Research of the Nature of Leadership Activities

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionLeadership is a topic that is now a matter of high interest and attention, as reflected in a large number of books and articles on subject (Yukl, 2010). Despite enormous amount of professional and popular literature, concept of is associated with many unanswered questions and controversial conclusions. One of most important theoretical problems is lack of uniform definitions of as such, resulting in a lack of practically applicable characteristics of activities. Findings presented in literature mostly talk about how to act like leaders, emphasizing their personal characteristics, or describing different styles and types of leaders. A leader is mostly seen as a complex entity equipped with features that make him/her ideal for role of a leader. Excessive research on characteristics carried out in past decades, however, did not reveal which features guarantee success (Northouse, 2010). Practical examples also show that personality that does not have selected features, still may be an effective leader too (Ulrich et al., 2009). On other hand, cannot be explained why leaders even though they possess characteristics based on research, unexpectedly fail.Looking back on extensive research concerning characteristics of leaders, we know very little about what leaders actually do in their daily work, or how they do it. Comprehensive studies on this topic exist, resulting in a completely non-specific and metaphorical understanding of whole concept of based on personality, charisma or holding certain positions. should be seen more widely and same applies to characteristics of and styles, as well as how are leaders manifested outwardly through their work, what is nature of their work. Comprehensive understanding of involves not only understanding personality of a leader, his/her value orientation, properties and characteristics, i.e. Who is a leader? and a style of used by a leader, that is, How does he/she lead?, but also actions that a leader performs, i.e., What is he/she doing in fact?1.Literature overviewLeadership is a concept that in managerial language, despite more than half a million books about leaders did not have a clear and unambiguous interpretation. According to Crainer (1995) are about 400 definitions of - it's a real minefield of misunderstandings and differences, through which theorists and practitioners have to walk. The definition of is arbitrary and largely subjective. Stogdill (1948) after a comprehensive review of literature on concluded that there are almost as many definitions of as those who have tried to define this concept. Confusion is caused mainly due to using other misleading terms such as management, administration, power, authority and control to describe similar phenomena. It seems that concept of has always escaped from us, or appears in a different form to mock with its sliding properties and complexity. That's why we invented endless definitions to deal with ... and now this concept is yet not well defined, says Bennis (1959).Leadership is defined in different ways. First, occurs in groups. is the behavior of an individual directing activities of a group toward a shared goal. (Hemphill, Coons, 1957) Similarly Northouse (2010) says that leadership involves influencing a group of individuals who have a common purpose. Second, is a process or transactional event that occurs between leader and followers, is not a trait or characteristic of leader. Leadership is realized in process whereby one or more individuals succeed in attempting to frame and define reality of others (Smircich, Morgan, 1982) Jacobs and Jaques (1990) pointed out that it is a process of giving purpose to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose. …