Product Code Database
Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, , or .
"Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the concept, sometimes contrasting Eastern world and Western world approaches to leadership, and also (within the West) versus approaches.
Some U.S. academic environments define leadership as "a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and Peer support of others in the accomplishment of a common and Ethics task". In other words, leadership is an influential power-relationship in which the power of one party (the "leader") promotes movement/change in others (the "followers"). Some have challenged the more traditional managerial views of leadership (which portray leadership as something possessed or owned by one individual due to their role or authority), and instead advocate the complex nature of leadership which is found at all levels of institutions, both within Professional (2025). 9781529712117, Sage Publications. ISBN 9781529712117 and informal roles. (2025). 9780751533811, Sphere. ISBN 9780751533811
Studies of leadership have produced theories involving (for example) Trait leadership, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, goal, values, charisma, and intelligence, among others.
Pro-aristocracy thinkersFor example: have postulated that leadership depends on one's "blue blood" or . Monarchy takes an extreme view of the same idea, and may prop up its assertions against the claims of mere aristocrats by invoking divine sanction (see the divine right of kings). On the other hand, more democratically inclined theorists have pointed to examples of meritocracy leaders, such as the Napoleonic marshals profiting from open to skill.
In the autocracy/paternalism strain of thought, traditionalists recall the role of leadership of the Roman pater familias. Feminism thinking, on the other hand, may object to such models as patriarchy and posit against them "emotionally attuned, responsive, and consensual empathy guidance, which is sometimes associated with matriarchy".
Machiavelli's The Prince, written in the early-16th century, provided a manual for rulers ("princes" or "tyrants" in Machiavelli's terminology) to gain and keep political power.Rahe, P.A. (Ed.). (2005). Machiavelli's liberal republican legacy. Cambridge University Press, p. 3
Prior to the 19th century, the concept of leadership had less relevance than today's society expected, and obtained traditional deference and obedience to lords, kings, master-craftsmen, and slave-masters. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word "leadership" in English only as far back as 1821, when the term referred to the position or office of a designated leader.
– "1821 [...] Tierney has regularly resigned the Leadership of the Opposition."
The abstract notion of "leadership" as embodying the qualities and behaviors associated with leaders and influencers developed only later during the 19th and 20th centuries – possibly traceable from 1870 onwards.
– "1870 [...] Nothing is wanted but military leadership and military means."
Historically, industrialization, opposition to the ancien regime, and the phasing out of chattel slavery meant that some newly developing (nation-state , commercial ) evolved a need for a new paradigm with which to characterize elected politicians and job-granting employers – thus the development and theorizing of the idea of "leadership".
Note the relative changes in terminology in American English since 1800:
The functional relationship between leaders and followers may remain,
For example:
but acceptable (perhaps euphemistic) terminology has changed.
Starting in the 19th century, the elaboration of anarchism thought called the whole concept of leadership into question. One response to this denial of élitism came with Leninism – Lenin (1870–1924) demanded an élite group of disciplined cadres to act as the vanguard party of a socialist revolution, which was to bring into existence the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Other historical views of leadership have addressed the seeming contrasts between secular and religious leadership. The doctrines of Caesaro-papism have recurred and had their detractors over several centuries. Christian thinking on leadership has often emphasized stewardship of divinely-provided resources – human and material – and their deployment in accordance with a Divine plan. Compare this with servant leadership.
For a more general view on leadership in politics, compare the concept of the .
A number of works in the 19th century – when the traditional authority of monarchs, lords, and bishops had begun to wane – explored the trait theory at length: especially the writings of Thomas Carlyle and of Francis Galton. In Heroes and Hero Worship (1841), Carlyle identified the talents, skills, and physical characteristics of men who rose to power. Galton's Hereditary Genius (1869) examined leadership qualities in the families of powerful men. After showing that the numbers of eminent relatives dropped off when his focus moved from first-degree to second-degree relatives, Galton concluded that leadership was inherited.
Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) believed that public-spirited leadership could be nurtured by identifying young people with "moral force of character and instincts to lead", and educating them in contexts (such as the collegiate environment of the University of Oxford) that further developed such characteristics. International networks of such leaders could help to promote international understanding and help "render war impossible". This vision of leadership underlay the creation of the Rhodes Scholarships, which have helped to shape notions of leadership since their creation in 1903.See
While the trait theory of leadership has certainly regained popularity, its reemergence has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in sophisticated conceptual frameworks.
Specifically, Stephen Zaccaro noted that trait theories still:
Kurt Lewin, Ronald Lipitt, and Ralph White developed in 1939 the seminal work on the influence of leadership styles and performance. The researchers evaluated the performance of groups of eleven-year-old boys under different types of work climate. In each, the leader exercised his influence regarding the type of group decision making, praise and criticism (feedback), and the management of the group tasks (project management) according to three styles: authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire.
In 1945, Ohio State University conducted a study which investigated observable behaviors portrayed by effective leaders. They identified particular behaviors that were reflective of leadership effectiveness. They narrowed their findings to two dimensions."Ohio State Leadership Studies Explained with Examples" (2017) The first dimension, "initiating structure", described how a leader clearly and accurately communicates with the followers, defines goals, and determines how tasks are performed. These are considered "task oriented" behaviors. The second dimension, "consideration", indicates the leader's ability to build an interpersonal relationship with their followers, and to establish a form of mutual trust. These are considered "social oriented" behaviors.AAmodt (2015)
The Michigan State Studies, which were conducted in the 1950s, made further investigations and findings that positively correlated behaviors and leadership effectiveness. Although they had similar findings as the Ohio State studies, they also contributed an additional behavior identified in leaders: participative behavior (also called "servant leadership"), or allowing the followers to participate in group decision making and encouraged subordinate input. This entails avoiding controlling types of leadership and allows more personal interactions between leaders and their subordinates.Stoker (2016)
The managerial grid model is also based on a behavioral theory. The model was developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in 1964. It suggests five different leadership styles, based on the leaders' concern for people and their concern for goal achievement.
Positive reinforcement is a successful technique used by leaders to motivate and attain desired behaviors from subordinates. Organizations such as Frito-Lay, 3M, Goodrich, Michigan Bell, and Emery Air Freight have all used reinforcement to increase productivity. Empirical research covering the last 20 years suggests that applying reinforcement theory leads to a 17 percent increase in performance. Additionally, many reinforcement techniques such as the use of praise are inexpensive, providing higher performance for lower costs.
Some theorists synthesized the trait and situational approaches. Building upon the research of Lewin et al., academics normalized the descriptive models of leadership climates, defining three leadership styles and identifying which situations each style works better in. The authoritarian leadership style, for example, is approved in periods of crisis but fails to win the "hearts and minds" of followers in day-to-day management; the democratic leadership style is more adequate in situations that require consensus building; finally, the laissez-faire leadership style is appreciated for the degree of freedom it provides, but as the leaders do not "take charge", they can be perceived as a failure in protracted or thorny organizational problems. (2025). 9780195187540, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195187540 Theorists defined the style of leadership as contingent to the situation; this is sometimes called contingency theory. Three contingency leadership theories are the Fiedler contingency model, the Vroom-Yetton decision model, and the path-goal theory.
The Fiedler contingency model bases the leader's effectiveness on what Fred Fiedler called situational contingency. This results from the interaction of leadership style and situational favorability (later called situational control). The theory defines two types of leader: those who tend to accomplish the task by developing good relationships with the group (relationship-oriented), and those who have as their prime concern carrying out the task itself (task-oriented). According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leader. Both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits the situation. When there is a good leader-member relation, a highly structured task, and high leader position power, the situation is considered a "favorable situation". Fiedler found that task-oriented leaders are more effective in extremely favorable or unfavorable situations, whereas relationship-oriented leaders perform best in situations with intermediate favorability.
Victor Vroom, in collaboration with Phillip Yetton (1973). 9780822932666, University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 9780822932666 and later with Arthur Jago, developed a taxonomy for describing leadership situations. They used this in a normative decision model in which leadership styles were connected to situational variables, defining which approach was more suitable to which situation. This approach supported the idea that a manager could rely on different group decision making approaches depending on the attributes of each situation. This model was later referred to as situational contingency theory.
The path-goal theory of leadership was developed by Robert House and was based on the expectancy theory of Victor Vroom. According to House, "leaders, to be effective, engage in behaviors that complement subordinates' environments and abilities in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and is instrumental to subordinate satisfaction and individual and work unit performance". The theory identifies four leader behaviors, achievement-oriented, directive, participative, and supportive, that are contingent to environment factors and follower characteristics. In contrast to the Fiedler contingency model, the path-goal model states that the four leadership behaviors are fluid, and that leaders can adopt any of the four depending on what the situation demands. The path-goal model can be classified both as a contingency theory, as it depends on the circumstances, and as a transactional leadership theory, as the theory emphasizes the reciprocity behavior between the leader and the followers.
Various leadership behaviors facilitate these functions. In initial work identifying leader behavior, Fleishman observed that subordinates perceived their supervisors' behavior in terms of two broad categories referred to as consideration and initiating structure.Fleishman (1953) Consideration includes behavior involved in fostering effective relationships. Examples of such behavior would include showing concern for a subordinate or acting in a supportive manner towards others. Initiating structure involves the actions of the leader focused specifically on task accomplishment. This could include role clarification, setting performance standards, and holding subordinates accountable to those standards.
Integrated psychological theory began to attract attention after the publication of James Scouller's Three Levels of Leadership model (2011). Scouller argued that older theories offered only limited assistance in developing a person's ability to lead effectively. He pointed out, for example, that:
Scouller's model aims to summarize what leaders have to do, not only to bring leadership to their group or organization, but also to develop themselves technically and psychologically as leaders. The three levels in his model are public, private, and personal leadership:
Scouller argued that self-mastery is the key to growing one's leadership presence, building trusting relationships with followers, and dissolving one's limiting beliefs and habits. This enables behavioral flexibility as circumstances change, while staying connected to one's core values (that is, while remaining authentic). To support leaders' development, he introduced a new model of the human psyche and outlined the principles and techniques of self-mastery, which include the practice of mindfulness meditation.
The transactional leader is given power to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the team's performance. It gives the opportunity to the manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predetermined goal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correct, and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level, and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached.
Beyond the leader's mood, her/his behavior is a source for employee positive and negative emotions at work. The leader's behavior creates situations and events that lead to emotional response, for example by giving feedback, allocating tasks, and distributing resources. Since employee behavior and productivity are affected by their emotional states, it is imperative to consider employee emotional responses to organizational leaders. Emotional intelligence – the ability to understand and manage moods and emotions in the self and others – contributes to effective leadership within organizations.
Many personality characteristics are reliably associated with leadership emergence. The list includes, but is not limited to: assertiveness, authenticity, Big Five personality factors, birth order, character strengths, dominance, emotional intelligence, gender identity, intelligence, narcissism, self-efficacy for leadership, self-monitoring, and social motivation.
Other areas of study in relation to how and why leaders emerge include narcissistic traits, absentee leaders, and participation. Today's sophisticated research methods look at personality characteristics in combination to determine patterns of leadership emergence.
Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela share traits that an average person does not. Research indicates that up to 30% of leader emergence has a genetic basis. No research has found a "leadership gene"; instead we inherit certain traits that might influence our decision to seek leadership. Anecdotal and empirical evidence support a stable relationship between specific traits and leadership behavior.Law, J.R. (1996). Rising to the occasion: foundations, processes, and outcomes of emergent leadership. Using a large international sample researchers found three factors that motivate leaders: affective identity (enjoyment of leading), non-calculative (leading earns reinforcement), and social-normative (sense of obligation). Recent scholarship emphasizes the importance of strong theoretical foundations in leadership studies, advocating for clearer links between formal theory and empirical research to enhance both scientific rigor and practical relevance.
There are no set conditions for this characteristic to become emergent. However, it must be sustained by an individual's belief that they have the ability to learn and improve it with time. Individuals partly evaluate their own capabilities by observing others; working with a superior who is seen as an effective leader may help the individual develop a belief that he or she can perform in a similar manner.
A hypothesis termed the 'babble effect' or the 'babble hypothesis' has been studied as a factor in the emergence of leaders. It posits that leader emergence is highly correlated with the quantity of speaking time – specifically, those who speak a lot in a group setting are more likely to become a group leader.
The quantity of participation is more important that the quality of these contributions when it comes to leader emergence. However, some studies indicate that there must be some element of quality combined with quantity to support leader emergence. Thus, while sheer quantity does matter to leadership, when the contributions made are also of high-quality leader emergence is further facilitated.
Different situations call for different leadership styles. In an emergency when there is little time to converge on an agreement and where a designated authority has significantly more experience or expertise than the rest of the team, an autocratic leadership style may be most effective; however, in a highly motivated and aligned team with a homogeneous level of expertise, a more democratic or laissez-faire style may be more effective. The best style is one that most effectively achieves the objectives of the group while balancing the interests of its individual members.
A field in which leadership style has gained attention is that of military science, which expresses a holistic and integrated view of leadership, including how a leader's physical presence determines how others perceive that leader. The factors of physical presence are military bearing, physical fitness, confidence, and resilience. The leader's intellectual capacity helps to conceptualize solutions and acquire knowledge to do the job. A leader's conceptual abilities apply agility, judgment, innovation, interpersonal tact, and domain knowledge. Domain knowledge for leaders encompasses tactical and technical knowledge as well as cultural and geopolitical awareness. Publication available at Army Knowledge Online and General Dennis J. Reimer Training and Doctrine Digital Library .
Autocratic leaders do not ask for or entertain any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates. Autocratic management can be successful as it provides strong motivation to the manager. It permits quick decision-making, as only one person decides for the whole group and keeps each decision to themselves until they feel it needs to be shared with the rest of the group.
Unlike leaders who prioritize accommodating group members, those with a task-oriented approach concentrate on obtaining precise solutions to fulfill production aims. Consequently, they are skilled at ensuring timely goal attainment, although the well-being of their group members might be compromised. These leaders maintain an unwavering focus on both the overall goal and the assigned tasks for each team member.
Relationship-oriented leaders are focused on developing the team and the relationships in it. The positives to having this kind of environment are that team members are more motivated and have support. However, the emphasis on relations as opposed to getting a job done might make productivity suffer.
The term paternalism is from the Latin pater meaning "father". The leader is most often a male. This leadership style is often found in Russia, Africa, and Pacific Asian Societies.
Transformational leadership refers to a leader who moves beyond immediate self interests using idealized influence (charisma), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation (creativity), or individualized consideration. Idealized influence and inspirational motivation are when a leader is able to envision and communicate a mutually desirable future state. Intellectual stimulation is when a leader helps their followers to become more creative and innovative. Individualized consideration is when a leader pays attention to the developmental needs of their followers, supporting and coaching them. A transformational leader is one who lead others to lead themselves.
Much research has focused on gender of the leader, with an emphasis on women's leadership. Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions, experience a gender pay gap, and face discrimination and stereotypes that limit their emergence as leaders. And yet, scholars have often found women to be equal if not more effective as leaders than men. Major topics of interest have included Trait leadership, behaviors, styles, emergence, and effectiveness, as well as the situational, cultural, and individual variables that moderate gender difference effects. Scholars are increasingly interested in and beginning to include intersex, nonbinary and transgender leaders,
Less research has been conducted regarding how the Team diversity and organizations affects the leadership dynamic. Contextual factors greatly influence research results. Studies have found that gender diversity can both help and hinder team performance, or have neutral effects. A leaders' communication of vision can improve the benefits of gender-diverse teams. Joan Acker identified how organizations can embed gender into organizational cultures, practices, structures, interactions, identity, and organizational logic. Acker's work initiated a great deal of theoretical interest, but empirical studies using the gendered organization theory are still emerging.
Globalization and national culture also affect the leadership dynamic. Women have less access to positions of power in some countries. Scholars have discovered some universality in the traits and qualities deemed necessary for leadership across cultures, but greater variance when it comes to leader-follower relationships, perceptions, and stereotypes. Countries differ in the degree to which men differ from women about the stereotypes about men and women leaders, and masculine and feminine leadership. For example, in one study, when asked to envision a leader, German women imagined a male executive, while Australian and Indian women imagined both men and women. The nation in which leadership takes place may also affect men's and women's leadership behaviors, although the effect of nationality has been stronger than the effect of gender in multiple studies. Scholars acknowledge more research is needed on cross-cultural leadership.
Job performance generally refers to behavior that contributes to organizational success.Campbell, 1990 Campbell identified a number of specific types of performance dimensions; leadership was one of them. There is no consistent, overall definition of leadership performance.Yukl, 2006 Many distinct conceptualizations are often lumped together under the umbrella of leadership performance. "Leadership performance" may refer to the career success of the individual leader, performance of the group or organization, or even leader emergence. Each of these measures can be considered conceptually distinct. While they may be related, they are different outcomes and their inclusion should depend on the applied or research focus.
A toxic leader is someone who has responsibility over a group of people or an organization, and who abuses the leader-follower relationship by leaving the group or organization in a worse-off condition than when they joined it.
Determination and drive include traits such as initiative, energy, assertiveness, perseverance, and sometimes dominance. People with these traits wholeheartedly pursue their goals, work long hours, are ambitious, and often are very competitive.
Cognitive capacity includes intelligence, analytical and verbal ability, behavioral flexibility, and good judgment. Individuals with these traits can formulate solutions to difficult problems, work well under stress or deadlines, adapt to changing situations, and create well-thought-out plans for the future. Steve Jobs and Abraham Lincoln had the traits of determination and drive as well as possessing cognitive capacity, demonstrated by their ability to adapt to their continuously changing environments.
Self-confidence encompasses the traits of high self-esteem, assertiveness, emotional stability, and self-assurance. Leaders who are self-confident do not doubt themselves or their abilities and decisions. They also can project this self-confidence onto others, building their trust and commitment.
Integrity is demonstrated in leaders who are truthful, trustworthy, principled, consistent, dependable, loyal, and not deceptive. Leaders with integrity often share these values with their followers, as this trait is mainly an ethics issue. These leaders keep their word and are honest and open with their cohorts.
Sociability describes leaders who are friendly, extroverted, tactful, flexible, and interpersonally competent. Such a trait enables leaders to be accepted by the public, use diplomatic measures to solve issues, and adapt their social persona to the situation at hand. Mother Teresa was an exceptional example who embodied integrity, assertiveness, and soft skills in her diplomatic dealings with the leaders of the world.
Few great leaders encompass all of the traits listed above, but many have the ability to apply a number of them to succeed.
In contrast to the appointed head or chief of an administrative unit, a leader emerges within the context of the informal organization that underlies the formal structure. The informal organization expresses the personal Goal of the individual membership. Their objectives and goals may or may not coincide with those of the formal organization. The informal organization represents an extension of the social structures that generally characterize human life – the spontaneous emergence of groups and organizations as ends in themselves.
In prehistoric times, humanity was preoccupied with personal security, maintenance, protection, and survival. Now humanity spends a major portion of its waking hours working for organizations. The need to identify with a community that provides security, protection, maintenance, and a feeling of belonging has continued unchanged from prehistoric times. This need is met by the informal organization and its emergent, or unofficial, leaders.
Leaders emerge from within the structure of the informal organization. Their personal qualities, the demands of the situation, or a combination of these and other factors attract followers who accept their leadership within one or several overlay structures. Instead of the authority of position held by an appointed head or chief, the emergent leader wields influence or power. Influence is the ability of a person to gain co-operation from others by means of persuasion or control over rewards. Power is a stronger form of influence because it reflects a person's ability to enforce action through the control of a means of punishment.
A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards a specific result. In this scenario, leadership is not dependent on title or formal authority.Elevos, paraphrased from Leaders, Bennis, and Leadership Presence, Halpern & Lubar. Ogbonnia defines an effective leader "as an individual with the capacity to consistently succeed in a given condition and be viewed as meeting the expectations of an organization or society".Ogbonnia, 2007 John Hoyle argues that leaders are recognized by their capacity for caring for others, clear communication, and a commitment to persist. French and Raven state that there are Five Bases of Social Power: reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert. Growth of each of these five types of power increases a leader's overall power but attempting to utilize power beyond what they actually have available causes a decrease in their power instead. While a person who is appointed to a managerial position has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority of their position, they must possess adequate personal attributes to match this authority because authority is only potentially available to them. In the absence of sufficient personal competence, a manager may be confronted by an emergent leader who can challenge her/his role in the organization and reduce it to that of a figurehead. However, only authority of position has the backing of formal sanctions. It follows that whoever wields personal influence and power can legitimize this only by gaining a formal position in a hierarchy, with commensurate authority. Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Every organization needs leaders at every level.
John Kotter makes a clear distinction between management and leadership. He defines management as the structured, process-driven approach to ensuring an organization consistently delivers quality products and services efficiently, despite the complexity of operations. Whereas leadership is the forward-looking drive to inspire change, seize opportunities, and empower people at all levels through vision and behavior, rather than relying on a few individuals at the top.
Debate is common about whether the use of these terms should be restricted, and reflects an awareness of the distinction made by Burns between "transactional" leadership (characterized by emphasis on procedures, contingent reward, and management by exception) and "transformational" leadership (characterized by charisma, personal relationships, and creativity). The role of leader is one in which one can try to deal with trust issues and issues derived from lacking trust.
Leaders who demonstrate persistence, tenacity, determination, and synergistic communication skills will bring out the same qualities in their groups. Good leaders use their own to energize their team and organizations and lead a team to achieve success.
According to the National School Boards Association (U.S.A.), these group leaderships or leadership teams have these specific characteristics:
Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, in , present evidence that only humans and chimpanzees, among all the animals living on Earth, share a similar tendency for a cluster of behaviors: violence, territoriality, and competition for uniting behind the one chief male of the land. This position is contentious. Many animals apart from apes are territorial, compete, exhibit violence, and have a social structure controlled by a dominant male (lions, wolves, etc.), suggesting Wrangham and Peterson's evidence is not empirical. However, we must examine other species as well, including elephants (which are matriarchal and follow an alpha female), meerkats (which are likewise matriarchal), sheep (which "follow" in some sense castrated bellwethers), and many others.
By comparison, , the second-closest species-relatives of humans, do not unite behind the chief male of the land. Bonobos show deference to an alpha or top-ranking female that, with the support of her coalition of other females, can prove as strong as the strongest male. Thus, if leadership amounts to getting the greatest number of followers, then among the bonobos, a female almost always exerts the strongest and most effective leadership. (Incidentally, not all scientists agree on the allegedly peaceful nature of the bonobo or with its reputation as a "hippie chimp".)
The difference leaders make is not always positive in nature. Leaders sometimes focus on fulfilling their own agendas at the expense of others, including their own followers. Leaders who focus on personal gain by employing stringent and manipulative leadership styles often make a difference, but usually do so through negative means.
Leadership of small groups is often created to respond to a situation or critical incident. In most cases, these teams are tasked to operate in remote and changeable environments with limited support or backup ("action environments"). Leadership of people in these environments requires a different set of skills to that of leaders in front-line management. These leaders must effectively operate remotely and negotiate the needs of the individual, team, and task within a changeable environment.
Other examples include modern technology deployments of small/medium-sized IT teams into client plant sites. Leadership of these teams requires hands-on experience and a lead-by-example attitude to empower team members to make well thought-out and concise decisions independent of executive management and/or home-base decision-makers. Early adoption of Scrum and Kanban branch development methodologies helped to alleviate the dependency that field teams had on trunk-based development. This method of just-in-time action oriented development and deployment allowed remote plant sites to deploy up-to-date software patches frequently and without dependency on core team deployment schedules, satisfying the clients' needs to rapidly patch production environment bugs.
Thomas Carlyle's 1840 "Great Man theory", which emphasized the role of leading individuals, met opposition (from Herbert Spencer, Leo Tolstoy, and others) in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Karl Popper noted in 1945 that leaders can mislead and make mistakes – he warns against deferring to "great men".
Noam Chomsky
and others have subjected the concept of leadership to critical thinking and assert that people abrogate their responsibility to think and will actions for themselves. While the conventional view of leadership may satisfy people who "want to be told what to do", these critics say that one should question subjection to a will or intellect other than one's own if the leader is not a subject-matter expert.
Concepts such as autogestion, employeeship, and common civic virtue challenge the fundamentally anti-democratic nature of the leadership principle by stressing individual responsibility and/or group authority in the workplace and elsewhere and by focusing on the skills and attitudes that a person needs in general rather than separating out "leadership" as the basis of a special class of individuals.
Various historical calamities (such as World War II) can be attributed
to a misplaced reliance on the principle of leadership () as exhibited in dictatorship.
David John Farmer writes critically of the leader principle and of the cult in which elements throughout society – even in democratic countries – pay deference to the idea of leadership.
The idea of leaderism paints leadership and its excesses in a negative light.
Neo-emergent theory
The neo-emergent leadership theory (from the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme)
sees leadership as an impression formed through the communication of public relations by the leader or by other stakeholders,
not through the actions of the leader. In other words, the reproduction of information or narrative form the basis of the perception of leadership by the majority. It is well known by historians that the naval hero Lord Nelson often wrote his own versions of battles he was involved in, so that when he arrived home in England, he would receive a true hero's welcome. In modern society, various media outlets, including the press and blogs, present their own interpretations of leaders. These depictions can stem from actual circumstances, but they might also arise from political influences, monetary incentives, or the personal agendas of the author, media, or leader. Consequently, the impression of leaders is often constructed and may not accurately mirror their genuine leadership attributes. This highlights the historical role of concepts like royal blood, which once stood as a substitute for evaluating or comprehending adept governance abilities.
Constructivist analysis
Some constructivists question whether leadership exists, or suggest that (for example) leadership "is a myth equivalent to a belief in UFOs".
Ontological-phenomenological model
Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari Granger described leadership as "an exercise in language that results in the realization of a future that was not going to happen anyway, which future fulfills (or contributes to fulfilling) the concerns of the relevant parties." In this definition leadership concerns the future and includes the fundamental concerns of the relevant parties. This differs from relating to the relevant parties as "followers" and calling up an image of a single leader with others following. Rather, a future that fulfills the fundamental concerns of the relevant parties indicates the future that was not going to happen is not the "idea of the leader", but rather is what emerges from digging deep to find the underlying concerns of those who are impacted by the leadership.
Leadership emergence
Leadership emergence is the idea that people born with specific characteristics become leaders, and those without these characteristics do not become leaders.
Assertiveness
The relationship between assertiveness and leadership emergence is curvilinear: individuals who are either low in assertiveness or very high in assertiveness are less likely to be identified as leaders.
Authenticity
Individuals who are more aware of their personality qualities, including their values and beliefs, and are less biased when processing self-relevant information, are more likely to be accepted as leaders.
Big Five personality factors
Those who emerge as leaders tend to be more extroverted, conscientious, emotionally stable, and open to experience, although these tendencies are stronger in laboratory studies of leaderless groups. However, introversion–extroversion appears to be the most influential quality in leadership emergence; specifically, leaders tend to be high in extroversion. Introversion–extroversion is also the quality that can be judged most easily among those in the Big Five Traits. Agreeableness, the last factor of the Big Five personality traits, does not seem to play any meaningful role in leadership emergence.
Birth order
Those born first in their families, and only children, are hypothesized to be more driven to seek leadership and control in social settings. Middle-born children tend to accept follower roles in groups, and later-borns are thought to be rebellious and creative.
Character strengths
Those seeking leadership positions in a military organization had elevated scores on a number of indicators of strength of character, including honesty, hope, bravery, industry, and teamwork.
Dominance
Individuals with dominant personalities (they describe themselves as high in the desire to control their environment and influence other people, and are likely to express their opinions in a forceful way) are more likely to act as leaders in small-group situations.
Emotional intelligence
Individuals with high emotional intelligence have increased ability to understand and relate to people. They have skills in communicating and decoding emotions and they deal with others wisely and effectively. Such people communicate their ideas in more robust ways, are better able to read the politics of a situation, are less likely to lose control of their emotions, are less likely to be inappropriately angry or critical, and in consequence are more likely to emerge as leaders. (2025). 9780751533811, Sphere. ISBN 9780751533811
Intelligence
Individuals with higher intelligence exhibit superior judgement, higher verbal skills (both written and oral), quicker learning and acquisition of knowledge, and are more likely to emerge as leaders. Correlation between IQ and leadership emergence was found to be between .25 and .30. (1990). 9780029015001, Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780029015001 However, groups generally prefer leaders that do not exceed in intelligence the prowess of average member by a wide margin, as they fear that high intelligence may be translated to differences in communication, trust, interests, and values.
Self-efficacy for leadership
An individual's belief in their ability to lead is associated with an increased willingness to accept a leadership role and find success in its pursuit.
Self-monitoring
Individuals who closely manage and adjust their behavior based on the social context, often referred to as high self-monitors, have a greater tendency to assume leadership roles within a group. This propensity is attributed to their heightened interest in elevating their status and their readiness to conform their actions to match the requirements of the given situation.
Social motivation
People who exhibit both a drive for achievement and a desire for social connections tend to participate actively in group-based efforts to solve problems. Additionally, they have a higher likelihood of being chosen as leaders within these groups.
Narcissism, hubris and other negative traits
A number of negative traits of leadership have also been studied. Individuals who take on leadership roles in turbulent situations, such as groups facing a threat or ones in which status is determined by intense competition among rivals within the group, tend to be narcissistic: arrogant, self-absorbed, hostile, and very self-confident.
Absentee leader
Existing research has shown that absentee leaders – those who rise into power, but not necessarily because of their skills, and who are marginally engaging with their role – are actually worse than destructive leaders, because it takes longer to pinpoint their mistakes.
Willingness to participate
A willingness to participate in a group can indicate a person's interest as well as their willingness to take responsibility for how the group performs. Those who do not say much during a group meeting are less likely to emerge as a leader than those who speak up. There is however some debate over whether the quality of participation in a group matters more than the quantity.
Leadership styles
A leadership style is a leader's way of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. It is the result of the philosophy, personality, and experience of the leader. Rhetoric specialists have also developed models for understanding leadership.
Autocratic or authoritarian
Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with .
Participative or democratic
The democratic or participative leadership style involves the leader actively sharing decision-making responsibilities with group members. This approach emphasizes collaboration and values the input of all team members, fostering a sense of ownership and inclusivity within the group. By promoting the interests and well-being of the team, democratic leaders encourage open communication and social equality. This style, also known as shared leadership, distributes authority and decision-making power among all members rather than centralizing it with the leader alone. This method enhances team morale and engagement and leverages diverse perspectives to drive more well-rounded and informed decisions.
Laissez-faire or free-rein leadership
In laissez-faire or free-rein leadership, decision-making is passed on to the subordinates. (The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means "let them do"). Subordinates are given the right and power to make decisions to establish goals and work out the problems or hurdles, and are given a high degree of independence and freedom to formulate their own objectives and ways to achieve them.
Task-oriented
Task-oriented leadership is a style characterized by a leader's concentration on the necessary tasks to achieve specific production objectives. Leaders following this approach emphasize the creation of systematic solutions for given problems or goals, ensuring strict adherence to deadlines, and achieving targeted outcomes.
Relationship-oriented
Relationship-oriented leadership is a style in which the leader focuses on the relationships amongst the group and is generally more concerned with the overall well-being and satisfaction of group members. (2025). 9780137053490, Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780137053490 Relationship-oriented leaders emphasize communication within the group, show trust and confidence in group members, and show appreciation for work done.
Paternalism
Paternalism leadership styles often reflect a father-figure mindset. The structure of team is organized hierarchically where the leader is viewed above the followers. The leader also provides both professional and personal direction in the lives of the members. Members' choices are limited due to the rigid direction given by the leader.
Servant leadership
With the transformation into a knowledge society, the concept of servant leadership has become more popular, notably through modern technology management styles such as Agile. In this style, the leadership is externalized from the leader who serves as a guardian of the methodology and a "servant" or service provider to the team they lead. The cohesion and common direction of the team is dictated by a common culture, common goals and sometimes a specific methodology. This style is different from the laissez-faire in that the leader constantly works towards reaching the common goals as a team, but without giving explicit directions on tasks.
Transactional and Transformational Leadership
Transactional leadership refers to an exchange relationship between a leader and followers in which they both strive to meet their own self-interests. The term transactional leadership was introduced by Weber in 1947. There are several forms of transactional leadership, the first being contingent reward, in which the leader outlines what the follower must do to be rewarded for the effort. The second form of transactional leadership is management-by-exception, in which the leader monitors performance of the follower and takes corrective action if standards are not met. Finally transactional leaders may be laissez-faire, avoiding taking any action at all.
Gender and leadership
The leadership dynamic is affected by the leader's gender, gender diversity of groups, and the gendered nature of organizations, national cultures, and other contexts.
(2025). 9781800883826, Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781800883826 men as gendered leaders, and how intersections between gender and other social identities affect leadership. (2025). 9780805849196, Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 9780805849196
Performance
Some researchers argued that the influence of leaders on organizational outcomes is overrated and romanticized as a result of biased attributions about leaders.Meindl & Ehrlich, 1987 Despite these assertions, however, it is largely recognized and accepted by practitioners and researchers that leadership is important, and research supports the notion that leaders do contribute to key organizational outcomes.Day & Lord, 1988.
To facilitate successful leadership performance it is important to understand and accurately measure it.
Measuring leadership
Measuring leadership has proven difficult and complex – even impossible.
Attempts to assess leadership performance via group performance bring in multifarious different factors. Different perceptions of leadership itself may lead to differing measuring methods.
Nevertheless, leadership theoreticians have proven perversely reluctant to abandon the vague subjective qualitative popular concept of "leaders".
Traits
Most theories in the 20th century argued that great leaders were born, not made. Later studies indicated that leadership is more complex and cannot be boiled down to a few key traits of an individual: One such trait or set of traits does not make an extraordinary leader. Scholars have found leadership traits of an individual that do not change from situation to situation – traits such as intelligence, assertiveness, or physical attractiveness. However, each key trait may be applied to situations differently, depending on the circumstances.
Contexts
Cross-Cultural, International, and Global Leadership
While many scholars conflate the concepts of cross-cultural leadership, international leadership, and global leadership, others have found useful distinctions. The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior (GLOBE) Project is an example of cross-cultural leadership research, as it aimed to compare leadership ideals in various countries and regions. However, it looked at leaders operating within their own culture, rather than across culture. (2025). 9781623969646, IAP Information Age Publishing. ISBN 9781623969646 International leadership addresses the extent to which behavior by a leader from one culture is received in another culture. Global leaders are not only leaders of companies in the global economy, but also embody global competencies such as cognitive complexity, being open to new ideas, and able to deal with uncertainty. Other scholars have identified global leaders as possessing intellectual capital or "global business savvy" as well. Global leaders anticipate and care about the consequences of their actions as related to humanity at large.
Organizations
An organization that is established as an Legal instrument or as a means for achieving defined Goal has been referred to by sociologists as a formal organization. Its design specifies how goals are subdivided and this is reflected in subdivisions of the organization. Divisions, departments, sections, positions, jobs, and tasks make up this work structure. The formal organization is expected to behave impersonally in regard to relationships with clients or with its members. According to Weber's model, entry and subsequent advancement is by merit or seniority. Employees receive a salary and enjoy a degree of tenure that safeguards them from the arbitrary influence of superiors or of powerful clients. The higher one's position in the hierarchy, the greater one's presumed expertise in adjudicating problems that may arise in the course of the work carried out at lower levels of the organization. This bureaucratic structure forms the basis for the appointment of heads or chiefs of administrative subdivisions in the organization and endows them with the authority attached to their position.
(1971). 9780140805178, Addison-Wesley. ISBN 9780140805178
Management
The terms "management" and "leadership" have, in the organizational context, been used both as synonyms and with clearly differentiated meanings. However Bennis and Nanus were clear in their distinction in their frequently quoted phrase "Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing".
Group
In contrast to individual leadership, some organizations have adopted group leadership. In this so-called shared leadership, more than one person provides direction to the group as a whole. It is furthermore characterized by shared responsibility, cooperation, and mutual influence among team members. Some organizations have taken this approach in hopes of increasing creativity, reducing costs, or downsizing. Others may see the traditional leadership of a boss as costing too much in team performance. In some situations, the team members best able to handle any given phase of the project become the temporary leaders. Additionally, as each team member has the opportunity to experience the elevated level of empowerment, it energizes staff and feeds the cycle of success.
Self-leadership
Self-leadership is a process that occurs within an individual. Self-leadership is having a developed sense of who you are, what you can achieve, and what your goals are, coupled with the ability to affect your emotions, behaviors, and communication. At the center of leadership is the person who is motivated to make the difference. Self-leadership is a way toward more effectively leading other people.
Biology and evolution of leadership
Mark van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja in Naturally Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership present cases of leadership in non-human animals, from ants and bees to baboons and chimpanzees. They suggest that leadership has a long evolutionary history and that the same mechanisms underpinning leadership in humans appear in other social species, too. They also suggest that the evolutionary origins of leadership differ from those of dominance. In one study, van Vugt and his team looked at the relation between basal testosterone and leadership versus dominance. They found that testosterone correlates with dominance but not with leadership. This was replicated in a sample of managers in which there was no relation between hierarchical position and testosterone level.
Myths
Leadership has been described as one of the least understood concepts across all cultures and civilizations. Many researchers have stressed the prevalence of this misunderstanding, stating that several flawed assumptions, or myths, concerning leadership interfere with people's conception of what leadership is about.
Leadership is innate
According to some, leadership is determined by distinctive dispositional characteristics present at birth (e.g., extraversion, intelligence, or ingenuity). However, evidence shows that leadership also develops through hard work and careful observation. Thus, effective leadership can result from nature (i.e., innate talents) as well as nurture (i.e., acquired skills).
Leadership is possessing power over others
Although leadership is certainly a form of power, it is not demarcated by power over people. Rather, it is a power with people that exists as a reciprocal relationship between a leader and his/her followers. Despite popular belief, the use of manipulation, coercion, and domination to influence others is not a requirement for leadership. People who seek group consent and strive to act in the best interests of others can also become effective leaders.
Leaders are positively influential
The validity of the assertion that groups flourish when guided by effective leaders can be illustrated using several examples. For instance, the bystander effect (failure to respond or offer assistance) that tends to develop within groups faced with an emergency is significantly reduced in groups guided by a leader. Moreover, group performance, creativity, and efficiency all tend to climb in businesses with designated managers or CEOs.
Leaders entirely control group outcomes
In it is generally assumed that group leaders make all the difference when it comes to group influence and overall goal-attainment. This view relates to reverence for leadership per se or for "heroic charismatic leadership" – a "cult of leadership" in the abstract (as distinct from the cult of a given leader/leadership-group or from some individual-oriented cult of personality).
This romanticized view of leadership – the tendency to overestimate the degree of control leaders have over their groups and their groups' outcomes – ignores the existence of many other factors that influence group dynamics. For example, group cohesion, communication patterns, individual personality traits, group context, the nature or orientation of the work, as well as behavioral norms and established standards influence group functionality. For this reason, it is unwarranted to assume that all leaders are in complete control of their groups' achievements.
All groups have a designated leader
Not all groups need have a designated leader. Groups that are primarily composed of women, are limited in size, are free from stressful decision-making, or only exist for a short period of time (e.g., student work groups; pub quiz/trivia teams) often undergo a diffusion of responsibility, in which leadership tasks and roles are shared amongst members.
Group members resist leaders
Group members' dependence on group leaders can lead to reduced self-reliance and overall group strength. Most people prefer to be led than to be without a leader. This "need for a leader" becomes especially strong in troubled groups that are experiencing some sort of conflict. Group members tend to be more contented and productive when they have a leader to guide them. Although individuals filling leadership roles can be a direct source of resentment for followers, most people appreciate the contributions that leaders make to their groups and consequently welcome the guidance of a leader.
Action-oriented environments
One approach to team leadership examines action-oriented environments, where effective functional leadership is required to achieve critical or reactive tasks by small teams deployed into the field. Some examples of action-oriented leadership include extinguishing a rural fire, locating a missing person, leading a team on an outdoor expedition, or rescuing a person from a potentially hazardous environment.
Critical thought
The ideas of Edmund Burke (1729–1797) on representative (as opposed to delegate-based) democracy have echoes in the attitudes of elected representatives who regard themselves – and even portray themselves – as "leaders".
(2025). 9781136749773, Routledge. ISBN 9781136749773
See also
Citations
Other sources
(1990). 9780029015001, The Free Press; Collier Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 9780029015001
(2025). 9780944740040, Barron's Educational Series, Inc.. ISBN 9780944740040
(2025). 9780071363082, McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780071363082
(2025). 9780205683581, Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780205683581
(2025). 9780973291407, Boskwa Publishing. ISBN 9780973291407
External links
|
|
