Leadership - CIPD

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