PHD Proposal

Title: The Impact of Strategic Leadership on Business in Global

Recession (A Case study of Business Leadership in Germany in the
2007 – 2011 recession)

By: Joshua Adedamola

Areas of research – Strategic Leadership

Introduction
The report will give an outline of the research to be conducted into the impact of strategic
leadership on businesses in global recession between December, 2007 and 2013, critically
exploring theories, themes and arguments in strategic leadership and how these evolved in
helping a country like Germany experience growth even in those times of economic falls.
While the research will serve as a basis to further discourse into organisational strategy and
leadership even in modern capitalism, it will also serve as a basis to critic assumptions on
organisational strategic leadership and how it cumulates to the strategic options available to
an organisation.

Research Aims and Objectives

The aim of the study is to answer to the call from Olie et al., 2013 for further research into
the effectiveness of strategic leadership (SL) configuration, while exploring arguments that
agrees with the notion that microeconomic idiosyncrasies can impact on national economic
success (Gabaix, 2011), to further explore core issues in SL and how corporate leadership
can impact on general economic success in postmodern capitalism. Objectives that will be
pursued includes:
To explore arguments and debates on strategic leadership and its implication on business;
To explore the current issues, theories and arguments on the impact of microeconomic
idiosyncrasies on national economic success;
To conduct and in-depth qualitative study into strategic leadership and its impact on
businesses in Germany;
To reflect on the findings with the aim of developing a workable model for leveraging on the
opportunities provided by strategic leadership for business success.
Context
Germany the once globally acclaimed ‘sick man of Europe’ has become the European
Economic Superstar (Economist 2004). From the late 1900 to the early 2000s, the German
economy recorded only about 1.2 percent from 1998 to 2005, including the recession it
suffered in 2003 and unemployment rose from 9.2 percent in 1998 to 11.1 percent in 2005
(according to the World Bank data). In contrast during the great recession in 2010,
Germany’s number of total unemployment declined to 7.7 percent (Moller, 2010; Burda and
Hunt, 2011). Also Germany’s export reached an all-time high of over $1.7 trillion in 2011,
which was equal to 7.7 percent of the total world export (OECD, 2012).
Standard macroeconomic reasoning most times discard the possibility that idiosyncratic
microeconomic variables in firms may lead to large aggregate implications by offering a
diversification argument that discounts microeconomic variables (a case in point: Lucas,
1977), but in contrast Gabaix (2011) argued that contrary to the tradition assumption by
early researchers into the field of economics, idiosyncratic firm-level variables can indeed
shed more light into important parts of the economy, while providing a micro foundation for
aggregate impact on the economy, as this does not negate the contribution of macro
variables including: monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies as they are important drives
of macroeconomic activities. While ​the research acknowledge the researches done into
macroeconomic activities including: issues relating to wage and the labour market (Card et
al., 2013; Burda and Hunt, 2011; and Antonizyk et al., 2010); export and tradable
manufacturing (OECD, 2007; 2012); and government policies (Rinne and Zimmermann,
2012, 2013; Fitzenberger, 2009), no author or research has looked into microeconomic
factors as in this case: strategic leadership and its wider implication on national fortunes and
economy.

Strategic Leadership
Strategy was defined as ‘The direction and scope of an organization over the long term,
which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources
and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations’ (Johnson et al.,
2005:9), while strategic leadership (SL) focuses on top executives and their impact on the
organization which is based on the assumption that strategies are developed by humans
governed by their idiosyncratic notions, experience, motives and disposition (Olie et al.,
2013). Olie et al., (2013) went further to explore one of the fundamental questions of SL
research: who’s experience, traits, values and cognition matters most in strategic decision
making? This is developed on the premise that CEOs are the most powerful individuals in
the organization, therefore the plethora of research on the role of the CEO in influencing
strategic decisions (Finkelstein et al., 2009)
There is a growing body of knowledge that organizational leadership is complex and a
shared activity involving executives rather than the leader himself, which have led to further
research into top management teams and how they influence the strategic decision making
process (Olie et al., 2013; Crossland and Hambrick, 2011; Capenter et al., 2004). Germany
corporate governance system offers a peculiar dynamics as it employs a two-tier system
comprising of an executive, responsible for the day to day running of the organization and
non-executives in a supervisory board who appoints and remove executive board, control
and offer guidance regarding the long term policy of the company (Olie et al., 2013), which
is different from the Anglo-American setting with one-tier board consisting of both
executive and non-executive directors, where the CEO takes individual responsibility to
maintain and control performance and mutual accountability deemphasized (Lubatkin et al.,
2005).
Corporate regulation in German stipulates that the BOD share a collective authority and
responsibility for the company (Crossland and Hambrick, 2007), as the position of the CEO is
much weaker because he shares his function and tasks formerly with other team members,
acting as a first among equals, neither does he have power to select, nominate and reward
fellow managers, therefore limiting discretion (Olie et al., 2013; Crossland and Hambrick,
2007). This has led to the call by Olie et al (2013) for further research into the effectiveness
of SL configuration, and in this case the present research is considering the impact of SL
configuration on national economic success, while conducting a further in-depth study into
the German SL configuration.

Methodology
An epistemological study will be carried out, which will include the use of a critical literature
review so as to create parameters for the defining and explanation of trends and changes in
views relating to strategic leadership (Saunder et al., 2009), as well as the creating a
framework for the understanding of ‘complexity of context’ that influences and is influenced
by social and economic exchange (Chandler and Vargo, 2011). The study will conduct an
inductive research with a view to finding out the phenomena that has led to the evolution of
strategic management (Bryman and Bell, 2011) using a constructive approach that will
further seek to understand the underlying factors that necessitated the predominant
adoption in Germany.
A qualitative method will be used to conduct the findings as it has been argued to offer a
more in-depth analysis into variables that may not be possible by mere quantification
(Easterby-Smith et al., 2014). This will involve the use of content analysis and interviews in
exploring deep social construct among fair trade operators and their customers, alongside
institutional framework like the main business operators and their leadership framework.
The method will give a wealth of views and in-depth data that can then be used to make
extrapolations that will form the bases of the findings at the end of the research (Saunders
et al., 2011; Easterby-smith et al, 2013). Though qualitative studies helps researchers’ gain
in-depth understanding into phenomenon, as it is descriptive rather than explanatory,
explorative rather than testing (Cronin, 2014; Easterby-smith et al, 2013), it has also been
criticized for sometimes relying on the subjective interpretation of the researcher (Tuckett,
2005). Therefore the study will take a more balanced and critical views in developing the
framework; analyzing the data collected from the field and critical review of literature
contents, debates, arguments and notion on strategic leadership and its impact on
businesses form the eyes of different players in the socio-economic and political
environments.

Relevance of Study
The findings will contribute immensely to the development of knowledge, critical discourse
and understanding of the framework in strategic leadership, its configuration and the
implication on national economies.

Dissemination
Journal, Reports, White paper, Presentations and Text book; among others

Suitability of Academic and Background Skills

I am Joshua Adedamola. My MBA research at York St John University explored how
followers in a project management team (A good reflection of the German governance
framework) impacted on the leadership of the team, this spurred my interest into assessing
key issues in organisational decision making process and how TMT impacted on the bottom
line and sustainable strategy of the company.
Secondly, business mortality rate in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world as a result of
the adoption of the Anglo-American strategy of SL and corporate governance. This has led to
a major weakness that the country has faced when compared to others operating in Europe.
My experience working as part of the regulatory (NSE, SEC) framework for listed companies
gave me a hint into the impact the Anglo-American option on the businesses here and the
need for research into the German SL process and how it has helped it excel even in the
great recession.
I am a hardworking individual with passion for research into unconventional areas of study,
hoping that it will serve as a basis for the creation of a more sustainable dynamic systems
for us and the future generation.

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