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Research questions: Does leadership styles vary within different departments of a major Swedish organization? If so, how does it vary and can it be explained why?

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of leadership by exploring and explaining different leadership styles within a major organization. Further, the aim is to explore if a connection can be drawn between Bolman and Deal’s (1991, 2017) different leadership styles and various departments of a major Swedish organization.

Method: With an abductive exploratory approach, this study is executed as a qualitative case study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven managers from various departments within the organization ICA Sverige AB, departments such as stores, logistics/warehousing, and administration.

Conclusion: This study concludes that the leadership styles, to some extent, vary within the different examined departments. Store managers leaned more towards the structural frame, while warehouse and administration managers had higher degrees of traits from the human resource frame.