Leadership in Organizations Essay

Words: 2020
Pages: 9

© National College for School Leadership 2003 1
Leadership in Organizations
Gary Yukl
2001, Prentice Hall
Gary Yukl is Professor of Management and Leadership at the State University of New York in
Albany, and a board member of the Leadership Quarterly journal. He is a well-known scholar and author on leadership. Leadership in Organizations was first published in 1981. This fifth edition was published in 2002, and the formerly 19 chapters have been consolidated into 15
(which includes a new chapter on ethical leadership and diversity). This has been done in order to accommodate a 15-week course.
Each chapter covers a particular aspect of leadership research study, with a concluding summary and questions for
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Power, influence, contingency theories, traits and skills
How power is won or lost, and how much power a leader should have, are also discussed, as are the traits and skills approach to leadership in Chapter 7. Possibly the most researched area of leadership is the traits approach, and here the findings of the most relevant aspects of personality for effective leadership are summarised and integrated, including the “big five” personality traits (surgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment and intelligence).
Personality traits are considered especially relevant to successful leadership, and those highlighted as the most pertinent include energy levels and stress tolerance, self-confidence, internal control orientation, emotional maturity and integrity.
The study of a number of theories is also applied in Chapter 8, which considers how leader traits or behaviours are related to indicators of leadership effectiveness in different situations. Five principal contingency theories are summarised and reviewed. The research findings and methodologies are examined, and models, tables and guidelines for their application enhance the chapter. There is much use of psychology and sociology in many of the research studies.
© National College for School Leadership 2003 3
The five contingency theories are: Fiedler’s least-preferred co-worker (LPC) theory, Evans’s path-goal theory, Kerr and Jermier’s leadership substitutes theory,