BUSI 3310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 49: Expectancy Theory, Contingency Theory, Trait Theory
9 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
Continues to explore interpersonal processes in organizations by considering leadership. Many of the points that were raised in our discussion of the individual within the organization are relevant here. Leadership, while an interpersonal process that deals with relationships among leaders and followers, is also concerned with the individual characteristics of the leader. The focus is still on interpersonal processes, but the fact that the leader is an individual needs to be kept in mind. The early trait approaches to leadership attempted to define the traits that effective leaders possess: the trait approach suggests that certain people are born with traits that suit them to leadership. Needless to say, this approach has been criticized by those who advocate that leadership can be learned. While several traits have been shown to be associated with leadership, the list of all possible leadership traits is exhaustive, raising the question of which ones are actually important.
