Basic Academic Theories of Leadership

Abstract

Over time one or more theories has occupied a prominent place in academic leadership research. While leadership constructs may manifest differently in specific contexts, trust usually is a part of any specific theory, either explicitly or implicitly. Categorizing pure academic leadership theories may not be a realistic strategy to understand effective leadership since most behaviors of effective leaders are a mix of academic leadership theories so that lines become too blurred to use a specific academic theory as a recipe for leadership. Nevertheless, due to the pervasive use of categorized theories of leadership in the literature, they are discussed in this chapter by leadership typology.