ARE YOU THE LEADER YOU THINK YOU ARE? : Perception of leadership in three Team Sportia stores: a case study

Sammanfattning: Purpose This thesis investigates if leaders’ self-perception and the employees’ perceptions of their leadership are aligned. Background To know whether leaders use a preferred leadership style one could ask their employees. The followers are considered a suitable benchmark for a leader to gain insight into his or her style of leadership. It is therefore of interest to research if the leaders’ self-perception of their leadership is aligned with the perception of their employees. This study will investigate three different managers and their employees in three Team Sportia stores on their view of leadership and leadership perception. Method In order to answer the purpose, the authors conducted an embedded case study including three different Team Sportia Stores. The investigation emphasized the holistic view of the researched environment and both managers and employees were included. Qualitative data was gathered from managers through in depth semi-constructed interviews while quantitative data was gathered through surveying of employees. The briefly described method of measuring exercised and perceived leadership is referred to as conducting 360-degree feedback. The information collected enabled the authors to create a meta-inference of the leadership at each Team Sportia Store researched. Conclusion The three investigated managers differ in their view of leadership, however they all emphases result-orientation. The alignment in perception between the leaders and their employees differ across the three research units. The manager in Stockholm has a more accurate self-perception, than his colleagues in Mariestad and Jönköping.