In eight pages this paper discusses the leadership concept in a consideration of leadership theories and styles with Life Cycle, Theory Z, and Machiavellian among those examined. Twelve sources are cited in the bibliography.
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his academic career studying leadership only to conclude: "Leadership is the worst defined, least understood personal attribute sometimes possessed by human beings" (Bennett, 2000). It seems that leadership is something
that we recognize when we see it and realize it isnt there when we do not see certain things but to define it is nearly impossible. If it is a
nebulous concept and if it is so difficult to even define, it would follow that theories regarding leadership would be suspect, at best. Theories about leadership have been categorized
into three broad groups: 1. Trait Theories, which are founded on the belief that leaders are born, not made (Marxcy, 1999). Aristotle, Carlyle and other theorists focus on the traits
of leaders (Marxcy, 1999). There are two major problem with these theories: first, traits have not been found to be the same for leaders across contexts or cultures and second,
leadership skills cannot be taught or trained (Marxcy, 1999). The traits or characteristics of a leader include height, energy, the ability to articulate, possession of knowledge, intelligence, adaptability, responsibility, effectiveness
as a decision-maker, extroverted, persistent, ambitious, self-confident, and older than followers. Stogdill and Mann also called this theory the Great Man theory. Their individual research involved the personality variables that
could be identified as having a positive correlation with leadership. Each of them found there were only a few traits that revealed a positive correlation (Stogdill, 1974; Mann, 1959). 2.
Environmental Theories, which hold that leadership is dependent upon the situation, culture, context, or other environmental conditions, thus, leaders emerge within specific conditions, they are not born (Marxcy, 1999). The
problem with these theories is that researchers have not been able to identify the environment that is most successful in yielding leaders (Marxcy, 1999). The most famous work done in