| Exploring leadership styles in Russian self-managing companies |
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Authors: S.A. Titov, A.A. Cymbal National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia Abstract: Under high macroeconomic uncertainty, Russian companies express significant interest in self-management practices. The purpose of the article is to identify leadership styles used by companies that introduce and follow the self-management principles. The work is grounded in contextual leadership theory, the concepts of leadership style and self-managing companies and relies on qualitative thematic analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, and quantitative methods applicable to small samples and non-parametric data. The evidence base is comprised of 24 interviews conducted in 2024–2025 with executives of small and medium-sized Russian enterprises. The sample was divided equally between companies that employed self-management practices and those that did not. According to the findings, leaders of self-managing companies exhibited a pronounced charismatic style and a weak instrumental style. At the same time, managers of both groups demonstrated high levels of humble leadership and low levels of authoritarian leadership. The results empirically support the hypothesis that the adoption of self-management practices implies specific leadership styles. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the contextual application of humble, charismatic, and instrumental leadership and offer a rationale for adapting leadership styles to self-management environments. Keywords: leadership; leadership style; self-managing companies; organizational design; humble leadership; instrumental leadership; qualitative comparative analysis. For citation: Titov S.A., Cymbal A.A. (2026). Exploring leadership styles in Russian self-managing companies. Upravlenets / The Manager, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 85–100. DOI: 10.29141/2218-5003-2026-17-5-6. EDN: TRSKFJ. |
