Introduction
The number of published research studies in the field of leadership is vast and spans several decades. However, despite such a large body of scholarship, leadership still remains an elusive concept. Despite considerable investment in research by both governments and organisations, knowledge gaps about leadership still exist due to a lack of comprehensive information studies of the field (Leitch et al. 2009).
This chapter provides a comprehensive literature review on leadership. The aim is to provide a critical insight into leadership research . This chapter will discuss the varying conceptions of leadership. Scholars argue that a universally acceptable definition for leadership is practically impossible and will hinder new ideas and creative ways of thinking. Some of the different ways in which leadership has been defined over the past 70 years with reference to conceptual underpinning are provided in this chapter.
The distinction between leadership and management is often made in the literature. However in the world today, a question remains unanswered which is: Is leadership now increasingly needed by all managers ? This chapter will examine the similarities and differences between leadership and management . The functions and activities of management and leadership are discussed.
The Definitions of Leadership
To date, there is no precise definition of the term leadership. Stogdill (1974, p. 259) argued that āā¦there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have attempted to define the conceptā. This is evident, given the large volume of publications and studies relating to the domain of leadership. Upon entering the search string ālead*ā into Web of Science, 2,122,285 publications were listed, and on Springer Link, 4,333,478 publications in form of journals and books were identified as being relevant to the topic (17th January 2017). Researchers have proposed varying concepts of leadership and have investigated it by using different phenomena that suited them (Yukl 2010). This is not surprising because, although leadership is a universal phenomenon (Bass and Bass 2009), it remains complex. Alvesson and Sveningsson (2003) argue that a universally acceptable definition for leadership is practically impossible and will hinder new ideas and creative ways of thinking. Some of the different ways in which leadership has been defined over the past 70 years, with reference to conceptual underpinning, are listed in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1
Definitions of leadership
Author | Definition | Concept |
|---|---|---|
Hemphill (1949) | The behaviour of an individual while he is involved in directing group activities | Behaviour |
Stogdill (1950) | āLeadership may be considered as the process (act) of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal achievementā | Process |
Bennis (1959) | Leadership is āthe process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired mannerā | Process |
Katz and Kahn (1978) | Leadership is āthe influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organisationā | Behavioural process |
Smircich and Morgan (1982) | āLeadership is realised in the process whereby one or more individuals succeeds in attempting to frame and define the reality of other.ā āIt involves a complicity or process of negotiation through which certain individuals implicitly or explicitly surrender their power to define the nature of their experience to othersā | Process |
Richards and Engle (1986) | āLeadership is about articulating visions, embodying values , and creating the environment within which things can be accomplishedā | Behaviour |
Gardner (1990) | Leadership is āthe process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followerā | Process |
Jacobs and Jaques (1990) | āLeadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose ā | Process |
Kotter (1990) | Leadership ārefers to a process that helps direct and mobilize people and/or their ideasā¦ā | Process |
Drath and Palus (1994) | āLeadership is the process of making sense of what people are doing together so that people will understand and be committedā | Process |
Clark and Clark (1996) | āLeadership is an activity or set of activities, observable to others, that occurs in a group, organization, or institution, and which involves a leader and followers who willingly subscribe to common purposes and work together to achieve themā | Process |
Barnard (1997) | Leadership ārefers to the quality of the behaviour of individuals guiding other people or their activities in organized effortsā | Behaviour |
Stogdill (1997) | Leadership is āthe process of influencing the activities of an organised group in its efforts towards goal-setting and goal achievementā | Process |
Robbins (1998) | Leadership is āthe ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goal... |