Financial industry in transformation: case research on the contemporary understanding and application of leadership in a large Swiss bank

Leaders in banks are particularly concerned with change, as the financial industry is in a transitional phase induced by crisis and regulatory development. With this qualitative case study, Wealth Management leaders in the large Swiss bank, the UBS, were examined. In particular, the research addresses bank leaders’ understanding and practice of contemporary leadership being influenced by the transformation in Switzerland’s financial industry. An integrative approach to leadership is adopted combining individual and mutual understanding and application that offers new insight and expansion of current thinking with the tentative case model of ‘the hybrid approach to heroic leadership’ embedding a mutual notion.