Investigating Leadership

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Investigating Leadership

Introduction

After conducting some research on leadership, many questions have been brought to my attention. Some questions include the following: What is a leader? Are leaders made or born? What is the difference between leadership and management? What are the theories concerning leadership? Answers to these questions, and many others, should become clear enough at the end of this research.

Schermerhorn defines leadership as 'a special case of interpersonal influence that gets an individual or group to do what the leader wants done' (287). On the other hand, Kathryn Bartol defines leadership as ?the process of influencing others to achieve organizational goals? (415). After analyzing the two quotes, I ask myself ?What is leadership?? I believe that leadership is the process of directing and guiding the behaviors of others in the appropriate directions to accomplish the goals and missions previously set. Schermerhorn and Bartol highlight the same issue, however although they are extremely similar, they address it in different words. A leader is a person who is ambitious, determined, focused, and motivated to achieve the organizational goals. The leader must have a clear understanding of individual differences in order to effectively utilize and appreciate the different contributions of different individuals. In addition, a leader must also be aware of the importance of communication between the leader and the followers; and of the communication amongst the followers themselves. Now however we may start to address the role management, and what role does it play in this enigmatic equation? Which in turn causes the rise of the question, what is the difference between leadership and m...

... middle of paper ...

...athryn M., and David C. Martin. Management. Third Edition. The McGraw

Hill Companies Inc., 1998.

· Blank, Warren. The 9 Natural Laws of Leadership. New York: AMACOM, 1995.

· Clark, Kenneth E., and Miriam B. Clark. Measures of Leadership. West Orange, New

Jersey: Leadership Library of America Inc., 1990.

· Georgiades, Nick, and Richard Macdonell. Leadership for Competitive Advantage.

England: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

· Kakabadse, Andrew, and Nada Kakabakse. Essence of Leadership. United Kingdom:

International Thomson Business Press, 1999.

· Karlof, Bengt. Conflicts of Leadership: Good for People of Good for Business?

Trans. Alan J Gilderson. Cyprus: 1996.

· Schermerhorn, John R. Jr., James G. Hunt, and Richard N. Osborn. Organizational

Behavior. Seventh Edition. John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

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