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Leadership : What Is Leadership?

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What is leadership? Having good leadership is necessary for any organization. Definitions of leadership are varied. It is a fundamental element within society that has attracted the interest of thousands of scientists, historians, and philosophers for hundreds of years, yet none of them can decide upon its meaning. Cook (2000) calls leadership the “ability to learn and adapt to change, a risk taker and using personal powers to win the hearts and minds of people to achieve a common purpose.” Northouse (2010) claims leadership is change and movement. Burns (1978) defines leadership as “a mobilization process by individuals with certain motives, values, and access to resources in a context of competition and conflict in pursuit of goals” For my purposes, leadership is merely managing knowledge in a way that leads to creating and sharing knowledge within an organization (Chi, Lan, & Dorjgotov, 2012). The success of leadership in organizations often varies significantly and identifying leadership styles that suit an organization best is an essential skill in any CEO, manager, director, or alike.
THEORY AND APPROACH
Transformational Leadership
There are countless theories about leadership that have been sorted and organized into several precise approaches or styles based on traits, behaviors, situational factors, or culture factors. In the 1970s, James MacGregor Burns developed a more complex approach to leadership which he called transformational leadership. The goals of

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