How Can We Make Sense of Leadership in the 21st Century?
How can we make sense of leadership in the 21st century?
Malcolm Higgs Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, Oxford, UK
Keywords
Leadership, Intelligence, Behaviour, Organizational change
Introduction
For centuries we have been obsessed with leaders, and with identifying the characteristics required for effective leadership. In more recent times the area of leadership has been studied more extensively than almost any other aspect of human behaviour (Kets de Vries, 1993; Goffee and Jones, 2000; Higgs and Rowland, 2001). Many have pointed out that, in spite of the plethora of studies, we still seem to know little about the defining characteristics of effective leadership (e.g. Kets de Vries, 1994; Goffee and Jones, 2000; Hogan and Hogan, 2001). However, such observations do not appear to have stemmed our appetite for continuing the search. It has been estimated (Goffee and Jones, 2000) that, in 1999 alone, over 2,000 books were published on the topic of leadership. Last year a search on the Library of Congress database revealed in excess of 8,000 books on the topic of leadership (Aitken, 2002). Further evidence of the current level of fascination with the concept is provided by the devotion of a special edition of the Harvard Business Review to the topic in December 2001. With this background in mind, this paper sets out to explore the ``long line'' of study and attempts to make sense of what we have found in the context of today's business environment. The paper sets out to develop a framework for thinking about leadership in terms of combining personality and behaviours. Working from this framework the possible linkages between the concepts of emotional intelligence (Salovey and Meyer, 1990; Goleman, 1996; Higgs and Dulewicz, 1999) and leadership are explored with empirical data supporting these being presented.
Abstract
Explores the development of thinking on leadership and places it in the context of the dominant discourses of the period
Malcolm Higgs Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, Oxford, UK
Keywords
Leadership, Intelligence, Behaviour, Organizational change
Introduction
For centuries we have been obsessed with leaders, and with identifying the characteristics required for effective leadership. In more recent times the area of leadership has been studied more extensively than almost any other aspect of human behaviour (Kets de Vries, 1993; Goffee and Jones, 2000; Higgs and Rowland, 2001). Many have pointed out that, in spite of the plethora of studies, we still seem to know little about the defining characteristics of effective leadership (e.g. Kets de Vries, 1994; Goffee and Jones, 2000; Hogan and Hogan, 2001). However, such observations do not appear to have stemmed our appetite for continuing the search. It has been estimated (Goffee and Jones, 2000) that, in 1999 alone, over 2,000 books were published on the topic of leadership. Last year a search on the Library of Congress database revealed in excess of 8,000 books on the topic of leadership (Aitken, 2002). Further evidence of the current level of fascination with the concept is provided by the devotion of a special edition of the Harvard Business Review to the topic in December 2001. With this background in mind, this paper sets out to explore the ``long line'' of study and attempts to make sense of what we have found in the context of today's business environment. The paper sets out to develop a framework for thinking about leadership in terms of combining personality and behaviours. Working from this framework the possible linkages between the concepts of emotional intelligence (Salovey and Meyer, 1990; Goleman, 1996; Higgs and Dulewicz, 1999) and leadership are explored with empirical data supporting these being presented.
Abstract
Explores the development of thinking on leadership and places it in the context of the dominant discourses of the period