Approaches to Studying Leadership

Leadership has been researched extensively but yet scholars are yet to find or compile an exact definition. As (Kent, Todd, 2004) explain there have been many efforts in defining leadership and several ideas have been compiled yet there is still a distinct discrepancy amongst scholars. Author Chelladurai breaks down leadership into three elements: "(1) leadership is a behavior process, (2) leadership is interpersonal in nature, and (3) leadership is aimed at influencing and motivating members toward group goals" (pg. 160). These are the ways he focuses leaderships and their intentions towards leading. Kent and Todd further discuss the importance of leadership and its distinct aspect to society and organizations, and that future successes are largely dependent upon it (2004). Another area in the domain of leadership styles is when (Zorn & Violanti 1993) define leadership as "patterns of behaviors, assumptions, attitudes, or traits exhibited by individuals in attempting to provide leadership" (pg. 70). Additionally we further examine (Bloom, Vallée, 2005; Chelladurai, 1990; Chelladurai & Seleh 1978; Zhang et. al. 1997) in which "they break down the different styles of leadership into five categories, autocratic, democratic, positive feedback, social support and training and instruction. They

Leadership is a term that cannot be defined or simplified with a standard definition (Bethel, 2011). The term’s complexity is a phenomenon, as it carries a different meaning for each person. During the

Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”...

What is leadership? How does people perceive leadership in their everyday Life? Can we still today, in a world oriented more an more towards individualism and commitment to achievement of personal goals, talk about leadership?

The trait approach is clearly flawed because it only takes into account one side of leadership; however, it does provide valuable insight on the leadership side. Trait theory provides an outline for feedback. Subordinates can quickly pick up on qualities that a leader does or does not have. This feedback can provide individuals with a good understanding of where they stand as a leader. Simple surveys such as the leadership trait questionnaire can be conducted to translate feedback into tangible evidence. I have distributed this questionnaire and collected results for myself to grasp my perceived leadership trait levels. For my example as a plebe, I had a clear perception of where the firstie stood as a leader. I unconsciously recognized many leadership traits without having a solid understanding of what I saw. This illustrates the nature of the approach. It identifies people who have demonstrated leadership traits and has no description for how a leader should act in an environment or situation. It is extremely easy to conceptualize but fails to take the leadership situation and context into account. The trait approach provides important concepts to better understand leadership but is clearly is not enough be used exclusively as a guiding theory.

The questions regarding what makes a great leader, are they born that way, is there certain behaviors that can be taught, and can one switch from one style of leadership to another, are addressed from multiple perspectives. Three main schools of thought, trait theory, behavioral theory and contingency theory, work to explain the social phenomena of leadership. Though they pull from psychological theories, they each contribute valuable pieces that strives to solve the riddle of what makes or constitutes a great leader. However, this riddle may be far less complex, as John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” (Adams,

The principal aspects of leadership are oft debated; to attempt to define what leadership is would most certainly result in broad and varied definitions dependent on who is queried. Nonetheless, in the preeminent

In the research carried out by Bass (1990), they found out that trait leadership theory believes some people are born to lead because of their personal qualities, while others are not. Trait theory also suggests that leadership is only accessible to the chosen ones and not available to all. In the past researchers focused on traits that were able to measure such as physical characteristics, aspects of personality and aptitudes. The current trait research has pointed the focus to more specific traits like stress tolerance, energy level, emotional maturity, integrity and self-confidence. Reviews of the trait research have found all of the above traits to be related to managerial effectiveness Bass (1990) and Marques (2010). When looking at the results of

Leadership is a process of influencing activities of a particular group of people with the aim of attaining certain stipulated goals. In defining leadership there is need to consider a particular group, the common goals and the duties that are allocated to specific members of the group depending on their abilities (Fiedler 1976). Leadership therefore cannot successfully occur unless members of the group are given different considerations in terms of personality, traits and responsibilities. In considering leadership, it is important to look at the leader, the group or organization they are leading, the members as individuals and the situation; these are

When we say LEADERSHIP, a lot of factors are associated to it.  It has a lot of dimensions and one cannot simply inherit it.We need to get exposed to a lot of dimensions in order to acquire those.

The trait leadership theory focuses on the individual leader’s personal characteristics as the basis of its investigations. It is one of the earliest leadership theories upon whose tenets many researches on leadership have been done. Although it is not very coherent, its heuristic nature has contributed to its significance in leadership research. Zaccaro and Klimoski (2002) define traits of reference to leadership as the stable personality characteristics, which result in a consistent leadership performance pattern, given different scenarios and groups. They include individual personalities, temperament, rationale, prowess, as well as cognitive abilities. Initially, the theory explored both physical and psychological characteristics that tell apart leaders from non-leaders.

Trait approach is considered as the first interpretation of the leadership. People with in born talent of leadership are considered as part of this approach. This is considered as the oldest approach. It was noticed that people with such ability have set example to others by their personal, behavior attributes and inspirational talks. Many people have started to study and understand about great heroes who have set examples to the future. Many questioned have risen on this trait approach, Stogdill have stated that people with leadership trait in one particular situation might not be the same in all situations. Mann conducted on personal and less on situational leadership. Lord et al used analysis known as meta analysis from all these studies author have decided that personality trait has mainly differentiated leader from followers. Kirkpatrick and Locke conducted a qualitative study, which shows leaders are way different from

The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do

Moreover, the trait approach gives a deeper understanding of the leader element in the leadership process by emphasising exclusively on the leader, (Gore et al, 2011). The trait theory does not offer hypotheses about the role of situational variance or characteristic of the followers. Instead, this approach provide information about leaders, and about which traits cause which behaviours and that certain set of traits are central to the leadership process and play an indispensible part of effective leadership.

This theory is based on the premise that there are certain personality characteristics that are essential for a person to possess in order to be a leader. The main emphasis is on what the person is in terms of a constellation of personality traits. This theory searches for that set of universal leadership traits that will assure success. Numerous traits have been suggested: courage, integrity, loyalty, charisma, ambition, intelligence, honesty, clairvoyance, persistence, arrogance, health, political skill, confidence and vision.