Studies on leadership, by both laymen and academicians, abound. It is an oftstudied concept that has experienced a distinct evolutionary cycle typical of much of social science research. This paradigm is utilized to describe a variety of investigations that suggest that self-esteem is a significant variable in individual productive functioning and leadership effectiveness. This literature is reviewed, focusing not on characteristics of a leader, but on superior-subordinate interactions. A conceptual framework is presented that describes the importance of self-esteem, how it is affected in organization contexts, and what implications are apparent, given this evidence, for researchers, managers, and consultants.Perspectives on the nature of leadership effectiveness have varied in a discernible pattern since the beginning of this century. They have not changed at random but in almost a sine wave manner. Views on the influence of personal traits typify this phenomenon.For instance, there have been times when a delineation of individual traits seemed to provide a complete picture of leadership effectiveness. But, after research results suggested an array of moderating variables in the analysis of leaders' behavior, it appeared that an identification of traits hid more than it explained. Different situational theories then emerged, with a variety of task and environmental variables that were employed to explain leadership effectiveness. The next step saw the development of contingency theories that posited certain leader and follower traits as important variables in the leadership equation.The influence of self-esteem, not only as a leadership factor but also as a characteristic of individual productive functioning, is perhaps one of these variables. Its presence or absence on both sides in superior-subordinate interactions can affect output variables in a variety of ways. How the attention given to sell-esteem fits the sine wave pattern of social science research generally and how it can consistently affect various organizational processes is the limited focus of what follows.