Analysis of Leadership

Assesses alternative approaches based on leadership traits, attitudes, styles, situations.The purpose of this paper is to trace the study of leadership from the traits approach to modern, multidimensional approaches. The literature abounds with definitions of leadership, but one that is sufficiently broad for the framework of this research has been provided by John W. Gardner (1990): the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers (p.

1).Trait ApproachesDuring the first half of the twentieth century, the most common approach to studying leadership was the traits approach. To be able to induce others to follow, leaders were assumed to possess certain characteristics–i.e., assertiveness, sensitivity, integrity, friendliness. Leaders then could be …