How can general leadership theories help to expand the knowledge of lean leadership?

Leadership has been cited by several studies as key for the success of lean production. However, studies on lean leadership are not usually based on any leadership theory lens and the extent to which general leadership theories are relevant to lean leadership has not yet been properly investigated. The research question addressed by this study is stated as ‘how can general leadership theories help to expand the knowledge about lean leadership?’ Seven general leadership theories were adopted as bases: Authentic Leadership, Leader-Member-Exchange, Complexity Leadership, Distributed Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Servant Leadership and Situational Leadership. The research method involved: (i) a literature review of lean leadership as to identify how it accounts for three core constructs of the general leadership theories, namely leaders’ personal attributes, influence process and context; and (ii) a comparison between lean leadership with general leadership theories based on the same three constructs. Based on this, propositions to guide future research and practise of lean leadership were developed. An underlying assumption of these propositions is that lean leadership shares characteristics with all the investigated general leadership theories, and it can be interpreted as the instantiation of the said theories in a lean system.