Leadership- A complex process
A review of Peter G. Northouse's Leadership - Theory and Practice

By GS Sethi
Leadership, a topic with universal appeal, though much sought after and highly valued commodity, yet very difficult to find and far more difficult to define. Nevertheless it has engaged the attention of a large number of researchers worldwide. It has been conceptualized in a multitude of ways. Is it that some people are born leaders? Is it that leadership qualities can be acquired? Is it that leadership is situation related? Is it that a leader exercises his influence on his followers and does it happen the other way round too? These are only a few among far too many questions which need to be answered, understood and applied in practice.

In search of answers to such questions, the book in its fifth edition looks into leadership process and nature of leadership from different angles based on over a century long research. What makes the book interesting is the uniform pattern followed throughout. Each chapter starts with a certain leadership approach, discusses research studies relevant to that approach, brings out its strengths and criticisms, how can this approach be applied in organisational settings and ends up with a leadership instrument, which is nothing but a self-evaluation questionnaire to enable the reader assess his own leadership style. Each chapter carries a few relevant case studies too.

Leadership
What held the attention of scholars throughout the 20th century was the trait approach and this was the first systematic approach to study leadership. It suggests that certain people are born with special traits (intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability) which make them great leaders and that it is possible to differentiate between leaders and non-leaders merely based on traits they possess.

The skills approach is again a leader-centered perspective but emphasises the competencies. It suggests three skills - technical, human and conceptual - which leaders need to possess, although their appropriate mix depends upon the level in the management hierarchy that one holds.

What has been widely discussed is the style approach. It does not suggest any well organized set of prescriptions for effective leadership, but describes the behavior of a leader with reference to two dimensions, i.e. , task to be achieved and relationship with people. This is depicted through the well known Blake's Leadership Grid (next page).

One of the approaches which has received wide recognition relies on the premise that each situation demands a different kind of leadership. This is the essence of situational approach, which suggests that to be effective a leader should change his style suiting to the competence and commitment of his subordinates. He needs to diagnose accurately the development level of subordinates in a given task situation and then exhibit the leadership style that matches the situation. Similarly and using a uniform format, the author deals with various other approaches to leadership like Contingency Theory, Path-Goal Theory, Leader-Member Exchange Theory, Transformational Leadership, Authentic Leadership, Team Leadership, Psychodynamic Approach.

The chapter on "Authentic Leadership" is a new addition to the revised volume. This approach is one of the newest areas of leadership research and, therefore, in its formative phase of development. The approach is about authenticity of leaders and is seen from three view points viz. intrapersonal, developmental, and interpersonal. This approach seems to be emerging in response to societal demands for genuine, trustworthy, and good leadership. One of the chapters "Women and Leadership" is gender specific. It started around 1970s that researchers started investigating gender differences in leadership. It revealed that women are somewhat more likely to use democratic and transformational styles than men are. The barriers women encounter on their leadership journey have been dubbed the leadership labyrinth. Removing these barriers will help ensure equal opportunity, access to greatest talent pool, and diversity.

The chapter "Culture and leadership" takes into account the fact that globalization has taken strides since World War II and this has created the need for leaders to become competent in cross-cultural awareness and practice. In this context, the author finds "Ethnocentrism" to be the major obstacle to effective leadership. What ethnocentrism implies is the perception that one's own culture is better than the culture of others. The last chapter of the book "Leadership Ethics" is somewhat different from the rest of chapters in the sense that it is not oriented towards any theory or approach to leadership, but deals with ethical theories based on self-interest versus interest for others. It distinguishes between ethical egoism (a person acting to create the greatest good for oneself), utilitarianism (to behave in a way to create the greatest good for the greatest number) and altruism (actions with the purpose of promoting the best interest of others).

The approach
Subsequent to adequate description of any leadership approach, the author clearly lists its strengths and criticisms. While the trait approach is intuitively appealing, it fails to take situation into account. The skills approach stresses the importance of developing particular leadership skills, but extends beyond the boundaries of leadership by including motivation, critical thinking, conflict resolution etc. The style approach while having made several positive contributions to our understanding of the leadership process, but has failed to suggest a universal style that could be effective in almost every situation. The situational approach has several strengths particularly for practitioners, but has the backing of only a few research studies to justify the assumptions and propositions set forth.

The apparatus
Leadership instruments used at the end of every chapter are unique and very useful. It is quite common among many organizations to use a variety of questionnaires to measure individuals' personality characteristics. The use of questionnaires provides valuable information to individuals and the organizations both. For example LTQ (Leadership Trait Questionnaire) meant to be taken by self and five others who are familiar with the individual concerned can help assess one's leadership characteristics. The attributes rated in LTQ are articulate, perceptive, self-confident, self-assured, persistent, determined, trustworthy, dependable, friendly, outgoing, conscientious, diligent, sensitive, emphatic. Some other instruments depicted, depending upon leadership approach are Skills Inventory, Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Measure, Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Questionnaire, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), Authentic Leadership Self-assessment Questionnaire, Team Excellence and Collaborative Team Leader Questionnaire, Psychodynamic Approach Survey, The Gender-Leader Implicit Association Test, Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS). There are several approaches to leadership, each one having its strengths and weaknesses and field of applicability. This is what the book is all about and entire subject matter has been dealt with effectively and in a user friendly format.