Abstract

Title: Charismatic leadership and motivation - A qualitative study in the property industry.

Course: Bachelor dissertation – Leadership

Authors: Julia Westberg och Victor Malmström

Advisor: Ingemar Wictor

Examinator: Jonas Gabrielsson

Research question: How does the charismatic leadership affect the motivation of the employees in the property industry?

Purpose: The essay's purpose is to describe and explain wether charismatic leadership is applied in the property business and how this affects the motivation of the employees.

Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework is built around two main concepts that are connected to the research question. The main concepts are charismatic leadership and motivation. In the section about charismatic leadership we presented what prior research argues creates or identifies charismatic leadership. In the section about motivation, it is presented how motivation through charismatic leadership shows itself.

Method: The study is of a qualitative nature and with an abductive approach. The empirical data was collected through eight interviews. The respondents were three bosses and five property managers from different companies in the southwestern part of Sweden.

Results: The study found that the charismatic leadership as a whole did not exist in the property industry, parts that included vision and goals were hard for the bosses to influence but independent work and empowerment were used frequently. We found that there were strong connections between motivation and empowerment, empathy and envisioning.

Implications: The practical implications that emerges from this study imply that company management can use the information presented and learn from it. Theoretical implications from this study imply that the company management prevents charismatic leadership to exist due to the fact that it is difficult to create goals and visions for managers further down in the organisation.

Keywords: Charismatic leadership, motivation, property Manager