LEADERSHIP STUDIES

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LEADERSHIP STUDIES

• James Beebe
• Gonzaga University

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Definition

• Leadership studies is "an emerging discipline
  devoted, as the name suggests, to the study of
  leadership as it is practiced in different
  organizations and societies" (Rost, 1993).

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Leadership Studies as an emerging field

• Leadership studies builds upon discipline based
  research in other fields
• leadship" in anthropology,
• "roles" in psychology,
• "power" in political science and
• "management" in business (Sorenson, 2002)

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Leadership Studies as an emerging field

• Leadership studies build upon sub fields within
  specific disciplines
• educational leadership
• political leadership (Sorenson, 2002)

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Leadership Studies as Interdisciplinary

• Leadership studies has become increasingly
  interdisciplinary (Sorenson, 2002)
• Leadership studies must be an
  interdisciplinary subject of inquiry. When this
  perspective is taken seriously, it means that
  scholars and practitioners can gain a clear
  understanding of the nature of leadership only by
  studying it from the framework of several
  different disciplines. (Rost, 1993)

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Leadership Studies as Art and Science

• It is an art because many leadership skills and
  qualities cannot be learned from a textbook.
  Leadership takes practice and hands-on
  experience. However, knowing about leadership
  research helps people analyze situations from a
  variety of perspectives and learn how to be more
  effective as leaders. Leadership is considered a
  science as well as an art because a growing body
  of knowledge and objective facts describes the
  leadership process and how to use leadership
  skills to attain organizational goals. (Daft,
  2002)