Impact of Female Leadership on Employee engagement in German small and medium-sized Family Companies
Rittinger, Katharina (2014)
Saimaan ammattikorkeakoulu
2014
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2014112817454
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2014112817454
Tiivistelmä
Due to the demographic change, German small and medium-sized family companies lack skilled employees. As a high level of employee engagement (EE) can help retaining skilled employees, engaging leaders are needed. The aim of this thesis was to analyse, if women are able to have a positive impact on employee engagement due to their leadership style.
Qualitative theoretic information was gathered from academic literature. Latest professional journals and studies were used to give an insight in the current situation of employee engagement and leadership in small and medium-sized family companies. For the empirical part, a mixed approach, which is both qualitative and quantitative, was chosen and semi-structured interviews were conducted with female leaders in small and medium-sized family enterprises.
The result of this thesis was that female leaders can have a positive impact on EE as they tend to apply the transformational leadership style, which is similar to the leadership style that is needed to increase employee engagement. However, the author discovered that there are various important driving factors for employee engagement. As a result women that are just transformational leaders cannot keep up a high level of employee engagement.
Qualitative theoretic information was gathered from academic literature. Latest professional journals and studies were used to give an insight in the current situation of employee engagement and leadership in small and medium-sized family companies. For the empirical part, a mixed approach, which is both qualitative and quantitative, was chosen and semi-structured interviews were conducted with female leaders in small and medium-sized family enterprises.
The result of this thesis was that female leaders can have a positive impact on EE as they tend to apply the transformational leadership style, which is similar to the leadership style that is needed to increase employee engagement. However, the author discovered that there are various important driving factors for employee engagement. As a result women that are just transformational leaders cannot keep up a high level of employee engagement.