Decision-making in shared leadership : overcoming the conflict between profit and ethical value goals

Sammanfattning: Companies’ entrepreneurial actions entail all sorts of conquences among these ethical consequences. While the media reports on unethical activities and blames companies for those actions, the global market economy, with few exceptions, does not value ethical behavior. Consequently, businesses continue to prioritize the pursuit of profits over the consideration of ethical issues. Research suggests that this situation together with traditionally vertical leadership structures produces conflicts in decision-making processes between profit and ethical value goals. New styles of leadership and decision-making are needed to overcome this conflict. Thus, the aim of this project is to identify the characteristics of shared leadership that are perceived as positively influencing corporate decision-making processes with regards to the integration of ethical considerations. A case study approach is chosen to study the phenomenon in a real-life context. A German small-size company practicing shared leadership funcions as the case study. The report presents a framework to analyze various factors regarding. Empirical data from interviews and on-site observations are analyzed using a framework created based on previous research, highlighting inputs, processes and outputs of the decision-making processes in shared leadership. The findings show that individuals’ personalities, intra-team relations, organizational culture, rules and the use of a decision-making tool aiming at consent are important influencing factors of decision-making in shared leadership.