Postgraduate Students’ Perceptions of Leadership in Politics: A Metaphor Analysis Sample of Hacettepe University, Department of Educational Sciences

Abstract

Leadership is one of the most widely researched and discussed topics. Rapid shifts in all areas are producing greater uncertainty resulting in the increasing necessity for researches related to what leadership really means. Researches in leadership have therefore concentrated on gaining a better understanding of the leadership that contributes to the development of an organization. Underpinning this approach, this study is an initial attempt at making metaphorical analysis of leadership in politics from postgraduate students’ point of view. This study combines features from several metaphors to define leaderships in politics. The perception and consumption of postgraduate students mainly focus on individual skills, knowledge and competences of a leader. It is viewed from these metaphors that leadership is much more than just leading or influencing the others. The fact that all the participants perceive leaders as having these features or think must have is not clear enough but at the core of these definitions, leadership is about vision, direction, influence, organizing and inspiring people. It is generally about a complex perception associated with the changing and uncertain situations.