Exploring leadership styles in the music industry

Abstract: This is a study which is looking to explore how and why the leadership styles within the music industry differs from the various sectors of the industry. Seeing how this is a topic which has not been studied very much in the past it is an interesting way of understanding how leadership is conducted within an industry which is changing at such a rapid pace due to technological changes (Tschmuck, 2014). The music industry was divided into three different sectors: Recording and Production, Event Organization, and Orchestras. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with one representative within each sector and each respondent of the interview held a leadership position at a company which operates within the given sector.   The theoretical framework of leadership that was used for this study is the six leadership styles of Daniel Goleman (2000). This was used as the main source of knowledge for leadership theory, but other sources were used to compliment this framework. After analysing the empirical data that was gathered through the interviews it was linked to the theory of Goleman in order to identify what leadership styles and traits were present within each sector.   The conclusions that could be drawn from this multiple case study is that leadership styles differ from one sector to another due to differences in climate, contextual dependency and goals of each organisation.