Paper Details

Leadership and management can be viewed as being the same or distinct constructs. This paper is an examination of past literature concerning the development of management and authority theory as well as how leadership has emerged from this as a separate construct in the modern era. The paper discusses the traditional views concerning management theory and important theoretical contributions by key scholars such as Max Weber, Mary Parker Follet, Henry Mintzberg and Peter Drucker. The development of leadership as a separate construct was also highlighted through the works of Abraham Zaleznik, being the first scholar to propose the separate of leadership from management. This past research clearly shows a distinction between what constitutes management and what constitutes leadership. Through this paper, researchers can understand the genesis and emergence of leadership from traditional management theory. This provides impetus to researchers to carry out future research in this area, in expanding our understanding of leadership theory towards the development of a unified theory of leadership can that be used in both managerial practice and in the academic field.

Leadership, management, authority, power