Abstract:

Leadership is one of the most frequently investigated topics within the field of management studies due to its importance to all organizations. As such, there are several different approaches or perspectives that have guided leadership research. The researchers began their study of leadership in the early part of the 20th century by focusing on the traits associated with leadership effectiveness. This perspective was followed by attempts to examine the behaviors or styles exhibited by effective leaders. However, the research led to the realization that there is not one best style of leadership, which in turn spawned various contingency approaches to leadership in the 1960s and 70s. Contingency approaches focused on identifying the types of leadership behaviors that are most effective in different settings. Today, the transformational approach is the most popular perspective for studying leadership. Research based on this approach began in the early 1980s and adheres to the idea that leaders transform employees to pursue organizational goals through a variety of leader behaviors.