LEADER AND LEADERSHIP

Abstract

Leader and leadership are two of the most widely used terms in education and management science research. As a result of their wide use, they have been defined by different researchers and scholars. Because of varied cultural, historical and academic backgrounds of those researchers, these terms have been defined differently. Some of those definitions are focused on one aspect of leader or leadership while the others on the other. This paper critically reviews and analyzes some of the most commonly used definitions of leader and leadership to see their defining characteristics and salient features. Based on the important features of some of those definitions, the paper then comes up with new definitions for both of them. The paper also looks at some of the similar terms to see how they are different. Finally, the paper analyzes how the term leader might have been misused in the literature. The paper also suggests to be more careful with the selection of words to avoid ambiguity.

Keywords

• leader
• leadership
• critical review of literature
• historical development