Historical Study of Leadership Theories

Leadership is one of the most complex and multifaceted phenomena to which organizational and psychological research has been applied. While the term "leader" was noted as early as the 1300s and conceptualized even before biblical times, the term leadership has been in existence only since the late 1700s. Over the last 50 years, leadership has been examined in terms of enduring traits, sets of behaviors or styles, situational properties, and presumed cognitive processes. Despite numerous theories and volumes of research, little cumulative knowledge has been gained. And, ironically, probably more has been written and less known about leadership than about any other topic in the behavioral science. Through this article, author tries to compile various camps who have studies leadership from different perspectives, and given different theories of leadership. The author does not try to prove any of the paths more justifiable to others, nor does he make any attempt to qualify or disqualify any of the theories.