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Abstract
Leadership has become an increasingly difficult, complex, and multi-faceted topic in today's globalized world. New questions and challenges continue to emerge with regard to the most effective style of leading organizations and people through the 21st Century. While leadership may be seen as one of the most over-researched topics, it remains one of the most misunderstood business phenomena of our time. This conceptual research paper addresses various leadership definitions, presents an operational definition of leadership based on five criteria, categorizes and showcases some of the known attributes of highly effective leaders, and builds a case for servant leadership. The paper posits that, despite a myriad of available leadership styles and methods that have emerged, servant leadership, a philosophical position based upon the leader serving first, may have the capacity to generate positive outcomes for all stakeholders involved.
Keywords: leadership, leadership styles, servant leadership, effectiveness
JEL classification: M12, M14
Introduction
Leadership has become an increasingly difficult, complex, and multi-faceted topic in today's globalized society. New questions and challenges continue to emerge with regard to the most effective or "best" style of leading organizations and people through the 21st Century, often bringing decreased clarity to the leadership discussion. A key driving force behind this effect is the fact that the leadership literature has concerned itself primarily with the exploration of the outcomes and consequences of the different leadership styles and techniques (Gregory, Moates, & Gregory, 2011). What this 'reality' fails to take into consideration is that there is no universally recognized definition of leadership.
The study of leadership is not new; leadership research has been in existence for decades, if not centuries. In fact, leadership may be one of the most over-researched topics of our time. At the same time, leadership may also be one of the least understood phenomena, thereby perplexing scholars and consultants alike. As seen by the plethora of leadership definitions, it appears likely that the academic community will not reach a consensus on the definition of leadership in the foreseeable future. Some even contend that leadership is not an academic discipline per se, noting that research concerning the topic is housed in a multitude of academic fields, including education, psychology, sociology, theology, and the traditional social sciences.
It is extremely difficult,...