Motivation, leadership, and entrepreneurial success

Head of the project:

Prof. Dr. Hugo M. Kehr, Dr. phil. Maika Rawolle

Description of the project:

The research project focuses upon the relationship between personality variables (e.g., implicit motive disposition and leadership style) and entrepreneurial success.

First, we intend to replicate the leadership motive pattern (McClelland & Boyatzis, 1982; Spangler & House, 1991; Winter, 1987), describing a certain pattern of implicit motives that is associated with managerial success.

We assess implicit motive dispositions (achievement, affiliation, and power) in sales representatives of various hierarchical levels of a sales organization and match these with objective indicators of success (e.g., hierarchical promotion, sales volume, fluctuation within the team).

Furthermore, we intend to replicate previous studies showing that transformational leadership is associated with leadership effectiveness and organizational performance (e.g., Lowe , Kroeck & Sivasubramaniam, 1991; García-Morales, Matías-Reche, & Hurtado-Torres, 2008). We examine the predictive qualities of the sales representatives' leadership styles, assessed with a research version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ , Bass & Avolio, 2000), for entrepreneurial success.