The definition of leadership

The definition of leadership. The purpose of this chapter is to explicate a postindustrial definition of leadership. Before developing this definition of Ieadership, I had been using Burns’s definition (1978. P. 18 or p. 425). Over a period of five years and with the help of many of the doctoral candidates in leadership studies at he University of San Diego. I found several significant inconsistencies between the reality that I researched and knew from daily experience and Burns’s definition of leadership. For instance, there is an inconsistency between his definition of leadership and the concept of transformational leadership that he favored (rightly, I believe) in the final three chapters of his book. That inconsistency posed the question: What is Burns’s real definition of leadership? Many scholars and practitioners who have read Burns’s book think that his real definition of leadership is his definition of transformational leadership. As a result of this and other conceptual problems. I set about trying to construct a definition that dealt with these inconsistencies and yet remained somewhat faithful to Burns’s thought, which is much more forward-looking than the traditional conceptual frameworks of leadership. Thus. I view this definition as a development of Burns’s thought. This definition of leadership could not have been constructed without repeatedly and thoroughly studying his concept of leadership as developed in his 1978 book. I read and reread, discussed and rediscussed, that book, often with doctoral candidates and graduates of the leadership program at USD, more than i have done with any other book. Studying Burns's book is like having scales fall off your eyes; you can never view leadership as you did before.

As a development of Burns's model of leadership, however, it is important to understand from the beginning that this definition and the conceptual framework embedded therein are significantly different from his concept of leadership in ways that will be very clear as the definition is analyzed in this chapter. It is an attempt to begin a new school of leadership that consistently and consciously accepts postindustrial assumptions and values. There is considerable textual evidence in Burns’s book that in 1978 he was still under the influence of the industrial paradigm. In 1990, I have the advent age of twelve years’ further experience that includes the 1980s with all its Yuppie characteristics, the new ideas about leadership, and the momentous events of 1989—I 990. And I have the advantage of being only a decade away from the twenty-first century. Even more, it is hard to ignore the paradigm-shattering events in Eastern Europe during the fall and winter of 1989—1990. As suggested earlier, the industrial leadership paradigm doesn’t explain the history-making events of 1989—1990. A new school of leadership that articulates a postindustrial concept of leadership is more and more imperative. While this definition may not be the last word on the subject. It may be the first, and that is where both scholars and practitioners have to start when paradigm leaps are in the making. The definition of leadership is this: Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes. Every word in that definition was carefully selected to convey very specific meanings that contain certain assumptions and values which are necessary to a transformed, postindustrial model of leadership. What follows in the remainder of this Chapter IS. first, an outline of the four essential elements of leadership and their various parts; second, a listing of the four essential elements of leadership that are contained in the definition and a short discussion of what a definition means and how it is useful o scholars and practitioners alike; and, third, an extended discussion of each of the four elements and the Various parts of each element. The chapter ends with some concluding comments on the definition as a powerful expression of the postindustrial paradigm.