Leadership has been described as

the wise use of power and the ability to influence

others effectively in order to accomplish a goal.

Leadership has different meanings in various authors. Harold Koontz

(1990) defines leadership as
influence, that is, the art or process of influencing people so that they
will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of
group goals.
• Leaders act to help a group attain objectives through the
maximum application of its capabilities.

• Leaders do not stand behind a group to push and prod;

they place themselves before the group as they
• Facilitate progress and inspire the group to accomplish
organizational goals.

• In these lines, a good example is an orchestra leader,

whose function is to produce coordinated sound

• and correct tempo through the integrated effort of the

musicians. Depending upon the quality of the director's
leadership, the orchestra will respond.
• Autocratic: Everything is defined by the leader who tells his
subordinates what to do and expects them to carry out his decisions
(commands). The leader is dogmatic and leads by the ability to
withhold or give rewards and punishment.

• Democratic or participative: The leader fully shapes her

decision-making power with her subordinates, allowing each
member of the group to carry an equal vote. One person, one vote.
The leader consults with subordinates and encourages participation
from them.

• Laissez-faire or the free-rein: The leader does not use his

power, giving subordinates a high degree of independence in their
operations. Such leaders depend largely on subordinates to set their
own goals and the means of achieving them, and they see their role
as one of aiding the operations of followers by furnishing them with
information and acting primarily as a contact with the group's
external environment.
• Appropriate knowledge: appropriate knowledge is
needed so that her abilities cannot be questioned.
• Experience: certain amount of cognitive and notional
experience is required so that he will react instinctively,
giving the right solution.
• Virtuosity: he knows the best solving methods and he
applies them in complex situations.
• Trust: her abilities create a feeling of trust among her
followers.
• Mobility: he is able to move to different settings and
groups, within the appropriate field of his experience.
• Effectiveness:
• she wants to be effective and she is using her abilities to
do so.
• Recognition:
• he is satisfied with his work and most importantly his
followers are as well.
• Leading: she is happy to lead and she is devoting time
and effort to do so. She is well known as a giver rather
as a receiver.
• 2, 5, 6- However either these characteristics to exist
partially or as a whole, they are not enough in the
practice to they ensure the achievement of objectives
and the prosperity of team.
• An effective leadership is considered the one that
maintains the entire rings of this chain intact, facilitating
and supporting continuously the individual operations of
this labour model.
• It argues that few people are born with the
necessary characteristics to be great.
• Therefore, these men are supposedly effective
in any situation, as leading abilities are inherent
to them.
• Many find this theory unattractive because of its
premise that leaders are born and not made,
which
• suggests that leadership cannot be developed
• A person maybe a leader because she is charismatic,
but relatively little is known
• about this intangible characteristic. What constitutes
charisma? Most agree that it is an inspirational
• quality possessed by some people that make others feel
better in their presence. The charismatic leader inspires
others by obtaining emotional commitment from
followers and by arousing a strong feeling of
• loyalty and enthusiasm. (Perhaps she may arise strong
negative feelings too!)
• However, because charisma is so elusive, some may
sense it while others do not.
• Until the mid-1940s, the trait theory was the basis for
most leadership research. Early work
• in this area maintained that traits are inherited, but later
theories suggested that traits could be
• obtained through learning and experience. If, however,
the search was to identify traits that were
• consistently associated with leadership, the results can
be interpreted in a more impressive light. for
• example, intelligence, dominance, self-confidence, high
energy level and task-relevant knowledge are five
• traits that show consistently positive correlations with
leadership.
• These theories became popular during the 1950s. They
suggest that the traits
• required of a leader differ according to varying situations.
Among the variables that determine the
• effectiveness of leadership style are factors such as the
personality of the leader and followers, the
• attitudes, needs and expectations of the leader and
followers, the degree of interpersonal contact
• possible, time pressures, physical environment,
organizational structure, the nature of organization, the
state of the leader outside of the group.
• A person may be a leader in one situation and a follower
in another because the type of leadership needed
depends on the situation.
• During the 1960s, Fred Friedler introduced the
contingency model of leadership.
• Refuting the ideal leadership style theory, he
argued that a leadership style will be effective or
ineffective
• depending on the situation. He identified three
aspects of a situation that structure the leader's
role: a)
• leader-meter relations, b) task structure and c)
position power.
• Robert House derived the path-goal theory from
the expectancy theory which argues that a
person acts as she does because she expects
her behaviour to produce satisfactory results.
• He then argued that structure activities for
subordinates generally had more productive
work groups and higher performance
evaluations from superiors.
• This theory predicts the most appropriate
leadership style from the level of maturity of
the followers.
• This model is consistent with Argyris's
immaturity-maturity continuum, which indicates
that as a person matures, she progresses from
a passive to an active state and from
dependence to independence. With maturity
he passes from a need to structure and need
of relationship to a little need for both.