{"id":691,"date":"2019-04-17T19:45:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T19:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=691"},"modified":"2024-04-24T22:45:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T22:45:06","slug":"the-history-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/chapter\/the-history-of-leadership\/","title":{"raw":"The History of Leadership","rendered":"The History of Leadership"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Discuss our understanding of leadership from the historical perspective<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nLeadership\u2014it\u2019s the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. There are some common themes among definitions of leadership that we understand without really even thinking about it:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Leadership is a group phenomenon.<\/strong> This concept is pretty easy. Without followers, there can be no leader.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Leaders use influence.<\/strong> Leaders need to guide people to a goal, so they need to influence and persuade.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Leadership is goal directed.<\/strong> Without a goal to achieve, no leadership is needed.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Leadership assumes hierarchy.<\/strong> We assume that a leader is at the top of the hierarchy and that his or her followers are aligned underneath.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nA leader may be considered a leader because of a formal relationship, provided by the possession of managerial rank in an organization. Or a leader can be informal, someone who steps up and provides that guidance from within a group of people, not necessarily the person who has been given decision making authority. (As we'll discuss later in this module, not every leader is a manager and not every manager is a leader.)\r\n\r\nThose are some fairly basic concepts about leaders and leadership. How did we arrive at what we understand about leadership today? Historically speaking, it\u2019s been quite a ride. Let\u2019s take a trip way back and take a look at how far we\u2019ve come. (Note: this text will focus on the history of European and North American history, since we're addressing a largely US-based audience. There is of course, a much broader and diverse history of leaders across the world not mentioned here.)\r\n<h2>Leadership\u2014Historically Speaking<\/h2>\r\n<img class=\"alignright wp-image-731\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4052\/2019\/04\/19181256\/Arth_tapestry2.jpg\" alt=\"A tapestry depicting King Arthur sitting on a throne, holding a banner.\" width=\"250\" height=\"439\" \/>There are a few different varieties of King Arthur\u2019s story, one of the most prominent folklore stories from England. Most versions tell either of how Arthur became king when the Lady of the Lake gave him a sword called Excalibur, or of how he was the only one capable of pulling the sword from a stone. Either way, he was the chosen one, he possessed a certain something, and, by divine right, he became the king of Britain.\r\n\r\nThere\u2019d be very few leaders among us today if we relied on a pulling-sword-from-stone selection process. Or, more likely, we\u2019d watch the process unfold and then say, \u201cHey, nice trick, but why should I listen to you?\u201d Concepts in leadership have changed since the sixth century.\r\n\r\nSurely, anyone who knew the legend of King Arthur understood that it helped illustrate the concept that those who led were born and not made. Early concepts of monarchy included the element that king was a divine choice and was bound to no earthly rules. The right to rule was derived directly from the will of God. Those that were not kings were instead heroes, possessors of God-given skills that helped them achieve victory in battle. Some of these heroes were mythological, like Odysseus, descendant of the gods and hero of the Trojan War, and others, like Alexander the Great and Hannibal Barca, earned their distinction in battles won against nearly insurmountable odds, immortalized in stories retold over generations.\r\n\r\nPlato, Plutarch, Lao-Tzu and even Machiavelli had an impact on how these rulers and heroes were defined in their instruction and shared opinions of what it meant to be a leader. Of course, they didn\u2019t use the word \u201cleader.\u201d The word \u201cleader\u201d as we use it today didn\u2019t come into the English language until the 19th century.\r\n\r\nStill, thanks to them, the \u201cleader as hero\u201d concept had been a clear definition for hundreds of years. In 1840, Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle stated that \u201cthe history of the world is but the biography of great men.\u201d The Great Man Theory took hold\u2014the idea that history can be explained by the impact of great men and the decisions they made. These great men were identified by their charisma, intelligence, and wisdom. Carlyle suggested that these great men shaped history through these personal attributes and, yes, divine inspiration, too.\u00a0(And since he lived in Scotland in the 1840s, there was no mention of women.)\r\n\r\nIn Carlyle\u2019s book <em>On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in Society<\/em> (Carlyle, 1840), the author dove into the lives of several men he deemed \u201cheroes,\u201d like Muhammed, Richard Wagner, Shakespeare, Martin Luther, and Napoleon. He believed that history \u201cturned\u201d on the decisions of these men, and encouraged others to study these heroes as a way of discovering one\u2019s own true nature.\r\n\r\nStudies were conducted on subjects who were already leaders, often members of aristocracy that had inherited their positions. Very few people with lower status had the opportunity to lead, and this contributed to the idea that these leadership qualities were something one was born with.\r\n\r\nThis Great Man approach was pretty fashionable in the 19th century, particularly with history professors who deferred to biographies of great men to teach their subject, rather than social histories. After all, it seems as if, when we faced some of our most difficult moments in history, a man emerged to lead us successfully through it. The existence of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and others like them only seemed to prove the theory.\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Practice Question<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/07611590-e38f-4ded-bdcc-dc34412baf1d\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe Great Man Theory was a predecessor of the Early Trait Theory stage of leadership research. In the United States, we were well into the experience of the Industrial Revolution, and it was clear that leaders weren\u2019t just heroes and rulers. At the turn of the twentieth century, we were starting to understand the nuances of management and what it meant to be more strategic in leading. Could personality traits predict success in leadership?","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Discuss our understanding of leadership from the historical perspective<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Leadership\u2014it\u2019s the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. There are some common themes among definitions of leadership that we understand without really even thinking about it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Leadership is a group phenomenon.<\/strong> This concept is pretty easy. Without followers, there can be no leader.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leaders use influence.<\/strong> Leaders need to guide people to a goal, so they need to influence and persuade.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leadership is goal directed.<\/strong> Without a goal to achieve, no leadership is needed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leadership assumes hierarchy.<\/strong> We assume that a leader is at the top of the hierarchy and that his or her followers are aligned underneath.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A leader may be considered a leader because of a formal relationship, provided by the possession of managerial rank in an organization. Or a leader can be informal, someone who steps up and provides that guidance from within a group of people, not necessarily the person who has been given decision making authority. (As we&#8217;ll discuss later in this module, not every leader is a manager and not every manager is a leader.)<\/p>\n<p>Those are some fairly basic concepts about leaders and leadership. How did we arrive at what we understand about leadership today? Historically speaking, it\u2019s been quite a ride. Let\u2019s take a trip way back and take a look at how far we\u2019ve come. (Note: this text will focus on the history of European and North American history, since we&#8217;re addressing a largely US-based audience. There is of course, a much broader and diverse history of leaders across the world not mentioned here.)<\/p>\n<h2>Leadership\u2014Historically Speaking<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-731\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4052\/2019\/04\/19181256\/Arth_tapestry2.jpg\" alt=\"A tapestry depicting King Arthur sitting on a throne, holding a banner.\" width=\"250\" height=\"439\" \/>There are a few different varieties of King Arthur\u2019s story, one of the most prominent folklore stories from England. Most versions tell either of how Arthur became king when the Lady of the Lake gave him a sword called Excalibur, or of how he was the only one capable of pulling the sword from a stone. Either way, he was the chosen one, he possessed a certain something, and, by divine right, he became the king of Britain.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019d be very few leaders among us today if we relied on a pulling-sword-from-stone selection process. Or, more likely, we\u2019d watch the process unfold and then say, \u201cHey, nice trick, but why should I listen to you?\u201d Concepts in leadership have changed since the sixth century.<\/p>\n<p>Surely, anyone who knew the legend of King Arthur understood that it helped illustrate the concept that those who led were born and not made. Early concepts of monarchy included the element that king was a divine choice and was bound to no earthly rules. The right to rule was derived directly from the will of God. Those that were not kings were instead heroes, possessors of God-given skills that helped them achieve victory in battle. Some of these heroes were mythological, like Odysseus, descendant of the gods and hero of the Trojan War, and others, like Alexander the Great and Hannibal Barca, earned their distinction in battles won against nearly insurmountable odds, immortalized in stories retold over generations.<\/p>\n<p>Plato, Plutarch, Lao-Tzu and even Machiavelli had an impact on how these rulers and heroes were defined in their instruction and shared opinions of what it meant to be a leader. Of course, they didn\u2019t use the word \u201cleader.\u201d The word \u201cleader\u201d as we use it today didn\u2019t come into the English language until the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p>Still, thanks to them, the \u201cleader as hero\u201d concept had been a clear definition for hundreds of years. In 1840, Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle stated that \u201cthe history of the world is but the biography of great men.\u201d The Great Man Theory took hold\u2014the idea that history can be explained by the impact of great men and the decisions they made. These great men were identified by their charisma, intelligence, and wisdom. Carlyle suggested that these great men shaped history through these personal attributes and, yes, divine inspiration, too.\u00a0(And since he lived in Scotland in the 1840s, there was no mention of women.)<\/p>\n<p>In Carlyle\u2019s book <em>On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in Society<\/em> (Carlyle, 1840), the author dove into the lives of several men he deemed \u201cheroes,\u201d like Muhammed, Richard Wagner, Shakespeare, Martin Luther, and Napoleon. He believed that history \u201cturned\u201d on the decisions of these men, and encouraged others to study these heroes as a way of discovering one\u2019s own true nature.<\/p>\n<p>Studies were conducted on subjects who were already leaders, often members of aristocracy that had inherited their positions. Very few people with lower status had the opportunity to lead, and this contributed to the idea that these leadership qualities were something one was born with.<\/p>\n<p>This Great Man approach was pretty fashionable in the 19th century, particularly with history professors who deferred to biographies of great men to teach their subject, rather than social histories. After all, it seems as if, when we faced some of our most difficult moments in history, a man emerged to lead us successfully through it. The existence of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and others like them only seemed to prove the theory.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Practice Question<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_07611590-e38f-4ded-bdcc-dc34412baf1d\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/07611590-e38f-4ded-bdcc-dc34412baf1d?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_07611590-e38f-4ded-bdcc-dc34412baf1d\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Great Man Theory was a predecessor of the Early Trait Theory stage of leadership research. In the United States, we were well into the experience of the Industrial Revolution, and it was clear that leaders weren\u2019t just heroes and rulers. At the turn of the twentieth century, we were starting to understand the nuances of management and what it meant to be more strategic in leading. Could personality traits predict success in leadership?<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-691\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>The History of Leadership. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Freedom Learning Group. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">Public domain content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Arthur Tapestry. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Unknown. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Arth_tapestry2.jpg\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Arth_tapestry2.jpg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"The History of Leadership\",\"author\":\"Freedom Learning Group\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"Arthur Tapestry\",\"author\":\"Unknown\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Arth_tapestry2.jpg\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"a98d3072-050d-4bc2-b07f-c314ea83f7df, d875f8f2-aea3-45ea-b153-25a0211694b6","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-691","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":34,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2149,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/691\/revisions\/2149"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/34"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/691\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-organizationalbehavior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}