BRILLIANT ANSWERS ONLY

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“What Is Leadership? Cultural Perspectives

“Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.” (James MacGregor Burns, Leadership)

“The reality is that, as of 1990, scholars and practitioners do not know what leadership is. There is no possibility of framing a new paradigm of leadership for the twenty-first century if scholars and practitioners cannot articulate what it is they are studying and practicing.” (Joseph C. Rost, Leadership for the 21

st

Century) Old English Etymology

Loedan—“to make go” “to show the way” “to guide”

Webster’s Definition (1828)

Lead—“To conduct, guide, go first, entice, allure, induce, influence, draw out, exercise dominion” Leadership—“the state or condition of a leader”

Webster’s New International Dictionary

had no definition of leadership until after 1955

Webster’s New International Dictionary 3 rd

Ed.— Leadership—1) the office or position of a leader

2) the quality of a leader, capacity to lead 3) the act or an instance of leading 4) a group of persons who lead

Conclusions about Dictionary Usage

“Leadership” did not come into popular use until around 1900, and even then lacked the connotations of today‟s usage.

“Leadership” is a 20 th century concept. There was little concept of “leadership” in earlier times and

even the word “leader” meant something different than it does to people today.

The dictionary definitions are very simple and not particularly helpful for gaining a precise understanding of what leadership is.

Every dictionary definition since 1920 equates “leadership” with the “office” or “position” of a leader.

Most dictionaries support the notion that leadership is a collection of traits or skills by defining leadership as “the ability to lead.”

“Leadership” resides in the leader (as opposed to followers or a relationship with followers).

Scholarly Definitions 1920s

1900-1927 virtually all definitions emphasize dominance, control, and coercion of power

“Leadership is the management of men by persuasion and inspiration, rather than direct or implied threat or coercion.” (Schenk, 1928)

1930s

“Leadership is the art of inducing others to do what one wants them to do.” (Bundel, 1930)

“The relation of leadership arises only where a group follows an individual from free choice or not under command or coercion and not in response to blind drives but on more or less rational grounds.” (Schmidt, 1933)

“Leadership is personality in action under group conditions in such a way that the action of the many is changed by the one.” (Bogardus, 1934)

“Leadership is a process of mutual stimulation which, by the successful interplay of relevant individual differences, controls human energy in pursuit of a common cause.” (Pigors, 1935)

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1940s

“Leadership consists of influence attempts that avoid the invocation of power and relative status.” (Whyte, 1943)

“Leadership appears as a manner of interaction involving behavior by and toward the individual “lifted” to a leader role by other individuals.” (Jennings, 1944)

“Leadership may be said to be the behavior of an individual while he is involved in directing group activities.” (Hemphill, 1949)

1950s

“Leadership is viewed as the performance of those acts which help the group achieve its objectives. . . In principle, leadership may be performed by one or many members of the group.” (Cartwright and Zander, 1953)

“Leadership is an influence relationship.” (Gibb, 1954)

“Leadership may be defined as the contribution of a given individual to group effectiveness, mediated through the direct efforts of others rather than himself.” (Campbell, 1956)

“Leadership can be defined as the process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired manner.” (Bennis, 1959)

1960s

“Leadership is acts by which persons influence other persons in a shared direction.” (Seeman, 1960)

“Leader denotes an individual with a status that permits him to exercise influence over certain individuals.” (Hollander, 1964)

“Leadership is a position within society which is defined by the ability of the incumbent to guide and structure the collective behavior patterns of some or all of its members. . . IT is at all times relational, interpersonal, and based upon inequality of influence between the leader and the followers.” (Edinger, 1967)

“Leadership is an interpersonal relationship in which others comply because they want to not, not because they have to “ (Merton, 1969)

1970s

“Leadership is a process of structuring, organizing, and guiding a situation so that all members of a group can achieve common goals with maximum economy and minimum time and effort.” (Saville, 1971)

“Leadership is the initiation and maintenance of structure in expectation and interaction.” (Stogdill, 1974)

“Leadership is defined in terms of discretionary influence. Discretionary influence refers to those leader behaviors under the control of the leader which he may vary from individual to individual.” (Osborn and Hunt, 1975)

“Leadership is a process of influence between a leader and those who are followers. Leadership usually involves a two-way influence relationship aimed primarily at attaining mutual goals. Leadership is a process not a person. Leadership involves an ongoing social exchange, and ongoing transaction between leaders and followers.” (Hollander, 1978)

“Leadership is the reciprocal process of mobilizing by persons with certain motives and values, various economic, political, and other resources, in a context of competition and conflict, in order to realize goals independently or mutually held by both leaders and followers.” (Burns, 1978)

“Leadership is defined as the degree to which the behavior of an individual is perceived as an acceptable attempt to influence. It is an attribution made about the intentions of others to influence members of a group and about the degree to which the influence attempt is successful.” (House and Baetz, 1979)

1980s Leadership as “Do What the Leaders Want”

“Leadership is an interaction between members of a group. Leaders are agents of change, persons whose acts affect others more than other people‟s acts affect them. Leadership occurs when one group member modifies the motivation or competencies of others in the group.” (Bass, 1981)

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“Leadership in this study refers to the top-level administrative executive and his/her dominant coalition of the organization, which invested with the powers, status, and resources to manipulate, interpret, and negotiate constraints and resources into policy.” (Weiss, 1986)

“Leadership is the total effect you have on the people and events around you. That effect is your influence.” (Schatz and Schatz, 1986)

“Leadership is a process of persuasion and example by which an individual (or team) induces a group to take action that is in accord with the leader‟s purposes or the shared purposes of all.” (Gardner, 1989)

1980s Leadership as “Fulfilling Group Goals”

“Leadership is a process and property. The process of leadership is the use of noncoercive influence to direct and coordinate the activities of an organized group toward the accomplishment of group objectives. As property, leadership is a set of qualities or characteristics attributed to those who are perceived to successfully employ such influence.” (Jago, 1982)

“Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or group in efforts towards goal achievement in a given situation.” (Hersey and Blanchard, 1988)

“Leadership is the ability to influence people so that they willingly and enthusiastically strive toward the achievement of group goals.” (Montor, 1987)

1980s Leadership as “Influence”

“Leadership is a process of human interaction in which some individuals exert, or attempt to exert, a determining influence upon others.” (Tucker, 1981)

“Leadership is the ability to influence the actions of others. “ (Brittel, 1984)

“Leadership involves a social influence process in which a person steers members of the group towards a goal.” (Bryman, 1986)

“Leadership is influence. That‟s it. Nothing more; nothing less.” (Maxwell, 1993) 1980s Leadership as “Transformation”

“Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.” (Burns, 1978)

“Leadership is being redefined as leaders are challenged to work within multiple dimensions of the organization in order to transform behavior, structures, and consciousness.” (Buckley and Steffy, 1986)

“Leadership is fundamentally addressed to social change and human emancipation . . . and its ultimate goal is the achievement and refinement of human community.” (Foster, 1989)

1980s Leadership as “Social Construction”

“Leadership is realized in the process whereby one or more individuals succeeds in attempting to frame and define the reality of others. Indeed leadership situations may be conceived as those in which there exists an obligation or a perceived right for certain individuals to define the reality of others. (Smircich and Morgan, 1982)

“Leadership is a willful act where one person attempts to construct the social world for others. “ (Greenfield, 1984)

“Leadership involves creating a vision that draws people toward a common desired reality.” (Ritscher, 1986)

“Leadership is the process by which „social order‟ is constructed and changed.” (Hoskings and Morley, 1988)

1980s Leadership as “Extraordinary Achievement”

“Leadership is generally defined as the capacity to make things happen that would otherwise not happen.” (Cronin, 1980)

“Leadership is the ability to gain consensus and commitment to common objectives, beyond organizational requirements, which are attained with the experience of contribution and satisfaction on the part of the work group.” (Cribbins, 1981)

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“The leader is one who motivates us to do more than we originally expected.” (Bass, 1985)

“Leadership is enabling strong individuals to join together in a collective creative act of bringing into the world what they most deeply care about and want to see.” (Fritz, 1986)

1990s

“Leadership is the capacity of a human community—people living and working together—to bring forth new realities. . . In the learning organization, the leader is a designer (of the learning process), a steward (of the community‟s vision and values), and a teacher (of the ability to learn and grow.” (Senge, 1990)

“Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes.” (Rost, 1993)

“Leadership is mobilizing people to do adaptive work.” (Heifetz, 1994)

“Leaders are people, who by word and/or personal example, markedly influence the behaviors, thoughts, and/or feelings of a significant number of their fellow human beings. . . Leaders achieve their effectiveness chiefly through the stories they relate.” (Gardner, 1995)

2000s

“Leadership is a complex process that results from the interaction among a leader, followers, and the situation. A leader is any person who influences individuals and groups within an organization, helps them in the establishment of goals, and guides them toward achievement of those goals, thereby allowing them to be effective.” (Nahavandi, 2000)

“Leadership is symbolic communication which modifies the attitudes and behaviors of others in order to meet shared group goals and needs.” (Heckman and Johnson, 2000)

“Leadership is bringing people together to make something different happen.” (Cleveland, 2002)

“Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how it can be done effectively, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.” (Yukl, 2002)

“Leadership happens when people sharing work create together a shared sense of meaning, direction, and adaptive challenge. Leadership becomes effective through processes of relational dialogue.” (Daft, 2001)

“Leadership is an emergent quality of the character that radiates and makes others want to follow, based on the respect and rust the leader generates.” (Fernandez, 2004)

Summary of “The Industrial Leadership Paradigm” to 1990 The industrial paradigm of leadership includes a:

Structural-functional view of organizations

View of management as the preeminent profession

Personalistic focus on the leader

Dominant objective of goal achievement

Self-interested and individualistic outlook

Male model of life

Utilitarian and materialistic ethical perspective

Rational, technocratic, linear, quantitative, and scientific language and methodology. (Joseph C. Rost, 21

st Century Leadership)