The Modern Leadership Ideal

Abstract

The aim of our thesis is to investigate the development of the leadership discipline following the selection of Danish national football coach, Kasper Hjulmand, as leader of the year by Denmark’s largest leadership association. Thus, our area of interest is how perspectives on leadership are influenced by values usually associated with the world of sports, and whether the business community can benefit from the development. The empirical foundation for our thesis is a series of interviews with business executives from some of Denmark’s largest organizations as well as Kasper Hjulmand. Based on our interviews with the executives, we conceptualize three theoretical themes describing the current approach to leadership in the business community. These are: Followship, internal support, and institutional environment. However, analyzing the interview with Kasper Hjulmand, we further develop our conceptualization of the modern leadership ideal with the theme servanthood. Taken from leadership in the world of sports, servanthood is a way of combining the motivation to lead with the willingness to serve. In this regard, our research indicates that the modern leadership ideal is grounded in the ability to develop followship through internal support and the willingness to serve the organization’s members – based on the institutional context. As servanthood contains an internal motivation to develop followers, our proposed ideal further entails a dimension of transformational leadership. Moreover, the modern leadership ideal illustrates a more dynamic view on organizational systems than argued by William R. Scott. Hence, we propose the addition of an open, holistic perspective where the focus is on understanding and developing the individual in relation to the organization and the society which it is a part of. Following the above, we suggest that the application of the modern leadership ideal will lead to several benefits for leaders in the business community. By implementing a leadership approach based on individual support and development, an organizational culture for everyone is created where people can be themselves. In this sense, organizations can utilize employee resources otherwise used for physically and mentally fitting in. Besides, a more attractive workplace is created, hence combatting the predominant challenge of attracting as well as retaining employees in society today