The Relationship Between Cross- Culture and Leadership Development - Literature Review

Internal Code: MAS 4260

Literature Review

Leadership is generally defined as the aptitude and capability to motivate and inspire others to create a modification in behavior which leads in the subordinate taking actions to attain and realise leader’s set goals and objectives (Lord & Brown, 2004). According to Campbell & Swift, 2004, leadeship effectiveness is dependent on how motivated the subordinate to attain the leader& goals. The trait theory of leadership recommended that leadership is an inborn quality based on the traits of the person and cannot be educated (Ehrhart & Klein, 2001). On the other hand, the transactional theories of leadership assume the principle that leadership contains the use of rewards and consequences to stimulate and control the behaviours of the subordinates, considering that the behaviours can be learned (Miner, 2002). Transformational leadership theory assumes that the leader uses approaches to stimulate the subordinate to develop the habit of being self-motivated in order to accept the leader’s goals and objectives (Feinberg, Ostroff, & Burke, 2005). Furthermore, the distributed leadership theory proposes that leadership includes formal and informal relationships between leaders and followers. Here, the responsibility for attaining set goals is common among members of a group (Spillane, 2006). The numerous leadership theories are an effort to enlighten the complex construct of leadership and the factors that permit leaders to impact subordinates to realize an objective. Such theories offer a framework for understanding leadership in Jordan and the way in which leadership can affect outcomes in organisations with a workforce from different cultures.