Conceptual perspectives on leadership

Abstract

From a historical development perspective, numerous approaches and theories based on these approaches have been developed to explain the nature of leadership. We can state that each approach or theory has brought about a different perspective in terms of the conceptualization of leadership. The trait approach, behavioral approach, situational approach and contemporary approach complement one another chronologically and are all valid in certain ways. The main reason for the intensive research on the concept of leadership and the various approaches and theories is that the results are either directly or indirectly observed in organizations. A leader and his/her behaviors affect the performance of employees, job satisfaction, perceptions of justice, sense of trust toward one another and toward the organization, and—more essentially and generally—the culture and atmosphere that determine the entire dynamic of an organization. In this chapter, the concept of the leadership is explained by associating to organizational outputs. The leadership and organizational outputs are tried to be analyzed theoretically in the axis of some research findings. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.