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Introduction: The problems and promise of contemporary leadership theories

PAUL SPECTOR* Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, U.S.A.

Keywords: leadership; leadership theory; supervision

Recent years have seen a shift in the focus of leadership theories that today emphasize not only the behavior of leaders but on their relationships with followers. A variety of new leadership theories have emerged, including authentic, character-based, esthetic, ethical, servant, and spiritual leadership. A common thread that runs throughout these theories is the emphasis on morals and values, and the treatment of followers can have important effects. In an employment context, all these theories address how superiors might inspire their subordinates to become active contributors to their firms that go beyond basic job requirements. Some of these models also emphasize ethical issues in the appropriate use of leader power and how values are important in understanding leader behavior. This current point/counterpoint exchange has two groups of leadership scholars who take different perspectives

on these new theories. Michael D. Mumford and Yitzhak Fried take a critical view and question the role of ideology and values in leadership theory and practice. They fault these contemporary theories for focusing on ideology and suggesting that there is one correct way to lead. They argue that always behaving in ways that generate positive feelings in subordinates can be counterproductive and, as their title notes, can result in giving them more of what they want than what they need. This is because leadership is too complex to assume that one set of prescriptions will be sufficient and that there can be conflicting demands from the different constituencies leaders must serve. They conclude that these theories are overly simplistic and are not likely to be helpful in real life leadership settings. Sean T. Hannah, John, J. Sumanth, Paul Lester, and Fabrice Cavarretta defend these “newer genre” leadership

theories, expanding Mumford and Fried’s discussion to include charismatic and transformational theories. They argue that these contemporary theories fill gaps in the leadership literature by expanding into areas of emotions, inspiration, and morality. They answer critics of these theories on five issues: (i) normative theories are detached from real leader- ship situations; (ii) a humanistic approach ignores demands of getting tasks done; (iii) inclusion of morality in leadership is inappropriate; (iv) emphasizing feelings and needs of followers conflicts with organizational goals; and (v) scales used to assess leadership are confounded with feelings about the leader. Taken together, these two papers provide an in-depth discussion of the limitations and potential contributions of

these theories and the research that has and will be conducted to test their propositions. For anyone interested in contemporary leadership, this exchange provides a balanced overview of the conceptual, methodological, and practice issues concerning these theories and their application.

Author biography

Paul E. Spector is distinguished professor and director of the I/O psychology and Occupational Health Psychology doctoral programs at the University of South Florida. He is Point/Counterpoint editor for Journal of Organizational Behavior, associate editor for Work & Stress, and is on the editorial board of Journal of Applied Psychology.

*Correspondence to: Paul Spector, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620 U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 25 February 2014, Accepted 13 March 2014

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 35, 597 (2014) Published online 11 April 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.1930

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