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The global business environment is becoming more complex and business activities are increasing in speed. In this volatile environment, companies will need to adjust their approach to strategy, their organizational setup and leadership model in order to be sustainably successful. In military history, armies have gone through the same development. Since the 19th century the concept of Mission Command (Auftragstaktik) has been proven to offer superior performance and competitive advantages through systematic empowerment of employees, decentralised decision-making and allowing (calculated) risk-taking under the severest and most demanding situation: war. In the first part of this book, the historical development of Mission Command is reconstructed and key elements derived. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the concept of Mission Command, in what situations its application is beneficial, and what is needed for its successful implementation. In the second part, the potential as well as the limitations of Mission Command in China are analysed by contrasting the requirements with findings on Chinese national culture and leadership. This is particularly useful for Chinese and Western leaders of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) working in cross-cultural environments and will enable them to apply an appropriate leadership style when setting up, expanding, or reorganising their operations in China.

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Abstract
The primary purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the concept of Mission Command (Auftragstaktik in German) can work in a Chinese cultural context. The research method is conceptual and based on an analysis of studies in the areas of research.
In the first section, the historical development of Mission Command in the military field is reconstructed and key elements derived. The outcome illustrates that Mission Command offers competitive Advantages in complex, adversarial, and dynamic situations especially for those players who suffer from material and numerical inferiority and need to focus on speed and exploitation of opportunities. This is a situation that many small and medium enterprises nowadays face in markets such as China. Thus, Mission Command could serve as a means of being successful in such an environment.
The findings on Mission Command are then compared with the Management by Objectives (MbO) approach, which was originally intended to be the transfer of Mission Command to the civilian sector. The results suggest that (especially the practical) implementation of MbO is not a direct or complete transfer of the Mission Command concept from the military to the business world. Mission Command and MbO are then reflected against motivational theories such as the Goal-Setting theory and the Social Cognitive theory to explain why Mission Command leads to superior performance. Finally, requirements for a
successful application of Mission Command in the areas of Leadership and Education and Professional training are examined.
In a next section, on Chinese national culture, Leadership and Education
is analysed using the GLOBE research data as the main basis. In the last part of the thesis the preceding findings are contrasted in order to answer the research question. This thesis argues that the full implementation of Mission Command in a Chinese cultural context would to a high likelihood not work because it would meet various impeding obstacles, such as the focus on independent action, the need for transient
structures, and the systematic empowerment of employees under Mission Command.

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