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The second Frankfurt Career Study was conducted in 2017 in East and West Germany to analyze the impact of motherhood on female professional advancement in the specific national context of Germany. In addition, this study aims to present a unique perspective of the similarities and dissimilarities between the Western and Eastern parts of the country.

The research is presented as a three-stage statistical approach based on quantitative data generated from a survey conducted among 2,130 working mothers. In the first step, the authors performed a multiple correspondence analysis to explore the relationships between important categorical variables. Using the object scores obtained in the first step, we then ran a hierarchical cluster analysis, followed by the third and last step: using the k-means clustering method to partition the survey respondents into groups.

The authors found that working mothers in Germany are distributed according to four clusters mainly described by demographics and orientation toward work. East Germany has been found as a more egalitarian context than West Germany with respect to family system arrangements. However, the upper bound of the sample in West Germany presented an atypical female breadwinner model in high-performance households.

The authors want to contribute to previous investigations on the topic by providing a more comprehensive view of the phenomenon, especially comparing the two different family systems and social norms from the Eastern and Western parts of the country. The authors ask whether and how career perspectives and female labor supply are influenced by drivers such as work–family conflict determinants, working mothers demographics, partner support and employer support.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between shared leadership (SL) and decision quality, utilizing shared leadership theory (SLT) and behavioral decision theory (BDT). The authors will explore the mediating role of “decision comprehensiveness” in the SL–decision quality linkage. Additionally, the authors will examine how individual “self-leadership” and “debate” among team members moderate the relationship between SL and decision comprehensiveness.

The authors tested the hypothesized moderated mediation model using a sample of 506 professionals employed in 112 research and development (R&D) teams, along with their direct managers from large Italian firms. To examine the relationships, the authors employed confirmatory factor analyses and path analyses. In order to address endogeneity concerns, the authors incorporated an instrumental variable, namely delegation, into the analysis.

SL positively influences decision quality, mediated by decision comprehensiveness, where teams include comprehensive information in decision-making. The level of debate among team members positively moderates the SL–decision comprehensiveness relationship. High levels of self-leadership can harm SL by reducing decision comprehensiveness, indicating a downside. However, low or moderate levels of self-leadership do not harm decision comprehensiveness and can even benefit SL.

This is the first work to investigate the relationship between SL and decision quality, shedding light on the mechanisms underlying this association. By integrating SLT and BDT, the authors provide insights into how managers can make higher-quality decisions within self-leading teams. Moreover, this research makes a distinct contribution to the field of self-leadership by delineating its boundaries and identifying a potentially negative aspect within the self-influence process.