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Leadership And Governance Essay

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Leadership And Governance

Introduction

Like love, death, money, politics, and war, the subject of leadership is one that is continuously under discussion. Yet, despite all the attention given to leadership and its recognized importance, leadership still remains pretty much of an unexplained and confusing concept. There are innumerable theories that explain various facets of the leadership phenomena but unfortunately there is no comprehensive and general theory of leadership, which can make our overall task of understanding leadership easy and simple. One of the best ways in which we can enhance our understanding of leadership is to see how various students of the subject have defined …show more content…

However a closer examination of the following definitions of leadership will reveal that there is a growing awareness that in leadership "influence or persuasion" which leads to "willing or motivated goal achievement behavior" is the key concept.

Leadership researchers have defined leadership in the following different ways:

· The creative and directive force of morale (Munson 1981).

· The process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired manner (Bennis 1959).

· The presence of a particular influence relationship between two or more persons (Hollander & Julian 1969).

· Directing and coordinating the work of group members (Fielder 1967).

· An interpersonal relation in which others comply because they want to, not because they have to (Hogan et al. 1994).

· Transforming followers, creating visions of the goals that may be attained, and articulating for the followers the ways to attain those goals (Tichy & Devanna 1986).

Regardless of the definitions used, leadership must have a worthwhile purpose. Without a specific goal, leadership can degrade into an exercise in self-enrichment rather than mission accomplishment. For example, you should not aspire to be an executive vice president for the large salary. Rather, you should aspire for high office in order to accomplish specific goals for the improvement of the

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