Autoritär-charismatische Führung, Machteinsatz und Kooperation in deutschen Orchestern : eine zusammenfassende Darstellung ausgewählter empirischer Forschungsergebnisse

Abstract

Neither in literature nor in practice are there any doubts that the performance of an orchestra depends on the respective conductor. Despite this fact, leadership behaviour in an orchestra was rarely systematically investigated. Against this background we summarize selected findings from empirical research on leadership and cooperation within orchestras. In our investigations, we deal with the conductor's way to lead the musicians. Also, we analyze the cooperation within German orchestras, and take a look at how these aspects influence the artistic quality. Starting from the fact that about half of the polled musicians think about the orchestra's artistic quality as a success variable that needs improvement, we identify ways to enhance the artistic quality. On the one hand we deal with cooperation within the orchestra, and on the other hand we investigate the kind of the conductor's leadership. Cooperation among the musicians (playing together exactly) is a crucial factor for creating high artistic quality. The reason for this lies in the specific quality-related requirements of an orchestra. Furthermore, the conductor's leadership behaviour can improve artistic quality, especially an authoritarian leadership behaviour. This way of leading diminishes the musician's degrees cf freedom indeed. However, they accept it due to the charismatic legitimation of the conductor's authority. This serves as an explanation for the effectiveness of authoritarian charismatic leadership in orchestras. In doing so, the conductor's authority can depend on different power bases. Comparing the functionality of different power base adoptions with linear structural equation modelling shows that artistic quality can be enhanced particularly through the combination of both expertise and identification power. Less important in terms of quality are information power and position power. Completely ineffective for raising artistic quality is power based on immaterial or material reward or punishment. From these results, we derive practical consequences for leadership in orchestras.