Leadership Models and Leadership Styles as Success Factors in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Under conditions of the population aging, one of the most pressing and urgent problems for company management is the retirement of most administrative staff over the next few years. At the same time, the majority of the young working-age population brings into question the current management practices in companies, considering the work primarily as a way of ensuring their livelihoods. There is a large proportion of the population who believe that work should bring joy, pleasure, and be open to creative activity. It leads to a shift in small and medium-sized companies (SME) from traditional management models to those adapted to modern labor market requirements. It is considered that the advertising brochures and websites of many small and medium-sized enterprises have recently mentioned a standard management style when announcing a vacancy notice. As for the employees, the presence of joint management is considered as “the most important property of the company”, while most managers treat the formation of this management style with a high degree of formality and conventionality. This article investigates the problems of trade companies in the context of the creation and implementation of labor-management policies. These challenges are widely described and discussed in the world of scientific literature, predominantly by the example of other industries, leading to inconsistencies in the conditions and features of its application in the trade sector. According to an empirical approach based on expert interviews, major leadership issues were identified. Experts stressed the fact that while struggling for skilled personnel, the companies face new challenges when the younger generation of employees emerges in the labor market. These workers require a more transformational approach to leadership than that one, which exists today. The reasons for this situation are the promotion of highly qualified specialists to executive positions. Thus, these vacancies are often replaced by those who earned it the most, being an excellent employee, but lack managerial skills.