Leadership Substitute Theory

Leadership substitute theory is an outgrowth of the wider body of leadership theory and scientific management theory that emerged in response to the far reaching changes that emerged with regards to the wider degree of specialization and division of labor in the early twentieth century. Leadership substitute theory emerged in response to growing observations concerning the difficulties with the top-down model of institutional and bureaucratic management in the 1970s. A corollary factor was the growing institutional diversity resulting from various social and demographic changes a decade earlier. It was increasingly recognized that institutional bureaucracies assume an organizational life of their own, and in ways that may conflict with their