Leadership - CIPD
Leadership - CIPD
Leadership - CIPD
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52<br />
Managing and Leading People<br />
leadership: theoretical frameworks<br />
It is useful at this point to remind ourselves of some of the key frameworks which<br />
have developed for the analysis and study of leadership. A summary of differing<br />
academic approaches to the subject is offered by several writers, including<br />
Mullins (2007), Bloisi et al (2003), Hersey et al (2001), Huczynski and Buchanan<br />
(2007), Kreitner and Kinicki (2001), and Yukl (2006). Most offer a framework for<br />
leadership studies which identifies the following main schools of thought (after<br />
Mullins, 2007, p.366):<br />
l The qualities or traits approach<br />
l The functional or group approach<br />
l The approach which sees leadership as a behavioural category<br />
l The leadership styles approach<br />
l The situational approach and contingency models<br />
l Transformational leadership<br />
l Inspirational leadership.<br />
Taking each of these approaches in turn, we can examine the general principles<br />
and models involved, and comment on their suitability in relation to either<br />
strategic leadership or managerial (operational) leadership. Some comments about<br />
the implications of each model for the development of effective organisational<br />
leaders are also included.<br />
qualities or traits approach<br />
This approach is essentially the ‘great person’ theory of leadership, and takes an<br />
approach which tries to identify the significant features of acknowledged leaders.<br />
Early approaches to the study of leadership (mostly undertaken before and shortly<br />
after the Second World War) dwelt on the personal qualities and characteristics<br />
of successful leaders in an attempt to isolate the ‘magic ingredients’. They have not<br />
generally agreed on a common set of characteristics, although one or two, such as<br />
self-confidence and intelligence, did figure in a number of models (eg Kreitner and<br />
Kinicki, 2001). In fact, it is possible that the very act of selecting successful leaders<br />
for study introduces a form of bias which prejudices the results of any subsequent<br />
analysis. For instance, the absence of women from many research samples may<br />
well reflect the social constraints of the time rather than indicating that women<br />
lack innate leadership qualities. Indeed, it has been argued (Alimo-Metcalfe,<br />
1995) that studies of women leaders actually identify a different range of effective<br />
leadership qualities compared with studies of men – and that it is important to<br />
(ibid, pp7–8):<br />
challenge the dangerous implicit assumption that identifying the criteria<br />
for leadership positions from groups of senior managers, all or most of<br />
whom (chances are) are male, may well lead to gender-biased criteria for the<br />
subsequent assessment process.<br />
CD19636 ch04.indd 52 13/3/09 15:59:05<br />
A free sample chapter from Managing and Leading People by Charlotte Rayner and Derek Adam-Smith<br />
Published by the <strong>CIPD</strong>.<br />
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