True Leadership: Leading with Meaning

28 Pages Posted: 30 May 2017

See all articles by R. Edward Freeman

R. Edward Freeman

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Jenny Mead

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

David Newkirk

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Logan Spangler

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Abstract

Leadership is an enduring subject for research, writing, and discussion. There are almost endless theoretical and fundamental explanations as to what leadership is and what makes a good leader. The research has gone through various different phases. Intended for all audiences but specifically written for an Executive Education course, this technical note identifies some of the contemporary theories and prominent thinkers in the field of leadership and outlines the basics of their views.

Excerpt

UVA-E-0364

Rev. Dec. 2, 2011

True Leadership: Leading with Meaning

Leadership is one of the world's oldest preoccupations.

—Bernard Bass

Leadership is an enduring subject for research, writing, and discussion. There are almost endless theoretical and fundamental explanations as to what leadership is and what makes a good leader. As Ralph Stogdill observes in his 900-page survey of scholarly research on the topic, “There are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept.” It seems that practically every CEO of a Fortune 500 company has written his or her own leadership book—some bestsellers, many not—as have a host of politicians and presidents. Many of these works fall into a blueprint format and invariably portray the leader as succeeding against Herculean obstacles and barriers. Then there is a raft of motivational books on leadership, but the sad fact of these, according to Bruce Pasternack, “is that leadership manuals deliver mainly truisms, pap, and gross generalizations.” And few even attempt to describe the process of becoming a leader.

. . .

Keywords: leadership ethics values management

Suggested Citation

Freeman, R. Edward and Mead, Jenny and Newkirk, David L. and Spangler, Logan, True Leadership: Leading with Meaning. Darden Case No. UVA-E-0364, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2974168 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2974168

R. Edward Freeman (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States
804-924-0935 (Phone)
804-924-6378 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/freeman.htm

Jenny Mead

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States

David L. Newkirk

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States

Logan Spangler

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
6
Abstract Views
990
PlumX Metrics