Responsible Leadership

Change, especially relentless change, can make people feel uncertain about themselves, their identity, and the world they live in. Michael Hogg illuminated the appeal of extremist groups in times of uncertainty and illustrated under which conditions extremist groups become tremendously attractive.

In his lecture Aryeh Neier will give an overview of the history of surveillance in the United States and discuss challenges posed to the right to privacy by a state claiming to need vast quantities of data to protect public safety. In light of recent NSA revelations, Neier asks if the surveillance programs disclosed by Edward Snowden have been successful in mitigating the threat of terrorism and examines whether or not those programs intrude excessively on individual privacy. How was the programs’ effectiveness compromised by public revelations? Could they have been disclosed in another way? Was Edward Snowden justified in unveiling them unilaterally? Neier considers these questions and describes the credibility issue the US now faces when promoting rights elsewhere. Moderator: Dr. Sylke Tempel, editor-in-chief, IP – Die Zeitschrift; German Council on Foreign Relations

MBA students: • Chona Mangalindan, Philippines • Angel Modutwane, South Africa • Monica Huang, Taiwan • Sebastian Centmayer, Germany

Positivity in the workplace has been heralded to produce individual, social and organizational benefits. Although we know more about how positivity “broadens” and “builds” within individuals, little research has explicitly studied how positivity naturally occurs and dynamically unfolds in the flow of team interactions. This study aims to address this research gap by integrating existing knowledge on team processes with the notions of emotional cycles and “energy-in-conversation.” We observed meeting interactions of 43 frontline problem solving teams and analyzed a sample of 43,139 coded individual utterances from these teams. Using statistical discourse analysis (SDA) to model multi-level dynamics over time, we found that early positive and solution-focused interactions could send teams down a path of eliciting more “upward spirals”, thus more positivity. We also found that speaker switches added more positivity to team interactions both directly and by strengthening the positive effects of early positive and solution-focused interactions on subsequent positivity occurring in team interactions. Additionally and importantly, we found that overall positivity has positive implications for team performance. We discuss both theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.

The first ESMT HR Conference linked HR executives and academics on a market place for ideas. Academic sessions presented research findings on questions such as: • What is the optimal kind of social network? • When does psychological safety become a potential danger? • When are men discriminated in their careers? • How to find answers where intellect is not enough? The call for papers resulted in five selected cases that HR executives presented, e.g. on the return on education, harnessing collective knowledge through social media or innovative executive education formats.

Individuals in a social dilemma may experience a self-control conflict between urges to act selfishly and their better judgment to cooperate. Pairing a public goods game with a subtle framing technique, we test whether perception of self-control conflict strengthens the association between self-control and cooperation. Consistent with our hypothesis, cooperative behavior is positively associated with self-control for individuals in the treatment that raised the relative likelihood of perceiving conflict, but not associated with self-control in the treatment that lowered the likelihood. These results help advance our understanding of the role of self-control in social interaction.

Jan U. Hagen is a member of ESMT's faculty as well as Head of Practice Group Financial Services, ESMT Customized Solutions. Prior to ESMT, he was an assistant to a member of the board of Deutsche Bank, senior manager at A.T. Kearney, Principal with Booz Allen & Hamilton, and a Partner at Consileon Business Consultancy. Jan has solid experience in management consulting and coaching in the European financial service industry. He is teaching in executive education programs. His current research focus is on error management, crisis management and team leadership.

“Brands and companies can be seen as people” – Francine Espinoza Petersen, ESMT Associate Professor, introduces her latest research on consumers’ emotions and how emotions shape consumers’ judgments and decisions. Her research has been published in leading journals, such as the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making and the Journal of Business Research. “Brands have to be authentic and true to their personality, but they also have to know how to connect emotionally to their customers to generate this loyalty.”

Konstantin Korotov joined ESMT European School of Management and Technology in August 2005 as an assistant professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in August 2008. Since 2011 he is the director of the ESMT Center for Leadership Development Research (CLDR). Konstantin actively collaborates with the INSEAD Global Leadership Center in Fontainebleau, France, where he also received his PhD in Management (Organizational Behavior). In addition to his academic work, he has over 15 years of practical Leadership Development experience in the US, Russia, UK, France, Portugal, Spain, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Qatar, and Argentina. Konstantin's dissertation was about the dynamics of executives’ identity change and conditions supporting personal transformation. He currently conducts research on leadership development, leadership coaching, and executive education. His recent work is reflected in The Coaching Kaleidoscope: Insights from the Inside, a new book co-edited with Manfred Kets de Vries, Laura Guillen, and Elizabeth Florent-Treacy (Palgrave, 2010) that is a sequel to Coach and Couch: The Psychology of Making Better Leaders (with Kets de Vries and Florent-Treacy, Palgrave, 2007), as well as in book chapters and academic and practitioner articles on leadership development, and teaching materials for participants in executive educationprograms. Konstantin is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies.

Matthew Bothner, ESMT Professor and Deutsche Telekom Chair in Leadership and HR Development, introduces his latest research on status using vivid examples from chicken farms to business school rankings. The video gives insight into how high status can become detrimental to performance and thereby explores the dark side of status

"If we talk about leadership we have to distinguish two methods. The first method is leading by mission, and the second method is leading by order." ESMT talked to Colonel Olaf Lindner, Commander of GSG 9, the premier counter-terrorism special forces unit of Germany's Federal Police. He explained aspects of leadership that can be applied to business. Colonel Lindner took over the command of GSG 9 in 2005 after having served in several leadership and combat positions within the organization since 1990. He headed the German Police Project Office for the Rebuilding of the Police in Afghanistan and was subproject leader of the project group to reorganize federal police in the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Leading Across Generations took place June 13-15, 2012, at ESMT's campus in the center of Berlin and brought together a unique mix of corporate, academic, and public policy leaders. Coming from three continents, the cutting-edge presentations in this truly international program were on inter-generational communication, skills transfer, organizational change, commitment and motivation, learning and changing workplace structures. Presenting institutions included Accenture, Axel Springer, Harvard University, Stanford University, McKinsey & Company, Moscow State University, PepsiCo Russia, and more.

Laura Guillén joined ESMT European School of Management and Technology as an assistant professor in September 2010. She received her PhD in Organizational Studies with a specialization in organizational behavior from ESADE in 2007. Laura also holds a MSc in Management Research from ESADE, since 2004, and a combined undergraduate and MA in Business Administration from ESADE, 1998. From 2008 to 2010 she worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at INSEAD. Laura's research interests are on leadership development and career dynamics, especially issues related to emotional intelligence, competencies at work, motivation to lead, identity change processes, gender diversity, and executive coaching. Her research was funded by the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for post-doctoral studies within the 7th European Community Framework Programme, from the European Commission (2008-2010). Laura has studied Psychology (UNED, Madrid, Spain) and is member of the Research Center for Leadership at ESADE and the Research Group on Survey Research and Applied Statistic of the European Social Survey. She is a research fellow with the INSEAD Global Leadership Center. Prior to her academic career, Laura worked for Unilever (Spain). She is a senior consultant with Endalia (Spain.

In this special ESMTcast episode of "90 seconds with...", Güler Sabanci, Chairman and Managing Director of Sabanci Holding, attends the 4rd ESMT Annual Forum in Berlin, and is the 2011 Honeree of the ESMT Responsible Leadership Award.

In this episode of ESMTcast "90 seconds with...", Kai Diekmann, Chief Editor, BILD Zeitung, visits the ESMT MBA Masterclass. He shares his experience in the media and press industry - and also gives us insight into the most difficult interview in his career. His rise to Chief Editor shows that persistence pays off, and that as a leader being a role model for the team is important. He also discusses the importance for today's top business leaders to take the media into consideration, and to develop strong relations with journalists.

On the 13th and 14th December, 2010, ESMT welcomed international participants to the Third International Coaching Research Forum. The forum looks at the future of coaching in 3D - providing perspectives from the coach, from the academic, and the consumer corporation.

In this ESMTcast "Learning for Leading...GE Live, talking to the CEO", David Sperl, HR Manager, GE International Europe describes the "GE Live" format as a platform for both MBA students and GE's CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt to learn from each other; MBA students gain insights form one of the Worlds's top business leaders, and Mr Immelt gets first hand understanding of education and training requirements and developments. David Sperl outlines the main challenges in management education from GE's perspective; with the current shift towards a maturing emplyee dempographic, he sheds light on GE's recruitment and employee programs - aimed at making GE an attractive employer of choice.

In this episode of ESMTcast "90 seconds with...", Dr Marijn Dekkers, Chairman of the Board of Management, Bayer AG, visits the ESMT MBA Masterclass. He compares the German model of allowing business leaders to invest in long-term business planning to that of America whereby it is hard to marry long-term views with the short-term interests of investors. He highlights the importance of career development at Bayer AG, nurturing upcoming talents that show a passion to win and be a team player.

A special ESMT Annual Forum 2010 episode of Learning for Leading with Catherine Tinsley, Executive Director Women's Leadership Initiative Professor, McDonough School of Business.

A special ESMT Annual Forum 2010 episode of Learning for Leading with Catherine Tinsley, Executive Director Women's Leadership Initiative Professor, McDonough School of Business.

Zhike Lei joined ESMT as an assistant professor in January 2009 and was promoted to an associate professor in 2012. Previously she was a professor at George Mason University's School of Management. She received her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Zhike also holds a MBA degree in Marketing and Management from Illinois State University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Advertising from Beijing Institute of Business, China. Zhike’s research focuses on understanding how individuals, teams and organizations achieve reliability and effectiveness in complex, time-pressured situations. Her recent research also explores how emotion spirals occur and spread in teams. Her research has been supported by the Juran Center for Leadership in Quality at University of Minnesota, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Peter Curtius Foundation. Her work has appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology, Nursing & Health Sciences, and Harvard Business Manager. Prior to her academic career, Zhike worked as a communication and marketing specialist for leading advertising and marketing firms including Dentsu Inc. and ACNielsen in Beijing, China, as well as with startup companies in Chicago, USA.xecutive development, coaching and leadership.

In this ESMTcast "Learning for Leading with Jan Hagen," the ESMT faculty member and head of practice group Financial Services delves into the topic of leadership. Jan Hagen applies techniques successfully used in aviation to management. He also explores a possible connection between the financial crisis and leadership asking whether the financial crisis is perhaps even an expression of something which is missing in our leadership cultures.

In this episode of ESMTcast "Learning for Leading", ESMT professor Kostantin Korotov and Manfred Kets de Vries, ESMT distinguished professor, break down the romantic view of leadership. They insist that great leadership requires possessing more than just experience in the workplace, but also that great leadership does not come from a lecture either. Together they explore the need for business schools to adjust teaching methods and concentrate on instilling the right values in upcoming leaders.

In a Special Annual Forum episode of "90 Seconds with...", Michael Diekmann, Chairman of the Board of Allianz Deutschland SE, and Chairman of the ESMT Board of Trustees, highlights that today's responsible leaders need global perspectives, integrity, and should always endeavor to improve the strategic positioning of their company. He gives insights to the qualities he searches for when recruiting young and upcoming managers and praises the talent graduating from the ESMT MBA classes.

Luis Cantarell, the Executive Vice President of Nestle SA, zone Americas, offers his definition of responsible leadership to tomorrows business leaders by underlining the importance in taking care of the needs of employees, being clear, honest, and transparent with them.

Jan U. Hagen introduces the benefits of the case method and ESMT's Faculty Professionals in this video.

In this video Peter Löscher, CEO of Siemens AG, expounds upon the importance of diversity in todays business world. He underlines the central role diversity plays at Siemens and explains how ESMT supports the company in this endeavor.

Konstantin Korotov explains what leadership is about and how he tries to teach this to his students.