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Leadership practices within the start-up environment : a research on the impact of leadership on the development of today’s startups

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Abstract(s)

Startups have become a familiar concept to most people, however there is still much to learn about this new reality and their business models. These new ventures live in an environment particularly unstable and volatile, which affects the experience that employees have. As teams are one of the most important success factors of startups, they deserve special attention, looking into practices that might be better for them. Leadership has been pointed out as crucial in a startup development. Even though the literature is not extensive on this subject, it can be stated that the establishment and growth of startups are inextricably linked to leadership. Therefore, leadership practices might also have an impact on a startup’s environment and, consequently, provide a positive/negative experience to employees. Considering this, the present research gathers the insights of both followers and leaders from three different startups, through both interviews and focus group. In this way, within a previously presented revision of literature, it was possible to better understand how both leaders and followers were envisioning leadership practices within teams, as well as validate with each participant if the environment matched with the ones put forward by the literature. Our research suggests that not only the environment matches what it is claimed in general in the literature, but also that leadership practices have indeed a generally positive impact on startup’s environment. However, leadership practices still relly very much on the leaders themselves, instead of being built into the startups DNA.
As startups tornaram-se um conceito familiar para a maioria das pessoas, porém há ainda muito a aprender sobre este modelo de negócio. Estes novos empreendimentos são “dotados” de um ambiente particularmente instável e volátil, o que afeta também a experiência dos colaboradores. Sendo as equipas uma das partes mais relevantes das startups, merecem uma atenção especial que procure estratégias que possam benefeciá-las. A liderança tem sido apontada como crucial no desenvolvimento de uma startup. Mesmo que a literatura sobre o assunto não seja abundante, pode-se afirmar que o estabelecimento e o crescimento de startups estão indissociavelmente ligados à liderança. Portanto, as práticas de liderança também podem impactar o ambiente de startups e, consequentemente, proporcionar uma experiência positiva/negativa aos colaboradores. Considerando isto, a presente pesquisa reúne o testemunho de seguidores e líderes de três startups diferentes, por meio de entrevistas e focus group. Desta forma, foi possível entender melhor como líderes e seguidores perspetivam as práticas de liderança no seio das mesmas equipas. Assim como validar com cada participante se o ambiente condiz com o preconizado pela literatura. A presente pesquisa sugere que não apenas o ambiente corresponde ao que vimos, mas também que as práticas de liderança estão de facto a ter um impacto positivo geral no ambiente das startups. No entanto, estas mesmas práticas de liderança estão a dependentes dos próprios líderes, ao invés de ser algo trabalhado no ADN das startups.

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Leadership practices Startups Startup environment Unstable organizational environments Leadership in new ventures Práticas de liderança Ambiente das startups Ambientes organizacionais instáveis Liderança em novos empreendimentos

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