Background: German employers face the multidimensional problem of leadership shortage. Masses of former leaders retiring coupled with the marginalization of women and unwillingness of the younger generations Y/Z (both wo/men) to progress into leadership make it increasingly difficult to safeguard the future of leadership within organizations. It is evident that current leadership conditions do not seem to speak to the future leaders anymore. Heightened focus on work-life balance but simultaneously on career progression and economic benefit does not appear to align with the working ethic that employers are used to. Yet nowadays employees may not need to be ideal to employers but vice versa. To survive, talents need to be attracted, retained and lured into leadership positions. For this, leadership conditions need to be reevaluated.  Purpose: As wo/men of Gen Y/Z are the bearer of hope to tackle the (upcoming) leadership shortage in Germany, we shed light on their preferences for leadership conditions. This is achieved by investigating selected attributes of Joint Leadership which is a particular type of leadership sharing. The attributes under investigation are closely related to level of compensation, contracted working hours, speed of career progression, and leadership responsibilities. Theoretically, this study is at the forefront of investigating Joint Leadership empirically and quantitatively while also studying gender and generation in combination. Practically, this study aims to aid practitioners to protrude during the “war for talent” (Burola, 2023) by becoming more attractive by reevaluating their leadership conditions. RQ: How do demographics influence the preferences for leadership conditions? Method/ology: This study is of positivistic and deductive nature and presents a quantitative explanatory approach to preference research in the form of a laboratory choice-based conjoint experiment. Primary data of 177 participants is collected and analyzed based on gender and generation (in interaction) for Joint Leadership attributes.  Conclusion: We evidence how gender and generation (in interaction) influence preferred leadership conditions. This provides a basis for explanation and discussion on e.g., reversed gender effects, potential trade-offs, and impacts of life-stages as opposed to generation.

Syfte: Syftet med studien var att skapa förståelse för hur konsultchefers ledarskap blir präglat a trepartsrelationen som uppstår när det är två parter som är ansvariga för en konsult. Vi ville skapa oss en inblick i hur konsultcheferna leder sina konsulter och hur de arbetar för att motivera dem. Vidare ville vi skaffa oss en uppfattning över hur konsulterna upplever situationen. Metodik: Studien har genomförts i form av en fallstudie på två bemanningsföretag med utgångspunkt i en induktiv forskningsansats. Data har samlats in genom en kvalitativ metod där sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer på fallföretagen har genomförts. Slutsats och slutdiskussion: Genom studien har det framkommit att trepartsrelationen är ett komplext fenomen där chefen inte ses som den traditionella ledaren utan snarare som en administratör. Genom trepartsrelationen har det framkommit att problem kan uppstå då konsultchefernas roll blir likt medlare istället för chef. Konsulterna reflekterar inte över trepartsrelationen utan anser att gränserna är tydliga, däremot kan de inte alltid urskilja vilket företag de tillhör. Genom studien har det även kommit fram att konsultchefer och konsulter har olika bild över vad motivation är, vilket vi menar tyder på att de har olika förhållningsätt till fenomenet. Studien har även visat att motivation till arbetet inte är något som konsultcheferna lägger någon större vikt vid. Konsulterna beskriver att de strävar efter en heltidsanställning och menar på att de inte nödvändigtvis vill vara anställda som konsulter. Konsultcheferna menar på att en konsult som slutar är något positivt för företaget eftersom det resulterar i gott rykte för verksamheten. / Purpose: The purpose of this study was to create an understanding of how the temporary employee manager is characterized by the triangular relationship that occurs when there are two parties responsible for an employee. We also wanted to create a picture of how temporary employee manager manage to lead their temporary employees and how they work to motivate them. Further, we wanted to get an idea of how the temporary employees experience the situation. Methodology: The study was conducted in the form of a case study on two staffing companies on the basis of an inductive research approach. Data were collected through a qualitative method where seven semi-structured interviews with individuals on the companies that we studied. Conclusion and final discussion: The study has revealed that triangular relationship is a complex phenomenon in where the leader is seen more as an administrator more than a traditional manager. Through the study we have concluded that the triangular relationship have made that managers are seen as a mediator, this is something that temporary employees did not reflect over. But in other hand they have problem to know which company they belong to. The study has proved that the managers and employees have different ways to look at motivation. We can see that they have different approaches to the phenomenon. The study has also shown that motivation to work is not something that a temporary employee manager put any greater emphasis on. The temporary employees describe that they are looking for a full time job, and that they don’t necessary want to be a consultant. The managers see that an employee that quit is something good for the company, because it leads to a good reputation.