Three Major Leadership Theories

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For years, there have been many leadership ideas and theories which has been the source of intensive studies. The three major leadership ideas/theories that I have learned are the Behavioral Theory, the Contingency Theory, and the, Transactional Leadership Theory. The Behavioral theories of leadership focus on the behaviors of a leader. In this theory, a leader’s behavior is a gauge of their influences and as a result, is a good indicator of his or her leadership success. There are two important behavioral studies. The first study was conducted in Ohio State University in the 1940’s. This study was created because some leadership studies that were aimed at identifying the appropriate traits didn't yield any conclusive results. People …show more content…

This scientist studied the personality and characteristics of leaders. His model states that there is no one best style of leadership. Instead, a leader's effectiveness is based on the situation. This is the result of two factors called the leadership style and situational favorableness which was later called situational …show more content…

This theory argues that there is no single way of leading and that every leadership style should be based on certain situations. Humans are not all the same, they do not react the same, nor is any situation the same. There are certain people who perform at the maximum level in certain places; but at minimal performance when taken out of their element. A leader, in order to continue being one, will have to adjust to what happens in the environment, that is, contingencies. The word contingency means depending upon. Those proposing contingency theories realize that a leader must adjust. The hallmark of these theories is context and in a more profound sense, everything is interdependent. To a certain extent contingency leadership theories are extensions of the trait theory, in the sense that human traits are related to the situation in which the leaders exercise their leadership. It is generally accepted within the contingency theories that leader are more likely to express their leadership when they feel that their followers will be

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