A question that is asked far to seldom is what it means to be a good leader. The answer is not all that simple. It is a comlex and multi-faceted question that varies between the values and what ethical perspective you choose to have. As the title indicates, this essay has one particular ethical-theoretical perspective in focus, virtue ethics. According to the virtue ethics perspective a good political leader is a virtuous leader.

Title:A study of ?Situational followership?.Level:Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor:Lykke SilfwerbrandSupervisor:Jonas KågströmDate:2011 ? JanuaryAim:This study looks at the new concept: ?situational followership?. It discusses howfollowership and leadership are connected and takes the approach of the follower. The studymainly looks into the following questions:·How can situational followership can be described?·What is the most important parameter for a follower?·Does the choice of leader differ according to the situation?·How is situational leadership and situational followership connected?Method:This is a qualitative study with ten respondents.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine similarities and differences in qualitative experiences between formal and informal reading groups from the participants? point of view. The empirical data was acquired from interviews with nine reading group participants, of whom four of them participated in formal reading groups and five in informal reading groups. To analyze the empirical data, Louise M. Rosenblatt?s theory concerning reading and a method concerning reading groups by Immi Lundin were used.

Previous research in the area of leadership and stress has shown that the leader plays an important role but in what way is still an issue to explore. A qualitative approach was used in this study to develop an increased understanding of the leader's experience of stress using four themes; leadership, stress, control and organizational factors. A total of 12 semi-structured and un-structured interviews were carried out with 6 leaders, three females and three males. The data was transcribed and thematic as well as narrative analysis was conducted.The results indicates that leadership stress is caused by a lack of control and that factors intrinsic to the role as a leader both facilitates and complicates the leaders situation when facing stress..

This thesis investigates the dynamics of the relationship between a leader and the followers within a chosen organization. The research on leadership has generally been focused on the leader, and consequently treating the followers like passive subordinates. We pursue a more multidimensional view of the subject, meaning that leadership descends from an interaction between leaders and followers, which makes it relevant to study the dynamics of the relationship from both perspectives. We chose to do a qualitative case study on a middle- and preschool which has won a price for being an ideal place to work at. This price peaked our interest to investigate why the relationships are highly functional in this particular organization.

AbstractThe aim of the present study was to investigate what kind of factors contributed to motivate a group of nurses at a nursing home in western Sweden to to perform their work. Furthermore, the authors wanted to investigate whether the staff nurses felt that the leader helped to increase or reduce the perceived motivation to perform such work, and the way in which staff nurses perceived their relationship to the leader. The study is based on Herzberg's (1959) two-factor theory, Hackman and Oldham's (1980) work designs theory and Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, and those theories are the basis of the study's structure. The study was of a qualitative property, interviews were conducted with seven nurses and was structured, the questions concerned their subjective experience of motivating factors in their everyday work. The results of this study demonstrated that respondents experienced confirmation, the meaningfulness of the work, work colleagues, beneficiaries of care and residents' families as contributing factors to motivate them in their daily work.

The purpose of this study was to look at the common opinion about children in Cambodia. By interviewing the professionals in different help organizations we studied the common opinion about children in general and the common opinion about children who are exposed to sexual trafficking. The ambition of the study was also to see if the common opinion about children in Cambodia affects the help that is available for the children who are exposed to sexual trafficking.This is a qualitative study including semi structured interviews with seven professionals who work with vulnerable children. The interview guide focused on the themes: children?s needs, sexual trafficking, children?s rights, childhood, children?s sexuality and gender.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe how an entrepreneur and leader, transmits a vision through communication. Furthermore what kind of feedback the leader finds that he/she acquire. We want to study how entrepreneurship and leadership appears at a private preschool and how the entrepreneur and leader use it to communicate his/her vision.This thesis is based on qualitative method using one in-depth interview with CEO at Helianthus AB, documents and one observation at a parental meeting. The theories of which this study is based on consist of entrepreneurship, transformational and transactional leadership, vision and communication. The theories used in this thesis regard entrepreneurship, transformational and transactional leadership, vision and communication.Our study strengthened the assumption that our respondent is an entrepreneur and leader according to chosen theories.

In today?s tough business environment the need for good and efficient leaders are becoming more and more important. The businesses are in constant change, the world is more unpredictable and the competences of the employees are much greater today, which also calls for a new type of leader, a leader who not only is authoritarian, but also possesses soft skills. In this environment where there is this greater focus on leaders, leadership developments have emerged and increased in number over the last ten to twenty years. They try to develop leaders in all domains of their life, both professional and personal and the model we work with in this paper is Total Leadership, this model implies that you try to accomplish being a better leader throughout your whole life as a leader, to be whole, genuine and innovative, no matter career or position in life.

Title: A study about conditions for leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Authors: Cecilia Ekström and Niklas SandbergKeywords: Leadership, knowledge-intensive firm, hierarchies, followers.Background: Leadership is becoming one of our greatest social myths and is considered a total solution for many problems that occur in an organization. The view of leadership is usually from a top-down perspective, which contributes to an often underestimated view of the follower. Just as it is important to understand the leader's view of leadership, it is important to understand how employees view the structure from which the leader derives its legitimacy. The existing conditions in knowledge-intensive firms, such as autonomy, place special demands on the formal leadership.Purpose: The purpose of this study takes an employee perspective, to understand what the conditions are for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Method: A qualitative research method was used and empirical material was collected through interviews with employees in knowledge-intensive firms. The empirical material was analyzed by the respondents? mental images which were set against the theoretical framework of the thesis.Conclusions: The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

The aim of the study was to a) examine what leader behaviors individual and team athletes prefer and b) examine what leader behaviors men and women prefer. A questionnaire (The Leadership Scale for Sports) was distributed to 168 individuals, from which 130 were included in the study. The data was analyzed in SPSS, in which a three-way and a two-way variance analysis were performed. The results showed that individual athletes preferred the behavior dimensions ?Training and instruction?, ?Positive feedback? and ?Democratic behavior? to a higher degree than did team athletes.

The purpose of this essay is to examine Swedish HR-managers who have either received, or been nominated for, the award ?HR-manager of the Year?. We investigate the managers? personalities, how they think about their own role and HR?s function in the organization, all in an environment that can be characterized by some skepticism towards HR. We find the HR-managers to be ?winners?; strong individuals that are confident, communicative, and driven.

Background: The Swedish Police authorities have accomplished several changes the last years. We have studied one of these changes, the co-ordination of two supporting functions, economy and staffadministration at the Police authorities in Östergötland, Jönköping, Södermanland and SKL (Swedish crime technical laboratory). The initiative to this change was taken in 2002 and in 2003 a decision was made to create a joint servicecenter.Purpose: The purpose of this rapport is, in a collaborator perspective, to study the employees´ experiences of the change process.Method: The empirical material was collected throw interviews with the employees who have taken part in the change process. Even the leader of the project has been interviewed.Results: We have distinguished five central aspects in the change process. These are information/communication and understanding, the project leader, teamwork, timeaspect/reflexion and the leadership.

The effects of social media usage in a professional context, specifically the effects on social media usage in relation to leadership have been studied in order to determine weather or not usage can be productive for leadership in general. The study concludes that there are several benefits as well as drawbacks to leadership in using social media, but has yet to conclude weather productive or not. This study gives an overview of a relatively unexplored subject.Leadership in terms of leader, communication and group dynamics have been defined and explained in accordance with existing literature. A  brief review of computer and Internet history attempts to explain the formation and evolution of social media. Risks in terms of risks related to leadership and risks related to IT-security are taken into consideration and have been briefly explained.

The effects of social media usage in a professional context, specifically the effects on social media usage in relation to leadership have been studied in order to determine weather or not usage can be productive for leadership in general. The study concludes that there are several benefits as well as drawbacks to leadership in using social media, but has yet to conclude weather productive or not. This study gives an overview of a relatively unexplored subject.Leadership in terms of leader, communication and group dynamics have been defined and explained in accordance with existing literature. A  brief review of computer and Internet history attempts to explain the formation and evolution of social media. Risks in terms of risks related to leadership and risks related to IT-security are taken into consideration and have been briefly explained.