Companies worldwide are facing a severe competition from an increasing number of domestic and foreign competitors, who put extra pressure on the achievement of market efficiency and performance. In this context, research and transference of managerial tools aimed at increasing performance has become decisive for organizations. One particular tool, the coaching of the sales force, has been largely praised by practitioners and scholars alike as a central managerial activity increasing employee's performance. As salespeople's performance is a key antecedent of organizational performance, research on sales coaching as a tool for increasing performance is critical. Despite its importance, research on coaching has been scarce and inconsistent, and published work has been predominantly practice-driven and guru-led, lacking solid theoretical basis. Additionally, the relationship between coaching and performance has not received conclusive support, and the mediating variables linking coaching with performance have not been studied; these restrictions limited the explanations and predictive capacity of present models. This research tries to close the gap between what is presently known about coaching and what should be known in the opinion of both practitioners and scholars, by answering two general research questions: 1) does coaching by the sales manager have an impact on salesperson's performance?; and 2) what are the mediating mechanisms that turn coaching by the sales manager into salesperson's performance? This dissertation presents a model based on two institutionalized' theories, Leader-member Exchange (LMX) Theory and Goal-setting Theory; LMX is a dyadic, relational theory, useful to explain the high quality relationship developed between coach and coaché during the coaching intervention, and some of the proximal outcomes of this relationship; goal-setting theory is particularly useful in sales contexts, where salespeople have clearly defined goals, to understand how the coaching intervention can mobilize salesperson's cognition and motivation in order to achieve the goals. The model explores the motivational and cognitive process enacted by the coaching intervention that have an impact on salesperson's performance, and proposes different ways through which coaching could be translated into increased performance; according to the model, the coaching intervention helps the salesperson to develop new task-specific strategies , which increases his capacity of adapting to different selling situations; additionally, the characteristics of the coaching intervention increases his goal commitment and his self-efficacy ; in consequence, the salesperson will spend more effort , with greater persistence , and will choose better strategies; as a consequence of increased sales adaptability, new strategies, goal commitment, self-efficacy and effort, salesperson's performance will also increase. The model was tested using data collected early in 2011; a local Latin-American branch of a global industrial company and a Canadian bank accepted to participate in the study, and invitations to take a web-based survey were sent to their sales forces. I received 186 complete, usable responses, for a total response ratio of 40.43%, which were used to test the model using Structural Equation Modeling. Results supported the main hypotheses; the conclusion of the dissertation is that the coaching intervention actually enacts motivational and cognitive mechanisms in the salesperson that allows him to increase his performance. These mechanisms are increased effort, adaptive selling, sales planning, new strategies, goal commitment and self-efficacy. The dissertation contributes to the solution of the research problem in several ways. First, it proposes a model of coaching mediators, an issue that has not been addressed by previous research. The model represents an original perspective that advances the field of coaching research by enlarging our understanding of the processes addressed by the coaching intervention. Second, the model proposes two complementary ways for achieving performance; one that considers the motivational aspects of the coaching intervention, where an increased performance is achieved through increased goal commitment and effort; the other one considers the cognitive aspects of the coaching intervention, where an increased performance is achieved through increased adaptive selling and sales planning behavior, and the development and implementation of new task-related strategies. These two ways are consistent with present research on adaptive selling and sales performance. Third, the model is based on two institutionalized theories: LMX and Goal-setting Theory. The use of these theories is an original approach, useful to understand how coaching work in sales contexts. As the proposed model is not based on any particular practitioner's model or set of experiences, it can potentially be generalized through a large series of organizational settings. Finally, the results of this research contributes: 1) to the advancement of scientific knowledge through the development of an original, theory-based model of coaching mediators, as well as 2) to the solution of a managerial problem by providing practical insights to practitioners willing to implement successful coaching processes in their organizations.

This century the West constantly research on the leadership phenomenon, and has developed several theories such as the trait theories, the behavioral theories, the contingency theories, the transformational theories, the leader-member exchange theory, and the charismatic leadership. Lately Silin and Cheng Po-Hsuan focused on the leadership characteristics of Chinese enterprise administrator or leader, which can be referred as "paternalistic leadership". The Post employee has the identity of both civil servant and labor, so the supervisor of such people is also differ from the ordinary enterprise administrator, which should hold the qualities of professional manager, so, the management method of the post supervisor to his subordinate has the necessity to research and discuss. However, this research has the goals of 1. to discuss the management form of the post supervisor 2. to discuss the different effects of the different leadership theories. This research was performed on the Taiwan south area Post managing department, and base on the employee's opinion as the research tool, the data process and analysis was done by using "person relative analyze" and "Blocked Regression". The result of the research found out that out of the six major leadership theories, LMX theory only did not give satisfy result on "supervisor justice action", the rest of "supervisor evaluation", "supervisor beneficial behavior", "repayment", "promises to supervisor", and "loyalty to the supervisor", has positive effects and better expectances compare to other three leadership theories. Therefore, the administrator mode of the Post supervisor, if compared with "paternalistic leadership", "transformational leadership", "charismatic leadership", and "LMX leadership", the "LMX leadership" is more suitable. Finally, base on the result of research, some concrete suggestions can be given to the Post Office and later researchers.

Das Personalmanagement in der öffentlichen Verwaltung steht in Zeiten von Haushaltskürzungen und demographischem Wandel vor der Herausforderung, den gestiegenen Erwartungen an Effizienz und Effektivität mit zunehmend älteren Belegschaften zu begegnen. Als ein wesentlicher Stellhebel für den Erhalt bzw. die Steigerung der Arbeitsfähigkeit der Mitarbeiter gilt in der wissenschaftlichen Debatte die Qualität des Führungsverhaltens der Führungskräfte. Im Fokus dieser Arbeit steht das Konzept altersspezifischer Führung, das sich an den individuellen, altersspezifischen Bedürfnissen des einzelnen Mitarbeiters orientiert. Es wird mittels einer standardisierten Befragung von Führungskräften und deren Mitarbeitern in einer Dienststelle der Bundesagentur für Arbeit untersucht, ob die Ausprägung altersspezifischer Führung Einfluss auf die Qualität der dyadischen Arbeitsbeziehung von Führungskraft und Mitarbeiter (LMX-Qualität) hat. Dafür wird zunächst überprüft, wie altersspezifisch die befragten Führungskräfte führen, und welche Faktoren darauf Einfluss nehmen. Im Ergebnis der Untersuchung zeigt sich, dass ein hochsignifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen altersspezifischer Führung und der LMX-Qualität besteht. Daneben stellt sich heraus, dass die befragten Führungskräfte überwiegend altersspezifisches Führungsverhalten aufweisen, wobei jedoch zu berücksichtigen ist, dass die Ergebnisse auch durch organisationale Vorgaben beeinflusst werden, die den Handlungsspielraum der Führungskräfte begrenzen. Auch wurde für die untersuchte Stichprobe festgestellt, dass Alter und Führungserfahrung die Ausprägung altersspezifischen Führungsverhaltens beeinflussen, während sich für das Geschlecht sowie eine vorurteilsfreie Wahrnehmung älterer Mitarbeiter kein Zusammenhang gezeigt hat. / One of the main challenges for the Public Sector Human Ressource Management is to meet the risen expectancies in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in spite of a significantly higher average age of its workforce. As a key factor to maintain or even enhance the employees working ability studies identified the quality of leadership. The following thesis brings the concept of age-related leadership into focus, which deals with the individual, age-related needs of the employees’. It examines the relationship between leaders age-related leadership behaviors and followers’ perception of quality of relationship with their leaders (LMX-quality) using the example of a public sector agency. Therefore the quality of the leaders’ age-related leadership behavior has to be analyzed and furthermore, which factors are having an influence. The results show a significant influence of age-related leadership behavior on followers perceived LMX-quality. Furthermore, the study found that the polled leaders show predominantly age-related leadership behaviors, which is also influenced by organizational guidelines. It also found that age and leadership experience influence age-related leadership behavior whereas no influence of gender and leaders perception of older employees were found.

Titel: Ligger ledarskapet i medarbetarens händer? - En studie om ledarskap ur ledarens perspektiv Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Josefin Aronsson och Anton Lindström Handledare: Monika Wallmon Datum: 2023 – januari Syfte: Studiens syfte är att ur ledarens perspektiv undersöka hur ledarskapet påverkas av relationen mellan en ledare och en medarbetare. Mer specifikt, vilka konsekvenser det får i form av eventuell diskriminering av medarbetare eller för vilken utsträckning som ledaren delegerar egenmakt till medarbetaren. Studiens grund utgörs av LMX-teorin (leader-member exchange), där relationerna mellan en ledare och de enskilda medarbetarna står i fokus. Ledarens perspektiv är inte studerat i en tillräcklig utsträckning, och flertalet forskare efterlyser en större förståelse för ledarens sida av relationen.  Metod: En kvalitativ metod har använts och det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom intervjuer med tio olika ledare från åtskilda organisationer. Respondenternas svar har behandlats mot sin unika kontext, men också jämförts mot varandra. Mönster och teman i materialet har lyfts fram i studiens resultat, och sedan granskats och analyserats med den teoretiska referensramen som bakgrund. Resultat och slutsats: Huvudsakliga slutsatser är att relationen till medarbetaren till en viss del påverkar hur kontrollerande ledaren är, vilka arbetsuppgifter som ledaren tilldelar medarbetaren och hur mycket frihet som delegeras gällande arbetsuppgiftens utförande. Medarbetaren påverkar starkt hur personlig relationen mellan parterna är. Starka relationer kan innebära en fördel genom att medarbetares prestation gynnas, men det kan också vara så att ledaren bygger starka relationer till medarbetare som är mer engagerade och högpresterande. Ledaren diskriminerar inte vissa medarbetare på grund av godtyckligt gillande från ledarens sida, men däremot är det samma faktorer som ligger bakom att en relation blir stark som också kan vara rättvisa skäl till att vissa medarbetare får vissa förmåner, som att de presterar bättre. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till en mer nyanserad bild av LMX-modellen genom att beskriva ledarens perspektiv och vad ledaren ser är viktigt för att relationen till en medarbetare ska kunna växa sig stark. Vidare medför studien en nyansering av modellen genom att det konstateras att medarbetare vilka ledaren har en lägre relation till inte behöver vara diskriminerade av ledaren. Det praktiska bidraget är en ökad kännedom om hur ledare påverkas av relationen till sina underordnade, vilket kan ge värdefulla insikter till chefer. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Undersöka om den erfarenhet som en ledare besitter i sin roll har en påverkan för hur ledaren ser på relationen till sina underordnade. Även studier kring hur relationer påverkar ledaren beroende på arten av organisationens uppdrag föreslås samt om det finns några nackdelar för en chef att ha en god och nära relation till sina medarbetare. Nyckelord: Ledarskap, relationen mellan ledare-medarbetare, LMX-teorin, attribution. / Title: Is leadership in the hands of the employee? - A study about leadership from the leader’s perspective Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Authors: Josefin Aronsson and Anton Lindström Supervisor: Monika Wallmon Date: 2023 - January                                                                           Aim: The aim of the study is to, from the leader’s perspective, examine how the relationships between the leader and his or her followers affects the leadership. More specifically, which consequences it brings on the matters of discrimination of some employers or to what extent the leader is willing to empower the employer. The foundation of the study consists of the LMX-theory (leader-member exchange), where the focus is on the relations between a leader and follower. The perspective of the leader has not been sufficiently studied before, and several authors enquire for a greater understanding of the leader's view of the relationship. Method: A qualitative method has been used, and the empirical material has been collected through interviews with 10 different leaders from diverse organizations. The result from each interview has been processed with the unique context in concern, but the different results has also been compared to each other. Identified patterns are presented in the result of the study, which then has been reviewed and analysed against the theoretical framework. Results and conclusions: The main conclusions from the study is that relationships with employees do have an impact on how much control the leader urges, which tasks the leader assigns to an employee, and how much freedom that the employer gets regarding the execution of a task. The followers affect largely how private the relationship between the parties are. Highly valued relations can benefit the performance of the employers, but it could also be that the leader chooses those employees who are dedicated and perform well when building strong relations. Leaders do not discriminate against some employers on the basis of arbitrary liking, but at the same time it is the same factors which can be seen lead up to that some relationships growing strong, as could be acceptable reasons why a certain employee gets some favours - such as that the employee is performing well. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to a more nuanced picture of the LMX-model, though it views the relations from the perspective of the leader and brings clarity of what the leader values in a relationship in order for it to mature and become strong. The model also becomes more nuanced through the highlights of the fact that the leader does not discriminate followers that he or she has a slightly less valued relationship to. The practical implications of the study is a greater knowledge about how leaders are affected by the relationships with the followers, which can give practicing managers some great insights. Suggestions for future research: Examine if the leader’s experience does have an effect on how the leader look upon the relationship with his or hers followers. Studies regarding if the organisations’ mission can matter for the leaders view on relationships are also suggested, and also if there are some disadvantages with strong relations between leader-member. Key words:  Leadership, relations between leader-employee, LMX-theory, attributions.

Förändringar sker ständigt i organisationer av olika anledningar och som konsekvens av covid19 har distansarbete under den senaste tiden haft en snabb ökning, då många arbetsplatser tvingades ställa om till detta för att begränsa smittspridningen. Nya direktiv kom snabbt och förutsättningarna kunde ändras från dag till dag. Arbetet på distans resulterade i en ökad digitalisering och ledarskapet på plats fick i många fall skötas på distans och från det egna hemmet via en mobiltelefon eller dator. Flera faktorer påverkar ledares kommunikation och relationer till sina medarbetare och i föreliggande studie kommer fokus ägnas åt hur distansarbete som en förändring påverkat medarbetare och arbetsgrupper ur ett ledarskapsperspektiv. Vi har utfört en kvalitativ studie som undersökt de nya förutsättningarna och hur de påverkat kommunikation och relationer. För studien har vi genomfört nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledare inom kultur och fritidsenheten på olika kommuner som innan covid-19 inte arbetat så mycket på distans. Vår studie handlar om hur ledare upplevt denna tid och om de sett någon påverkan på relationer och kommunikation med medarbetarna, de har fått anpassa sig till nya arbetssätt och funnit nya strukturer.  Syfte och metod: Studiens syfte har varit att öka förståelsen för den upplevda förändringen och de upplevda möjligheter och svårigheter som kommit med att hålla relationer och kommunikation digitalt. LMX är den teori som beskriver relationens betydelse mellan ledare och medarbetare. Teorin används för att ge en teoretisk grund för det material som studien presenterar. Då studiens ska ge en djupgående beskrivning av det valda problemområdet är studien baserad på en kvalitativ metod. Studien baseras på nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledare som arbetar i kommunal verksamhet som ger sina upplevda tankar kring ämnet. Intervjuerna genomfördes i form av videosamtal med samtliga respondenter med hänsyn till rekommendationerna om social distansering. Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat visar utifrån det empiriska materialet och teorin att relationer som tidigare fungerat bra i stor grad fortsätter att fungera bra även vid ett distansledarskap. Kommunikationen har kunnat utvecklas med digital hjälp och det har funnits substitut till fysiska möten via digitala plattformar. Studiens viktigaste slutsats är att mycket tid får läggas på de relationer med medarbetarna som inte fungerat fullt ut, de relationer som är krävande från start blir inte mindre krävande i en tvingande förändring. / Background and problems: Changes are constantly taking place in organizations for various reasons and as a consequence of covid-19, teleworking has recently increased rapidly, as many workplaces were forced to switch to this to limit the spread of infection. New directives came quickly and the conditions could change from day to day. The work at a distance resulted in increased digitization and the leadership on site had in many cases had to be managed remotely and from one's own home via a mobile phone or computer. Several factors affect leaders' communication and relationships with their employees, and in the present study, the focus will be on how teleworking as a change has affected employees and workgroups from a leadership perspective. We have conducted a qualitative study that examined the new conditions and how they affected communication and relationships. For the study, we conducted nine semi-structured interviews with leaders in the culture and leisure unit in different municipalities who before covid-19 did not work that much at a distance. Our study is about how leaders experienced this time and if they saw any impact on relationships and communication with employees, they have had to adapt to new ways of working and found new structures. Purpose and method:The purpose of the study has been to increase the understanding of the perceived change and the perceived opportunities and difficulties that have come with keeping relationships and communication digital. LMX is the theory that describes the importance of the relationship between leader and employee. The theory is used to provide a theoretical basis for the material that the study presents. As the purpose of the study is to provide an in-depth description of the selected problem area, the study is based on a qualitative method. The study is based on nine semi-structured interviews with leaders who work in municipal activities who give their perceived thoughts on the subject. The interviews were conducted in the form of video interviews with all respondents concerning the recommendations on social distancing. Results and conclusion: The results of the study show, based on the empirical material and theory, that relationships that previously worked well to a large extent continue to work well even at a distance leadership. Communication has been able to be developed with digital help and there have been substitutes for physical meetings via digital platforms. The most important conclusion of the study is that a lot of time may be spent on the relationships with employees that have not worked fully, the relationships that are demanding from the start will not be less demanding in a compelling change.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån Leader-Member exchange teorin (LMX) undersöka om relationen mellan ledare och följare påverkar hur följaren upplever ledarens ledarskapsstil. Metod: En kvalitativ intervjustudie med deduktiv forskningsansats har tillämpats i denna studie. Populationen består av tio stycken följare från ett säljande svenskt företag och datainsamlingen har skett genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats och tolkats genom kodning och tematisering för att sedan redovisas och analyseras i empirin utifrån de teoretiskt härledda kategorierna. Resultat och slutsats: Studien leder till en ökad förståelse för hur relationen mellan ledare och följare påverkar ledarens attributions -och ledarskapsstil. Slutsatsen säger därmed att beroende på om följaren hamnar i en in -eller ut-grupp kommer ledaren att anpassa både sin ledarskapsstil och attributionsstil vilket presenteras i en modell. Där följare som hamnar i en in-grupp upplever en transformativ ledare med en yttre attributionsstil och en följare som hamnar i ut-grupp en transaktionell ledare med en inre attributionsstil Examensarbetets bidrag: Studiens bidrag består av vår vidareutvecklade modell som utvecklats genom analysen av det teoretiska samt empiriska materialet. Modellen leder till en större förståelse för hur relationen mellan ledare och följare kan påverka följarens indelning i in -eller ut-grupp samt ledarens ledarskap -och attributionsstil. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: För en mer generaliserbar slutsats hade det varit intressant om liknande studier genomförs där även ledarens perspektiv undersöks. Utöver detta såg vi indikationer på ett samband mellan följarens år inom organisationen och tillhörighet i in- eller ut-grupp vilket skulle kunna undersökas vidare. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to, based on the Leader-Member exchange theory (LMX), investigate whether the relationship between leader and follower affects how the follower experiences the leader's leadership style. Method: A qualitative method with a deductive research approach has been applied in this study. collection took place through semi-structured interviews. The empirical material was analyzed and interpreted through coding and thematization and then reported and analyzed in the empirical data based on the theoretically derived categories. Result and Conclusions: The study leads to an increased understanding of how the relationship between leader and follower affects the followers experience of the leader’s attribution and leadership style. The conclusion tells us that depending on whether the follower ends up in an in-or-out group, the leader will adapt both his leadership style and attribution style, which is presented in a model. Followers who end up in an in-group experience a transformative leader with an external attribution style. However, a follower who ends up in an out-group experience a transactional leader with an internal attribution style Contribution of the thesis: The study's contribution consists of our further developed model that has been developed through the analysis of the theoretical and empirical material. The model leads to a greater understanding of how the relationship between a leader and follower can affect the follower's distribution into in-or-out groups as well as the leader's leadership and attribution style. Suggestions for future research: It would have been interesting if similar studies were carried out where the leader's perspective is also considered. In addition to this, we saw indications of a correlation between the followers' year within the organization and belonging to an in- or out-group, which could be investigated further.

Cette étude développe et teste empiriquement un modèle explicatif des comportements dysfonctionnels des auditeurs financiers. La revue de la littérature permet d'identifier les principaux facteurs ayant un impact significatif sur les dysfonctionnements (pression budgétaire et des délais...). Cette recherche propose d'étendre le périmètre des déterminants sous un angle relationnel et managérial. À cette fin, elle mobilise principalement l'approche de la relation supérieur - subordonné (LMX), mais aussi le role modeling et le style d'évaluation de la performance des auditeurs.Notre étude repose sur un questionnaire soumis aux auditeurs seniors opérant dans les grands réseaux de commissariat aux comptes constituant les principaux acteurs du marché de l'audit en France, plus précisément d'origines anglo-saxonne (Big 4) et française (Mazars).Pour tester nos hypothèses, la méthode d'estimation retenue est celle de type Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR).Les analyses soulignent que les trois dimensions du LMX, à savoir affection, loyauté et contribution ont un impact négatif et significatif sur les comportements adaptatifs (respectivement comportements non professionnels : CNP, mauvaise gestion de l’équipe d’audit : MGE et comportements réducteurs de qualité : QTB). En outre, les résultats mettent en lumière que, sous l’effet de mimétisme, les comportements managériaux adoptés par un supérieur réduisent le MGE, le QTB et le CNP. De plus, il a été observé qu’une perception favorable du soutien organisationnel et une évaluation axée sur des critères sociaux entraînent respectivement moins de QTB et de MGE. Enfin, certains résultats confirment ceux des recherches antérieures quant à l’impact du style d’évaluation basée sur des critères techniques, de l’engagement affectif, et de la pression liée au budget et aux délais sur les comportements dysfonctionnels. / This study develops and empirically tests an explanatory model in order to study the dysfunctional behaviors of financial auditors.The literature review allows to identify the main factors having a significant impact on malfunctions (budget pressure, time deadline pressure...). This research proposes extending the scope of the determinants in a relational and managerial perspective. To this end, it mobilizes mainly Leader-Member Exchange theory (LMX), but also the role modeling and the assessment style of auditors performance.Our study is based on a questionnaire which was sent to senior auditors who work in the large auditing networks which constitute the main actors of the audit market in France, specifically of Anglo-Saxon (Big 4) and French (Mazars) origins.To test our hypotheses, the estimation method of Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) was applied.The results show that the three dimensions of Leader Member-Exchange (LMX), namely affection, loyalty and contribution have a negative and significant impact on the adaptive behaviors (respectively unprofessional behaviors: CNP, mismanagement of the audit team: MGE and Quality-Threatening Behavior: QTB). Also, results highlight under the effect of mimetic, managerial behaviors adopted by a superior have been shown to reduce the MGE, but also QTB and CNP. In addition, it was revealed that a favorable perception of organizational support and an evaluation focused on social criteria result in less QTB and MGE respectively.Finally, the analyses confirm the results of previous research concerning the impact of the style assessment based on technical criteria, affective commitment, budget pressure and time deadline pressure on such types of behavior.