Management and Leadership

Chapter 1 Review and Discussion Questions

1. What are some similarities and differences in the way leadership has been defined?

The similarities of definitions outlined in the book reflect leadership as the assumption that involves a process where a person influences by guiding individuals or that person ability to facilitate various activities and relationships in a group or organization. The definition differ in many respects, including who exerts influence, the intended purpose of the influence, the manner in which influence is exerted and the outcome of the influence attempt.

2. Does it really matter how you define leadership? Explain and defined the position you take on this question?

Yes, it matters how leadership is defined. Although the term is broad by nature, viewed quite differently by many behavioral scientist and practioners, the fact remains that it is too important and considered a real phenomena to avoid the definition due to the complexity of the intervening arguments. From the perspective of the practitioner, transformational leadership theory provides useful definitions of elements of leadership that integrate a broad range of social process, while simultaneously providing useful subsets of leadership typologies that answer the oft-debated manager versus leader discussion. By describing leadership in hierarchal typologies of charismatic, transformational and transactional leadership, Bass (1985) and a host of other theorists have conceptualized a model that is inclusive of aspects of traits, influence, behaviors, and contingencies (Antonakis, Avolio & Sivasubramaniam, 2003; Yukl, 1996) that is useful as applied science in organizational environments. The challenge for those that would apply scientific standards to the definition is to seek integration of theory and practice, regardless of the difficulties the definition presents. First, academic and scientific leadership theories describe predictable function of leadership in...