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The Theory Of Leadership And Leadership

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Introduction

Leadership has moved well beyond its humble origins of innate traits and skills. The effective leader is now described in terms of a full range of leadership that encompasses transformative, transactional and passive styles, each with a slew of subtypes. Where once this full range of leadership was thought to be a range of extremes, with transformative leadership existing at one extreme and transactional leadership on the other, a more complex understanding of leadership now exists. This new understanding recognizes leaders who are neither fully transformative nor fully transactional, but depend upon on a combination of behaviors that cannot be adequately described by a single, static style of leadership. Adding to this…show more content…
Styles of Leadership
Researchers have long sought the alchemy that results in effective leadership. In their search, they initially found the Great Man or the traits and skills that result in a great man. They have since rested on the notion that an effective leader embodies a full range of leadership behaviors that are used as the situation dictates. Vann, Coleman, and Simpson (2014) offer a compelling description of this full range of leadership behavior. Borrowing from the Leadership Styles Scale, Vann and colleagues (2014) propose that leadership behavior is not monolithic in character but is instead a hybrid of traits.

Democratic and Autocratic Leadership. Democratic and autocratic leadership exist on opposite ends of a spectrum. Democratic leaders “seek advice and input from their followers” and “motivate their followers by engaging their followers, listening to their ideas and treating both the individual and their ideas as equals” (Vann, Coleman & Simpson, 2014, p. 31). By contrast, autocratic leaders “concentrate all decision-making with themselves” (Vann et al., 2014, p. 31). Under democratic leadership, organizational hierarchy is irrelevant, whereas autocratic leaders promote a strong sense of hierarchy. And while autocratic leadership embraces a more Machiavellian-style of leadership, democratic leadership blurs, if not
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