Leadership Research Paper

Introduction

Since the beginning of time philosophers have pondered the essence of leadership. What is it? How do we obtain it? How do we motivate others to share and exemplify goals? From the early writings of great thinkers like Plato, Aristotle and Machiavelli has evolved the contemporary organizational theory set upon the task to rally and motivate others to execute to the highest levels of productivity and efficiency. Many great leaders have contributed to this conversation throughout history. One of the best known is Frederick Winskiw Taylor, an American mechanical engineer who sought to increase efficiency with the initiation of the theory of scientific management. The boom of the industrial revolution and the first World War were the catalyst to the prioritizing of rationalism over humanism, productivity over people. Scientific management sought to increase the efficiency of the organization with precise sets of instructions and time-motion studies that would lead to increased productivity. This seemingly cold and systematic scale of goal setting and rewards to motivate employees, is at the foundation of many rational organizational behavioral theories. After the war, focus was able to shift toward more humanistic and psychological methods of motivation as exemplified in Hawthorn’s theories. A new war renewed the focus to operational research as a means of increasing efficiency and productivity in organizations such as research in organizational structure and systems theory.

As the culture of our nation shifted to emphasize social issues in society, the focus of organization theory shifted to include elements of social psychology using quantitative research to develop new organizational theories, which manipulated emotions and human nature to maximize efficiency. Herzberg, Mayo, Follett and McGregor are among these theorists responsible for elevation of organizational behavior as a primary factor in organization theory and recognized...