The purpose of this paper is to trace the study of leadership from the traits approach to modern, multidimensional approaches. The literature abounds with definitions of leadership, but one that is sufficiently broad for the framework of this research has been provided by John W. Gardner (1990): "the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers" (p. 1).
During the first half of the twentieth century, the most common approach to studying leadership was the traits approach. To be able to induce others to follow, leaders were assumed to possess certain characteristics--i.e., assertiveness, sensitivity, integrity, friendliness. Leaders then could be identified as individuals possessing these traits, and leadership training would be valuable only to those inherently blessed with such qualities and the willingness to cultivate and employ such qualities (Hersey & Blanchard, 1993, p. 97; Quinn et al., 1998, pp. 37-38).
The premise that leaders are born has been almost completely discredited in the second half of this century. The unseating of this assumption was primarily the result of a failure, over a fifty-year period, of any empirical evidence to support the identification of particular traits that separate leaders from nonleaders or that predict an individualÆs success or failure. However, trait research continues, and its findings are still considered useful in efforts to identify and develop leaders (Hersey & Blanchard, pp. 97-99; Smith, 1993, pp. 2-4).
Among those who continued into the 1980s and 1990s to explore leadership through the study of traits is Warren Bennis, whose five-year study of ninety leaders identified four areas of management competence shared by these leaders. Bennis concluded that leaders translate these competencies into creating an environment in which people feel...