A major problem in leadership research and theory has been lack of agreement about which behavior categories are relevant and meaningful. It is difficult to integrate findings from five decades of research unless the many diverse leadership behaviors can be integrated in a parsimonious and meaningful conceptual framework. An emerging solution is a hierarchical taxonomy with three metacategories (task, relations, and change behavior). Confirmatory factor analysis of a behavior description questionnaire found more support for this taxonomy than for alternative models.
This article reviews and evaluates major theories of leadership and summarizes findings from empirical research on leadership. Major topics and controversies include leadership versus management, leader traits and skills, leader behavior and activities, leader power and influence, situational determinants of leader behavior, situational moderator variables, transformational leadership, importance of leadership for organizational effectiveness, and leadership as an attributional process. Methodological issues in leadership research and implications for improving managerial practice are discussed also. An integrating conceptual framework is presented to show how the different theories and lines of research fit together.
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