Breakfast Director

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A breakfast director is colloquially referred to as a high-ranking manager who does not hold or does not perform any operational functions in a company or organization .

General

A breakfast director has no authority and does not pursue any objective objectives - he concentrates on representative tasks. His representative tasks include taking part in dinner appointments ("breakfast") or other events ( events such as presentations , opera , golf ) with customers or other stakeholders .

species

There are two types of breakfast directors. On the one hand, there is the director, who is consciously set up for representative tasks, with representative tasks to the outside world. On the other hand, there are managers with managerial tasks, competencies and responsibility who, however, do not or only inadequately perform these functions. The latter includes people (e.g. in family businesses ) who only hold a management position through family or other relationships, but who are not qualified for this. This also includes straw man - managing directors (e.g. in countries where a local managing director is compulsory for joint ventures ) or supply posts for former politicians and association officials , for poor noblemen with well-sounding family names and titles , for prominent top athletes after their careers have ended etc. or administrative employees or high-ranking officials in a deportation position (see also: Sinekure in the public service ).

In the Anglo-Saxon world, figurehead is used in the positive case , a metaphor of the expression for the figurehead . Executives take on the role of a "figurehead" when they represent an organization legally, socially, ceremonially or symbolically, sign official documents, escort important guests or hold informal conversations.

In Japan, the latter case is called window-gazer .

Typical professions

In positive terms, these are representatives with prestige who act as hosts and door openers , while the operational activities are carried out by others. Typical positions with a predominantly representative character are the heads of public relations departments, press officers or experts in public relations .

Sometimes the office of the German Federal President is compared with the function of a breakfast director, because the few constitutionally provided tasks from Art. 59 and Art. 60 GG could lead to the conclusion and predominantly representative tasks are to be performed. For Roman Herzog, on the other hand, the Federal President is “not a breakfast director, but he represents [...] the most important idea that a modern state has to represent, that of the existence, legitimacy and unity of the state”.

Organizational classification

Managers are usually given management tasks , competencies and responsibility . Absent entirely or partially of skills and / or responsibility and, the guide object wholly or mainly from the allocation to a higher hierarchical level ( "director"), it is often abwertend from Frühstücksdirektor (also called "champagne glass holder", "Greeting uncle", " Grüßaugust " ) spoken. Its position has no bearing on the functioning of the organization. A breakfast director does not really lead, but only presents himself as a leader-actor (symbolic leadership). Breakfast directors maintain a "charitable-participatory" management style , which - graded according to the degree of discipline - comes last but one:

  • authoritarian leadership style
  • cooperative leadership style
  • charitable-participatory leadership style
  • laissez-faire management style

In organizational theory , one knows the congruence principle of the organization . It states that tasks , competencies, responsibility and information must be transferred to subordinate bodies congruently. If this does not happen and if the competencies are too low compared to the tasks and responsibilities, then one speaks of a breakfast director with the responsible party .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Lussier, Christopher Achua: Leadership: Theory, Application and Skill Development . 2012, p. 14.
  2. ↑ Manfred Piwinger, Ansgar Zerfaß: Handbuch Unternehmenskommunikation . 2007, p. 805.
  3. ↑ People like me . Der Spiegel 32/1996 of August 5, 1996, p. 40.
  4. ^ Roman Herzog, Article Art. 54 GG . In: Theodor Maunz, Günter Dürig et al. (Ed.): Basic Law . Commentary, 56th supplementary delivery, 2009, Rn 97.
  5. ↑ Wilfried von Eiff: Perspectives of a theory and politics of the reorganization of companies . 1977, p. 93.
  6. ↑ Gerd Wiendieck, Günter Wiswede: Leadership in Change . 1990, p. 96.
  7. ↑ Kurt Kruber: Management Basics . 2009, p. 24.