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2011 E-Book-Ausgabe (EPUB)
2011 Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, Gtersloh
Responsible: Tina Doerffer, Martin Spilker
Editor: Tina Doerffer
Copy editor: Josh Ward, Bonn
Production editor: Sabine Reimann
Cover design: Bertelsmann Stiftung
Cover illustration: Digital Vision/John Knill
Typesetting and Printing: Hans Kock Buch- und Offsetdruck GmbH, Bielefeld
ISBN : 978-3-86793-400-8
www.bertelsmann-stiftung.org/publications
'www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/verlag'
Foreword
Everyone is talking about leadership. But what are the common approaches, camps and theories? What is current, what are the new classics and what is obsolete? The crisis and the latest Web 2.0 developments have not rendered the topic any less relevant. Which school of thought is closest to yours? This five-part reader on leadership, with its overview of approaches, developments and trends, provides references and guidance to help you anchor your own point of view.
Various scientific theories and approaches are described and contrasted, and their evolution is traced over time. In Part 1: Earliest Theories, the study describes the first theories of leadership, which were originally formulated in the United States and in Germany. Part 2: Systemic Leadership focuses on developments specific to the German-speaking countries. Part 3: Leadership as a Relational Phenomenon, Transformational Leadership, Values and Ethics discusses the development of leadership theories that take into account not only the leader, but also those who follow, the situation and the organization. Part 4: Motivation, Power and Psyche explores psychological research into the personality of the leader. Part 5: Leadership Today concludes the review of this topic, discussing representatives of the new classics in leadership research as well as the latest approaches and trends in the field, including leadership in light of Web 2.0. We end with a discussion of cultural aspects of leadership that are unique to Germany, taking into account the GLOBE study.
Our aim is to provide support for you in your daily, practical work with your executive board, colleagues and employees, and to contribute to the discussion about leaership in Germany and elsewhere.
Gtersloh, April 2011
Martin Spilker
Director
Bertelsmann Stiftung
Tina Doerffer
Project Manager
Bertelsmann Stiftung
Table of Contents
Introduction and Overview
Leadership is a social phenomenon that is found everywhere, a deeply human endeavor. For a long time, philosophers, scholars and leaders themselves have sought to develop models for organizing and exercising leadership in the best possible way. Even today, however, there is no single theory of leadership that applies in every case. Indeed, according to Weibler (2004), the main task for current leadership research is to determine exactly what is meant by the term leadership. Interest has centered on a variety of aspects of leadershipthe intentions of the leader, leadership behavior or effectiveness in achieving a goal. Former United States President Harry Truman defined leadership as the ability to get other people to do what they dont want to do and like it. Frances Hesselbein describes leadership as a matter of how to be, not how to do. We spend most of our lives mastering how to do things, but in the end it is the quality and character of the individual that defines the performance of great leaders (Hesselbein, 1990: xii). Peter Northouse defines leadership as a process whereby one individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2007: 3). Heifetz describes leadership as the ability, through various activities, to mobilize people and organizations to adapt to changing conditions (Heifetz 1998). The main objective of this volume is not to define the concept of leadership, nor to formulate a single, all-encompassing, universally valid theory. Instead, it is to offer the reader a brief overview of a number of different academic theories. Common to all of the models covered in this book is that they seek to describe the phenomenon of leadership and/or to provide ideas about ways to (or not to) organize leadership effectively.
The concepts of leadership and management are used synonymously in the following chapters. Despite Warren Bennis famous observation that managers do things right, leaders do the right thing, when discussing certain models we use the terms management and managers, following the usage of the original authors.
We also make a distinction between leaders and leadership. A leader is an individual who exercises leadership, someone who leads others for the purpose of bringing about change. Leadership is the process by which a leader promotes change, and generally includes the actions taken by the leader in conjunction with those being led, as well as the existing situation. The followers are the objects of leadership, or those who support the vision of the leader (McGovern, 2008). Most modern theories of leadership emphasize the interaction between the leader and the followers, rejecting the view that leadership depends only on the leader as an individual (Reggio et al. 2008).
Readers should note that the materials contained in this volume are in some cases normative prescriptions, in others descriptions. There are differences, moreover, in the degree and quality of empirical review to which the various models have been subjected.
To the extent possible, the individual sections have been organized to reflect historical trends:
Part 1: Earliest Theories describes the first theories of leadership, which focus on individual leaders, and the ideas about leadership style and situational leadership that developed out of those theories. It also describes the Harzburg model, which was developed in Germany just as the field of research into leadership styles was being developed in the United States.
Part 2: Systemic Leadership is devoted to major developments in the field of leadership theory in the German-speaking countries. It describes various approaches to leadership from the perspective of systems theory, tracing their evolution and highlighting differences and similarities. The intrapreneurship approach, which also had its origins in German-speaking Europe, is described as well.
Part 3: Leadership as a Relational Phenomenon, Transformatinal Leadership, Values and Ethics
The first section discusses theories that focus on the relationship between the leader and followers, such as the servant leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX) and team leadership theories. Transformational leadership is then distinguished from transactional leadership, and the most recent derivative developments are described. Leadership theories that focus on ethical behavior and values, such as authentic leadership, ethical leadership and toxic leadership, make up the final section of this chapter.
Part 4: Motivation, Power and Psyche
This chapter looks primarily at the contributions of psychological research that deal with the phenomenon of leadership. First it presents selected theories on motivation, and on the relationship between leadership and motivation. It turns then to the micropolitical approach, which makes power a focal issue. Perspectives drawing on the psychology of personality and psychodynamics again focus on the personality of leaders, but also take into account other personalities and how they interact. The chapter concludes with sociopsychological approaches (attribution theory) and positive organizational behavior, an offshoot of positive psychology.
