LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS OF ... - Drake University

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Leadership theory has evolved significantly in the past century.
While there are as many definitions for the word "leader" as there are
leaders, researchers and practitioners continue to focus their attention on
the characteristics, styles, behaviors, and processes of these individuals
and their leadership work. Researchers of leadership have yet to concur
about the classifications or generalizations of leadership theory. Yet many
agree that the progression of thinking over the years has contributed to
the current beliefs that leadership is a loosely developmental process, with
each piece of research building on and rarely completely discounting that
which came before it (van Maurick, 2001). This evolution of leadership
theory suggests that none of the previous four generations of leadership
theory is mutually exclusive or time bound.
Over time, leadership theory progressed from focusing on the
leader to focusing on the situation or context; and later from focusing on
the leader-subordinate relationship to our current emphasis on the impact
effective leaders have on organizational change and the alignment of
organizational and follower goals. Theories having the greatest impact on
current mainstream leadership work that have emerged over the last
century include: (1) Great Man Theory; (2) Trait Theory; (3) Style and