Published at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management in 2016, the Leipzig Leadership Model (LLM) postulates a framework of good leadership. Building on a basic-need centric persperctive, the LLM takes a novel approach in response to the continuously intensifying call for integrative theories across leadership research. Consequently, leadership is no longer conceptualized along often reductionistic dichotomies of, e.g., task vs. people, or leadership vs. management. Instead, the LLM defines leadership through its contribution. As such contributions are subjectively percieved along basic need-dimensions, the LLM is able to theoretically derive holicity for its conceptualisation of leadership’s role. This dissertation encompasses two empirical papers as well as one teaching case study aimed to foster the LLM’s applicability in research, practice, and teaching. To that end, my co-authors and I not only developed and validated a LLM-based scale in both a German and an English version, but further tested the real-world micro-level impact of subjective employees’ perceptions of their own organization’s contribution to society with regards to its capacity of fostering flow experience in a longitudinal design. Finally, a teaching case study was designed in order to illustrate and showcase real-world implications of applying a LLM-perspective to leadership utilizing the 2015 scandal surrounding the Volkswagen AG and international emission controls specifically in diesel motors.

The Leipzig Leadership Model (LLM) connects theory and practice. Building on actor-world relations and insights from motivational psychology (actor-action relations), the LLM proposes a holistic framework able to integrate the existing plethora of leadership theories and styles. This opens up a new perspective on a comprehensive understanding of leadership roles. With its four leadership orientation dimensions of purpose, entrepreneurial spirit, responsibility, and effectiveness, the LLM enables leaders to identify and reflect on relevant leadership competencies. In order to facilitate future research on the LLM and its dimensions, we report on two studies that are developing and validating a 32-item LLM-based scale. We applied oblique bifactor target rotation in a bifactor Exploratory Structural Equation Model within CFA approach in a German sample (N = 309) with robust WLSMV-estimates to fit an LLM-based model to the data. The results suggest a good fit. Furthermore, as ECV, PUC and ARPB support the multidimensional nature of the scale, we report the appropriate bifactor statistical indices. After parallel back translation, an English version of the scale was tested in a second sample (N = 311) to replicate our earlier findings. This study facilitates future empirical research by providing a concise and integrative self-rating measure of leadership orientations. We further strengthen the scientific foundation of the LLM by empirically testing its conceptually developed four-factor structure. The scale provides a starting point for further research into leadership orientations (also as standalone subscales), and offers an applicable guideline for self-reflection and decision-making.