Effective leadership is the Military's key to success in training and combat. It is found upon the theory of leadership as well as the activies of the distingished generals.
This study reflects a dual concern for theory and practice. I have attempted...
Effective leadership is the Military's key to success in training and combat. It is found upon the theory of leadership as well as the activies of the distingished generals.
This study reflects a dual concern for theory and practice. I have attempted to analyze relationship and effects between the theory of leadership and the activies of the distingished general.
The content analysis method has been used for this study, because this study have to use documents concerning the distingished generals.
There are many theories of leadership and distingished generals, however I have chosen five (5) theories of leadership and forty (40) distingished generals including twenty (20) Korean and twenty (20) foreigners for this study.
Leadership has been studied in different ways depending on the researcher's methodological preferences and conception of leadership. Most researchers deal with only one narrow aspect of leadership, and most of the studies fall into distinct lines of research. Most leadership research can be classified into one of the following four approaches: (1) trait approach, (2) behavior approach, (3) power-influence, (4) situational approach. A few lines of research do not fit neatly into any single approach but instead cut across two or more approaches. These exceptions include participative leadership, charismatic leadership, transformational leadership and leadership in decision groups.
Five (5) theories among these theories have been considered for this study: (1) trait approach, (2) behavior approach (the Ohio state leadership studies), (3) power-influnce, (4) situation approach (the path-gole theory of leadership), (5) transformational leadership.
By comparing the theories of leadership and the activies of the distingished generals, it can be inferred that each theory provides some insights into reasons as follows.
One of the earliest approaches for studying leadership was the trait. The trait approach emphasizes the personal attributes of leaders. Considering trait approach through this study, the traits of general were shown various. However, common traits of the distingished generals were wisdom, initiative and creativity.
Comparing the Ohio state leadership studies and the activies of distingished generals, the distingished generals employed different leadership style in accordance with wartime and peacetime.
The situational approach emphasizes the importance of contextual factors such as the nature of the work performed by the leader's unit, the nature of the external environment, and characteristics of followers. Among many situational leadership theories, the path-goal theory of leadership was developed to explain how the behavior of a leader influences the satisfaction and performance of subordinates. The path-goal theory of leadership examines how four aspects of leader's behaviors influence subordinates' satisfaction and motivation.
Comparing the path-goal theory of leadership and the activies of distingished generals, aspects of the situation such as the nature of the tasks, the work environments, and the subordinates' characteristics determine the optimal level of each type of leadership behaviors.
Bass (1985) proposed a theory of transformational leadership that builds on the earlier ideas of Burns (1978). the extent to which a leader is transformational is measured primarily in terms of the leader's effect on followers. Followers of a transformational leader feel trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect toward the leader, and they are motivated to do more than they were originally expected to do. The leader transforms and motivates followers by: (1) making them more aware of the importance of task outcomes, (2) inducing them to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the organization or team, and (3) activating their higher-order needs. The transformational leadership was commonly found throughout the activies of the distingished generals. It seems that this leadership quality is very effective in military.
Most of the theories were commonly found throughout the activities of most of the forty distingished generals, and each theory which has been developed for the last 100 years is proved to be realistically applicable to the many leadership qualities of distingished generals from different eras.
Effective leadership is the Military's key to success in training and combat. Also, in peacetime, all leaders are responsible for developing and preparing their subordinates to assume higher positions in wartime. Therefore we will try to develop leadership, to get ability concerning leadership such as knowledeable, inititive and creativity.