Strategic Leadership
Strategic leadership.
This assignment critically evaluates leadership theories within a strategic framework by drawing upon literature sources and contrasting different academic perspectives. It will explore the relevance of strategic leadership within a small organization , as it appears that, from an initial review of the literature, that strategic leadership theories are aimed at large, complex, corporate organisations. Recommendations will be made as to whether or not the strategic leadership theories are of relevance to a small organisation and which theories have more relevance than others in this specific organizational context.
Leadership
The concept of leadership is not new and it has been suggested that it was philosophers from ancient civilisations who first started to examine the definition of leadership (Grint 2001). The oldest known military text The Art of War (circa 400 BC) states: 'the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people 's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril ' (Sun (undated)). As early as the fourth century BC Plato believed leadership and the development of leaders to be of fundamental importance (Bass 1990). However, over the last few decades the concept of leadership has been heavily studied and debated; so much so that, for the first-time reader on the subject matter, the definition leadership appears, at first sight, to be intangible.
It would appear that every layperson, when asked, instinctively knows what a leader is, but when asked to describe this in detail they falter. Fielder (1987) states that there have been at least 65 definitions of leadership put forward, and Stogdill (1974) argues that there are almost as many definitions as there are commentators.
Leadership has been defined by Bennis (1998) as ‘a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your
This assignment critically evaluates leadership theories within a strategic framework by drawing upon literature sources and contrasting different academic perspectives. It will explore the relevance of strategic leadership within a small organization , as it appears that, from an initial review of the literature, that strategic leadership theories are aimed at large, complex, corporate organisations. Recommendations will be made as to whether or not the strategic leadership theories are of relevance to a small organisation and which theories have more relevance than others in this specific organizational context.
Leadership
The concept of leadership is not new and it has been suggested that it was philosophers from ancient civilisations who first started to examine the definition of leadership (Grint 2001). The oldest known military text The Art of War (circa 400 BC) states: 'the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people 's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril ' (Sun (undated)). As early as the fourth century BC Plato believed leadership and the development of leaders to be of fundamental importance (Bass 1990). However, over the last few decades the concept of leadership has been heavily studied and debated; so much so that, for the first-time reader on the subject matter, the definition leadership appears, at first sight, to be intangible.
It would appear that every layperson, when asked, instinctively knows what a leader is, but when asked to describe this in detail they falter. Fielder (1987) states that there have been at least 65 definitions of leadership put forward, and Stogdill (1974) argues that there are almost as many definitions as there are commentators.
Leadership has been defined by Bennis (1998) as ‘a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your
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