Topic: Analyse and evaluate the Leadership views presented in “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli, under the prism of the following four contemporary approaches on Leadership: Contingent, Dyadic, Power, and Transformational. Identify and explain elements of convergence and divergence between that classic text and the corresponding contemporary theories and make use of specific theoretical models (such as Blake & Mouton’s grid, the LMX model, etc) where necessary in order to support your arguments. Overall, you should provide a critical comparison in evaluating “The Prince” against the above contemporary empirically-supported theories.
Student name: Marianna Oikonomidou
Submission date: 24/1/2014
Word count: 3020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction 3
Chapter 2: Leadership Theories 4 2.1 Leadership Defined 4
2.2 The Contingency Approach 4
2.3 The Dyadic Approach 6
2.4 The Power Approach 9
2.5 The Transformational Approach 10
Chapter 3: Blake & Mouton’s Leadership Grid. 12
Chapter 4: Synopsis / Critical Evaluation 13 4.1 Convergence 13
4.2 Divergence 13
References 15
Chapter
Introduction
1
This is the world of uncertainty where the world economic downturn has made its presence dominant. Globalisation has made companies re-evaluate their ways of doing things in order to survive. To cope with the fast and changing needs of the marketplace, businesses must have clear-cut strategies and capable people of running the everyday operations. Leadership has become the rule offering a chance of escape to a world where we know the rules and what is expected of us. Leadership appears to be very active and is changing rapidly. Change is rapid and never complete. Leaders can no longer turn to convenient role models in search of inspiration. Of fundamental importance to modern leaders has become an understanding of people, their needs, what motivates them, how they think and how they react and furthermore, how they react as
References: 2.1 Leadership Defined Coffey and Cook (1994) argue that leadership is the process of providing direction, energizing and motivating people and obtaining their commitment to the leader’s cause Position power (Daft, 2000: 511-512). According to the approach, the relationship-oriented leader performs better in situations where human relations skills are important 2.3 The Dyadic Approach Lussier and Achua (2010) argue that the dyadic approach focuses on the dual relationship between leaders and followers Routinisation (Mindtools, 2013: 1). Role-taking occurs when the group is formed and comes together under the directions of the group leader