Leadership

11 Pages 2748 Words

A fundamental, but far reaching, role of organisational performance and achievement could take as its starting point the identification and development of leadership. A series of questions and concerns dealing with leadership in groups, organisations and the wider community has led to the growth of numerous different schools of thought in relation to leadership. This essay is an examination of the major schools of thought on leadership theory. But more importantly, it is designed to identify and draw conclusions about the main theme underpinning the various leadership theories and what constitutes leaders and leadership.

Leadership is principally concerned with the ability of an individual to influence others. This is typically accomplished through the use of the communication process towards achieving set goals, which contribute to a purpose. (Robbins, Millet, Cacioppe and Waters-Marsh pp 394 1998) However, a more comprehensive definition of leadership is provided by Bass, (in Vecchio pp 17 1997), who states that: "Leadership has been conceived as the focus of group processes, as a matter of personality, as a matter of inducing compliance, as the exercise of influence, as particular behaviors, as a form of persuasion, as a power relation, as an instrument to achieve goals, as an effect of interaction, as differentiated role, as initiation of structure, and as many combinations of these definitions." Nevertheless, many schools of thought have evolved to explain the rationales and assumptions in relation to the concept of leadership, and more importantly, to explain what it is that constitutes a leader.

Indeed, the first theories of leadership attempt to identify the traits and/or inherent attributes of leaders, regardless of the leader’s situation or circumstances. (Nelson and Quick, 1997) Initial studies of leadership considered leaders as individuals endowed with certain personality traits, which constitute their abilit...