LiPS - Leadership in the Public Sector
Digitalization, demographic change and increasing diversity change work environments in all sectors of society. The public sector with its many specificities, including bureaucratic structures, is facing particular challenges as a result of this structural change. Effective leadership behavior that meets the demands of this time as well as the training of these behaviors becomes more important than ever. Leadership can strongly influence employees’ motivation, behavior and performance and thus make a substantial contribution to the success of public organizations.
In public management research, there is a wide range of different leadership approaches. Especially the call for more dynamic leadership approaches, which focus on effective management of permanently changing requirements, complexity and ambiguity of public leadership, is becoming stronger. The research project therefore aims to systematize the multitude of established leadership approaches in the public sector on the one hand and to introduce new, dynamic approaches (such as paradoxical leadership) on the other hand. In addition, it examines how such leadership behavior can be developed in training programs.
The research project focuses on three main research questions:
1. Which leadership approaches have become particularly established in the public sector in recent years and how do they relate to outcomes that are desirable for public organizations?
2. To what extent can paradoxical leadership as a new leadership approach reduce perceived ambiguity in the public sector and positively influence employee-related success indicators?
3. How does the public sector organize its leadership development in order to teach and train both established and new approaches that are relevant in view of future challenges?
Methodologically, the research project combines different analytical procedures. It uses bibliometric and meta-analytical analyses, large-scale surveys of managers and employees as well as practical interventions.
- Duration: 01/2020-12/2022
- Project lead: Prof. Dr. Rick Vogel, Project member: Leonie Backhaus, M.Sc.
- Sponsor: University funds