Leadership in 21st Century

i. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

There is an abundance of literature relating to leadership in general and business leadership in particular. This report is attempted to pull out the essence from some of it and examine different theories and thoughts on leadership.

Various theories of leadership are covered, ranging from classic leadership theories to the leadership in 21st century and they are: Trait approach, Behaviour approach, Dyadic approach and Contingency approach. While the focal point of the report will be on behaviour approach which has given born to the most prominent known form of leadership called as: participative leadership and authoritative leadership.

The cases depicted reveals that effective leadership is independent of the leadership style adopted as there are external and internal factors which has influenced the leadership style. Few of these factors are: rapid change in business environment, impact of globalisation, changing aspiration and expectation of youth, fast paced lifestyle and temptation for change in value.

Fruitful foster of the leader follower relationship has countless paybacks for both entity in terms of increased profitability, creativeness, employee satisfaction and providing wider benefits for the society at large. Today's world requires leaders who are fearless and humble, committed and respectful, outspoken and sensitive, value-based and flexible.

ii. INTRODUCTION

A well-known saying mentions that a group of sheep headed by a lion can often overcome an army of lions guided by a sheep. This emphasises the importance of leadership. Leadership means different things to different people, not only based on their own personal experiences but also based on the vast amount of writing on the subject. Questions such as whether a leader is born or made, is leadership an attribute or a behavioural feature and whether leadership is all-situational or circumstance-specific abound has highly been debated. This report will throw light on theories of leadership and also compare and contrast the two important leadership style i.e. participative leadership and authoritative leadership, by examine the questions such as pros, cons and when this leadership style should be adopted by illustrating some of the well-known personality of the 21st century.

iii. LEADERSHIP THEORIES

The importance of leadership as a conceptual and practical topic and has long been debated, and for the most part, well understood (Campbell, 2003). With the emergence of globalisation, the leaders of the enterprise have been the focus point for the success of firm. It is very important for aspiring young leaders to understand what leadership is all about? Leadership is a potent mix of strategy and characters. Many leadership