Leadership Theory

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Leadership Theory

Introduction

Leadership is the process of influencing people for the accomplishment of mutual objective. A person can be termed as a leader if he or she has the power to persuade people to make efforts regarding the attainment of a goal, while making them responsible for their actions. Scholars have adopted and still proposing different theories to provide the explanation of the concept of leadership. Thus, the field of leadership is every growing, and will continue to grow since every leader utilizes a unique concept for influencing the society. However, there are certain leadership theories which cover almost every leadership style, because of their broad horizon. In connection to the above discussion, this paper is going to analyse the leadership of Lyndon Baines Johnson, one of the most iconic leader in the history of United States of America. Lyndon Baines Johnson also referred as LBJ was the 36th president of the United States of America. He served the office as a president during 1963-1969. Lyndon Baines Johnson has been characterised as charismatic leader, because of his unique ability which was evident since he was in school. The paper will also utilize different leadership approaches in order to justify why he is being perceived as a leader. This will also help in highlighting Lyndon Baines qualities as a leader.

Discussion and Analysis

Lyndon Baines Johnson as a Leader

Born on August 27, 1908 Lyndon Johnson was the 36th president (1963 - 69) and 37th vice president (1961 - 63) of United States of America. He was the vice president of US in the government of John F. Kennedy, but sworn in as president following the assassination of the Kennedy. Johnson has the honour of being among the list of few people who has served in all four elected federal office (Notable Biographies, n.d). Advocate of the vision of Democrat, Johnson has been actively supported by the Democratic Party as well as by the Democrat's leaders. He has been credited as the designer of “Great Society” a legislation which upheld Medicaid, Medicare, aid to education, civil rights, environment protection, public broadcasting and others. Some of his leadership qualities include “Johnson Treatment” and his domineering personality. Moreover, his actions to coercive politicians for the advancement of legislation are also commendable (Dallek, 1998).

As soon as Lyndon Johnson assumed his responsibilities as president of the United States, he intensified the engagement of the country in Vietnam War, through increasing the number of Armed Forces from 16000 to 555000(Notable Biographies, n.d). This decision came, since the number of causalities due to limited presence in the region was increasing. However, Lyndon has been subject to criticism mainly by the youth, who condemn the policies embraced by him to increase engagement of American soldiers on foreign soil. Moreover, it was under his leadership when the summer riots break out in most of the cities of United States after 1965. During the term of Lyndon the crime rate increased dramatically, and opposition has started to question his performance as ...