OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT LEADERSHIP THEORIES: WHAT IT MEANS TO LEAD?

Like all terms in social science, the concept of leadership is obviously arbitrary and subjective. Over the last decade, important advancements have been made contributing to our understanding of effective leadership. Although recent theoretical works have emphasized the context sensitivity of leadership, empirical research in this field is still rare. As a consequence, scientists and practitioners still cannot recommend specific leadership behaviors to organizational leaders for certain situations with any great certainty, as knowledge in this field is fragmentary. This gap in the literature calls for research on the important area of the contextual dimensions of organizational processes such as leadership.