The Great Man Theory Of Leadership

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

For centuries leaders have been analyzed in order to determine what the traits and characteristics of a successful leader are. Leadership, as defined by Koontz and Weihrich (2008) is “the art or a process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals” (p. 311). Leadership plays an important role in employee’s participation, creativity, recruitment to an organization, their commitment to the organization, and productivity levels. Over the years, there have been a number of theories surrounding leadership such as the “Great Man” theory, which, according to Riaz and Haider (2010), “assumes that leaders are born and have innate qualities, therefore, leaders

Businesses also have a variety of different leaders controlling the organization. Some executives attain a high-level position, placing them in a leadership role. However, there are many leadership positions that do not actually “lead” a team. A leader does not decide to be a leader overnight. A leader possesses a particular set of qualities and

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?

Classical organisational theorist defined leadership in terms of achieving a group’s objectives R.C Davies (1942) referred to leadership as “the principle dynamic forces that motivates and coordinates the organisation in the accomplishment of its objectives.” Similarly, Urwick (1953) stated that the leader is “the personification of common purpose not only to all who work under taking, but to everyone outside it.” K. Davies (1962) defined leadership as “the human factor which binds a group together and motivates it towards goals.” Cattell (1951) took the extreme position that leadership is whatever or whoever contributes to the group’s performance. To measure each members Leadership, Cattell noted, removed him or her from the group, one at a time, and observe what happens to the group’s performance. Calder (1977) and Pfeffer (1977) “stated that leadership is mainly influence and is even attributed to participants after the fact.

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

This report reviews and examines the theories behind leadership; identifying and analysing the concept of leadership and leaders from an analytical perspective. Some of the key points will focus on areas I have particular disputes with. Areas such as:

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

What is leadership? How does society define as good and bad leaders? What are the traits most embodied by the successful leaders? These questions, along with many other, have been the topic of debate for centuries. Defining leadership in hard terms can be a challenging thing. In one hand, soldiers in the Army, for instance, can recite the definition of a leadership that came out of a publication. On the contrary, most soldiers will struggle to define what leadership means to them, in their words. However, troops in any organization can quickly identify who is a bad or a good leader. They know what right looks and feels like, though, putting it into terms can prove to be more challenging, and goes to demonstrate why it is

Leadership has been studied extensively and many varying definitions exist. Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2015, p.4) review many of these definitions and consequently describe leadership as ‘the process of influencing an organised group towards its goals’. Leadership involves the interplay of a range of different factors, not least the leader themselves, the followers and the situation. For

Leadership is the nature of planning togetherness among the people to attain a common objective (Richard, W. 2008). The leader might have any formal power yet ought to demonstrate the capability to make the whole group in including mutual cooperation, conduct, practicality, qualities, and at last enhancing the potential of the individuals of the team. In a lot of people with daily circumstances, togetherness have a tendency to be more gainful and effective when they have a leader to guide them (Wendell, L. 1998).

Through time the concept and interpretation of leadership has gone through many changes as will be seen in this paper. These changes have been ever-improving on the last one but also changing in the requirements of the leader and of the situation of the day. The problem today is that companies are finding it difficult to look for a single source of advice when it comes to the guidance and education for their middle managers in order to try and pinpoint the potential top leader amongst them. This is the nature of leadership however, but through research and a collection of aspects one can start to narrow that search so as to find the qualities that are needed in leadership in our modern society. They may be varied and numerous but they are nonetheless collectible into one all-encompassing leadership model.

“Leadership is more ability than job. Moreover, it is all about determination, ability to solve problems, set direction for followers, gather them for common purpose and motivating people to achieve tasks. Furthermore, it is a charisma and the ability to reacting at the right time for a particular competitive situation” (L.Mullins, 2010, P372).

Leadership theories are attempts to answer some of the question people have about leadership. These theories range from simple “armchair philosophies” about the personal characteristics and effect relationship between leaders and followers and situations.