University of Phoenix Foundational Leadership Theories Paper

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  1. For the past 6 weeks, you have explored various leadership topics. As a doctoral practitioner, your understanding of foundational leadership theories and concepts will influence your decisions, daily interactions, and contributions to your professional community, regardless of industry, discipline, or position. This assignment will allow you to demonstrate your synthesized understanding of the leadership construct.
    Prepare a 2,100- to 2,800-word literature review of the leadership construct that includes:
    • Introduction
    • Historical leadership theories
    • Contemporary leadership theories
    • Followership
    • Ethics
    • Decision-making
    • Leadership in your discipline (i.e., a leadership topic of your choice that is substantiated in peer-reviewed literature)
    • Conclusion
    Include a minimum of 10 peer-reviewed sources. You may also reference the textbooks used in the course.

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Running Head: FOUNDATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORIES

Foundational leadership Theories
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Institutions
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FOUNDATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORIES

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Introduction
Leadership is a fundamental aspect of the success of any organization as evidenced by the
significance attached to the leadership style sued to guide junior employees in many organization
globally. Often, the goal, mission, and general objective of an organization will determine the
leadership style that would be used to propel the company to its destination. Many studies have
tried to review the effectiveness of different leadership theories in the context of the activities
and process of an organization. While the foundational leadership theories have been in existence
for a long time, this paper argues that both historical and contemporary leadership theories can
be sued to inculcate ethical decision-making process within the nursing profession to achieve
quality patients’ outcome.
Historical Leadership Theories
The first historical leadership theory that has been widely applied in the context of
organizations is the Great Man Theory of leadership developed in the early 1840s. This
leadership style evolved at a time when no leader could identify with scientific terms that were
used to study the combination of human character to define leadership styles (Nawaz & Khan,
2016). During this period, it was assumed that only a man had the characteristics of what
constitutes a great leader (Spector, 2016). According to this foundational leadership theory,
leadership traits are intrinsic to a man, indicating that great leaders develop good leadership
qualities from birth and no leader can acquire good leadership traits through indication.
Accordingly, this leadership theory argues that great men are destined to become great leaders
from birth.
The great man theory of leadership also argues that grate leaders only rise when a man is
confronted with the leadership situation that triggers quality leadership attributes. Carlyle

FOUNDATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORIES

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Thomas invented this theory after studying influential heroes although his narrative was
challenged by Spencer Herbert in 1860 who argued that the heroes studied were induced to
become great leaders based on the social conditions, their actions and time of existence (Lee,
2018).
The other historical leadership theory is the Trait theory invented between the 1930s and
1940s. This leadership theory argues that people have certain traits acquired through induction or
intrinsically at birth that would turn them into great leaders. However, how these people excel in
their leadership roles depends on how effective they put their leadership traits into practice.
Ostensibly, this leadership theory argues that a person can get into the shoes of a great leader if
they possess qualities such as creativity, intelligence, and sense of responsibility.
A fundamental aspect of this leadership trait is its ability to focus on the social, physical,
and mental characteristics to understand the best combination that could be common among all
leaders. It takes the behavioral and psychology of personality approach of leadership to measure
personality traits and correlate each characteristic to their respective impact on leadership
(Northouse, 2018). While not all personality traits are responsible for the leadership qualities of
great men, the traits responsible for excellent leadership capabilities are nurtured, rather than
acquired at birth.
The third historical leadership theory is the behavioral theory developed between the
1940s and 1950s. This theory was an improvement of the trait theory to provid...

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