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Great Man Theory Of Leadership

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Introduction
For centuries leaders have been analyzed in order to determine what the traits and characteristics of a successful leader are. Leadership, as defined by Koontz and Weihrich (2008) is “the art or a process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals” (p. 311). Leadership plays an important role in employee’s participation, creativity, recruitment to an organization, their commitment to the organization, and productivity levels. Over the years, there have been a number of theories surrounding leadership such as the “Great Man” theory, which, according to Riaz and Haider (2010), “assumes that leaders are born and have innate qualities, therefore, leaders …show more content…

These types of leaders, according to Avolio (1991) possess the characteristics of individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence. This paper will examine the outcomes that are a direct result of transformational leaders who exhibit these types of traits such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment, job stress, safety, supervisor satisfaction, team, performance, and general.
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Outcomes
According to Hyde (2008), “Culture is determined by how people behave, and the only way to change culture is to change behaviors” (p. 6). A key aspect of changing behavior is enabling (empowering) employees to make decisions and create change within their work scope. By giving employees the power to make changes not only improves their morale, but also benefits the company in which they work by increasing their productivity. According to Marshall, et. Al (2006), “Allowing employees to make decisions increases their job satisfaction and sense of responsibility and translates into improvements in the quality and timeliness with which duties are performed, freeing management for more significant matters” (p. 39). By giving decision making authority to followers, transformation leaders are using what Bass (1991) referred to as psychological empowerment. In other words, empowerment influences follower outcomes.

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