrgenommen werden. Teilstudie 3 repliziert und erweitert die Befunde von Teilstudie 1 und erbringt den Nachweis, dass die positiven Effekte pragmatischer Führung durch kollektive, krisenbezogene Selbstwirksamkeit vermittelt wird und dass dieser Effekt für Personen mit hoher pragmatischer Grundausrichtung stärker ausfällt. Die Ergebnisse von Studie 3 zeigen, dass sowohl pragmatische als auch charismatische Führung einen potenziell wirksamen Ansatz der Krisenführung darstellen; allerdings hängt deren Wirksamkeit von den spezifischen Krisenbedingungen sowie den Erwartungen ab, die unterschiedliche Geführte von dem idealen Krisenführer haben. In der Gesamtheit lassen sich durch die Ergebnisse der drei Studien neue theoretische Schlussfolgerungen ziehen, die in einem übergreifenden Modell der Krisenführung integriert werden. Dieses Modell trifft vier Aussagen über das Führen in Krisenzeiten in Bezug auf (1) den Aufbau der Beziehung zwischen Führungskraft und Geführten als Grundlage für soziale Einflussversuche seitens des Krisenführers, (2) die Relevanz von Kontextfaktoren im organisationalen Umfeld, in der Person des Geführten, und der Krise selbst, (3) die spezifischen Mechanismen, die dem Prozess der Krisenführung zugrunde liegen, und (4) die verschiedenen Bereiche der organisationalen Lebenswelt, die von Krisenführung berührt werden. Die empirischen Studien liefern jeweils einen eigenen theoretischen Beitrag zur Forschung. Studie 1, in Ergänzung zu wissenschaftlichen Befunden zu Organisationen, die bereits das Ziel der „Krisenbereitschaft“ erreicht haben (i.e., High Reliability Organisationen), weitet die Analyse durch Verknüpfung von Erkenntnissen der Sicherheitswissenschaften mit denen der Organisationspsychologie auf den Gesundheitssektor aus. Die Studie testet ein duales Prozessmodell von LMX, das die Literatur der sozialen Austausch- und sozialen Identitäts-Theorie erweitert und Erkenntnisse dazu gewinnt, wie Führung des direkten Vorgesetzen mit übergeordneten Führungsfunktionen bei der Verhinderung einer Kriseneskalation interagiert. Studie 2 entdeckt entgegen bisheriger Forschung, die in erster Linie positive Effekte charismatischer Führung bei Großkrisen gefunden hat, potenziell negative Auswirkungen dieses Führungsstils auf Teamebene. Durch die Anwendung einer neuartigen Operationalisierung von Krisen in Form von kritischen Team-Ereignissen und unter Berücksichtigung der individuellen Variable der Selbstbestimmung, dockt sie an die ereignisbasierte Krisenliteratur an und erfüllt wissenschaftliche Forderungen nach einer stärkeren Betrachtung der Zusammenhänge aus der Geführtenperspektive. Studie 3 nimmt eine noch sehr junge Entwicklung in der Führungsforschung auf und untersucht mit einem experimentellen Ansatz erstmalig pragmatische Führungsansätze im Krisenkontext. Basierend auf einer theoretisch etablierten, aber empirisch bisher noch nicht untersuchten Krisentypologie, eröffnet die Studie neue Einblicke in die Passung zwischen Krisentyp, Führungsstil und Geführteneigenschaften, und identifiziert Randbedingungen in einem moderierten-Mediations-Modell, das darüber hinaus die kollektive, krisenbezogene Selbstwirksamkeit als wichtigen Mechanismus identifiziert. Als Ganzes genommen ist der wesentliche Forschungsbeitrag der Dissertation die Entwicklung und Testung eines theoretischen Rahmenmodells, das verschiedene Krisenkonzeptualisierungen in unterschiedlichen Phasen des Krisenlebenszyklus mit wichtigen, bisher vernachlässigten Führungsansätzen vereint. Dabei vertieft die vorliegende Arbeit das Verständnis der Krisenführung auch aus praktischer Sicht: Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Bedeutung der Anpassungsfähigkeit von Führungskräften in Zeiten der Krise und zeigen konkrete Möglichkeiten der Auswahl und Entwicklung von Führungskräften für deren Einsatz in Krisenkontexten auf. Durch das genaue Verständnis der Eigenschaften einer Krise und ihrer spezifischen Führungsanforderungen können Krisenführer besser darauf vorbereitet werden, auf effektive Art und Weise ihre Geführten in verschiedenen Krisensituationen zu motivieren, um gewünschte Ergebnisse trotz schwieriger Umstände zu erreichen.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed some light on the topic of top-managers' awareness and use of communication in organizations with hopes of increasing awareness and understanding of communication use in an organizational context for managers and students alike. Interviews were conducted and questionnaires e-mailed to respondents. Findings pointed towards great awareness of many aspects of communication, channels and barriers and an understanding of its impact in listeners. Use of verbal communication channels also seemed to be favored among the respondents. However, questions are raised as to the efficiency of value building when using communication channels with a low degree of personal contact between sender and receiver and what the possible influences it can have on employee cynicism and identification towards the organization. An increased use of personal contact is recommended, but as managers' communication is largely controlled by time and a daily schedule, use of rhetoric seems more likely as a means of circumventing some of the possible negative aspects.

Syfte: Debatten kring revisorers oberoende har pågått länge. Idag är frågan om revisorers oberoende en av de viktigaste frågorna inom redovisning vilket delvis beror på de företagsskandaler som inträffat under senare år. Tidigare studier visar att sociala identifikationer kan utvecklas vid nära relationer vilket både kan ha en positiv och en negativ påverkan på revisorers oberoende. För att utvidga tidigare studier har vi lagt till personlig identifikation för att studera detta på individnivå. Vi har även valt att lägga till en faktor, det karismatiska ledarskapet, för att undersöka om detta påverkar samtliga identifikationer. Studien syftar till att undersöka om klientidentifikation, personlig och professionell identifikation påverkas av ett karismatiskt ledarskap och om dessa identifikationer i sin tur har en påverkan på revisorers oberoende. Metod: Vi har i studien använt oss av enkäter som metod för att samla in primärdata. Data samlades in från auktoriserade och godkända revisorer runtom i Sverige. Insamlad data har sedan bearbetats och analyserats med hjälp av statistikprogrammet SPSS statistics. Resultaten från de statistiska analyserna har sedan redovisats i olika tabeller. Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat visade att ett karismatiskt ledarskap har en påverkan på samtliga identifikationer, dock var denna påverkan relativt svag, vilket innebär att det är många andra faktorer som ökar identifikationerna. Vidare visade resultatet att personlig identifikation kan innebära ett större hot mot revisorers oberoende än klientidentifikation. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: För att få mer djup i studien och för att få fram respondenternas egna tankar och åsikter skulle en kvalitativt inriktad studie, med intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod kunna genomföras. Ytterligare förslag till forskning skulle kunna vara att undersöka andra faktorer som kan tänkas påverka olika identifikationer. Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen bidrar till fortsatt forskning inom revisorers icke-finansiella beroende, genom att vi undersöker problemet ur ett socialt identitetsperspektiv. Vidare bidrar studien med kunskap om faktorer som påverkar sociala identiteter. / Aim: The debate about the auditor independence has been going on for a long time. Today is the issue of auditor independence one of the most important in accounting which depends on several corporate scandals that have occurred in recent years. Previous studies shows that close relationships explicate social identifications which can have a positive and a negative impact on auditor independence. We have added personal identification in our study at the individual level to expand previous studies. We have also added the charismatic leadership as a factor to investigate whether this affect identifications. The study aims to investigate whether the client identification, personal and professional identification is affected by a charismatic leadership and whether these identifications has an impact on auditor independence. Method: In our study we have used surveys as a method to collect primary data. Data were collected from Swedish authorized and approved auditors. The collected data where then processed and analyzed by the statistical program SPSS statistics. The results of the statistical analyzes are then presented in different tables. Result and conclusions: The results of the study showed that charismatic leadership has an impact on all identifications, however, this effect is relatively weak, which means that there are many other factors that increase these identifications. Furthermore, the result also showed that personal identification can be a greater threat to auditor independence than client identification. Suggestions for future research: To obtain the respondents' own thoughts and opinions, a qualitative focused study with interviews as a data collection method could be implemented. Further implications could be to examine other factors that may affect different identifications. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes for further research about the auditors' non-financial dependence, in which we examine the problem from a social identity perspective. Furthermore, the study can provide knowledge of the factors that affecting social identities.