Leadership Theories and Their Impact on Organizations

Leadership Theories and Their Impact on Organizations

Karen Goosen

Liberty University

Abstract

After nearly one-hundred years of scholarly research, leadership still does not have a definition that is generally accepted and agreed upon by scholars. One many argue that it is a person's influence on another in order to get that person to do what they normally would not have done, while others may say it involves power and authority. Numerous theories have emerged as a result of the studies of leadership. This paper will give an overview of several of those theories, discuss their strengths, limitations and attempt to discern the impact the theories have on organizations.

Introduction

"People buy into the leader, then they buy into the vision" (Maxwell, 1998, p. 169). Organizations are filled with leaders whose jobs are to empower their people to buy into the vision of the corporation in order to be profitable and successful. But where do these leaders come from? Are they natural born, or are they made? Why are there different styles of leading, and what are they? Are the people of organizations impacted in different ways depending on the style of the leader? This paper will review those different styles of leading— known as leadership theories, and make the connection between the theories and the impact they have on organizations.

History of the Study of Leadership

The theories of leadership are dynamic and complex, in fact, they are so sophisticated that many of the simplistic books available on the shelves of bookstores actually do leadership no justice whatsoever. Leadership has been spoken of in a broad sense over centuries through teaching of Confucian, Buddhist, and others, yet scholarly studies began to appear in academics in the mid to late twentieth century (Burns, J. 2005). Management theories go back a little further to the early 1900's when Fredrick Winslow Taylor published his Principles of Scientific Management book...