Leadership Theories and Styles

Leadership has long been a feature of educational, business, industry, military and medical or health service debate. This chapter attempts to define leadership. Leadership can be a vexed and convoluted concept and it is commonly seen as linked to theories of management and associated with elevated hierarchical positions and power. In order to clarify information about leadership and leaders, it is both prudent to consider the theories of leadership that are prominent in the literature, and important to explore the concepts, theories and styles of leadership that have previously been developed and described. Leadership can also be said to involve unifying people around values and then constructing the social world for others around those values and helping people get through change. There are many leadership theories. These include the great man theory, big bang theory, trait theory, style theory, situational or contingency theory, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, authentic leadership, breakthrough leadership and servant leadership.