Leadership

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

Scholars tend to hold two mutually exclusive views about leadership: one school of thought holds that leaders are born (Grint, 2000, Nietzsche, 1969) and that the qualities they embody are subconscious (Lowen, 1975), while the other posits that humans need to work hard to develop these qualities before they can emerge as leaders (Henrikson, 2006; Kakabadse and Kakabadse, 1999; Kakabadse and Myers, 1996).

The “great man” theory (Carlyle, 2007; James, 1880) exemplifies the former view and is interested in the personality traits which leaders intrinsically possess (Kakabadse and Kakabadse, 1999). This approach assumes that a “great man” naturally holds the essential skills which allow him to perform as a leader. By identifying these essential traits, others can emulate them through simulated versions of leadership (Lawler, 2005). When applying this approach, scholars analyse specific tasks or problems and provide leadership typologies for addressing them (Mullins, 2003; Hersey and Blanchard, 1993; Bass and Avolio, 1990). Many scholars have explored the behaviour of leaders, the impact of context or “situation” on leadership (Yukl, 2006), the function of leadership (Shamir, 1995), as well as “contingency” and dynamic processes (Baker, 2007; Fiedler, 1967). Both the behavioural perspective as well as the economic model examine leadership as a role whose purpose is to assist an organization to adapt. That is how an individual practicing leadership can help an organisation to affect adaptive change (Kotter, 1990; Heifetz, 1998; Nanus, 1995).

The developmental school of thought, on the other hand, seeks to understand the conscious steps taken to become a leader. Rooted in existentialist phenomenology, it holds that human development as well as human history is created (i.e. “caused”) by our awareness of our own mortality (i.e. existential “time”) which shapes everyday lives as a continuous interpretation of experience of the past and expectation (i.e. “anticipation”) of the future (Koselleck, 1985, 2002). In this case, personal life “is a constant becoming through a constant intentionality of development” (MacDonald, 2000, p.33), and human existence is centred on the idea of possibility where “he is always more than he is; his being is never complete at any given moment” (Sartre, 1973, p. 32). This view suggests that articulations of one's experience and anticipation of the future are subject to interpretation and evolve over time (Nanus, 1995; MacDonald, 2000). The developmental school holds that leadership is grounded in experience and reflected by the personal interpretation of specific meanings articulated by inconsistent uses of language (Kakabadse and Kakabadse, 1999). These, in turn, influence the development of future perspectives (Alvesson and Svenningson, ...