to House & Aditya (1997), the two major leadership research paradigms of the 20th century are:
Leadership Traits: examining what differentiates leaders from followers through the use of physical, psychological and mental characteristics or abilities;
Leader Behavior: studying the way "leaders" behave, either under controlled laboratory settings or as described by others in the field.
Many present-day researchers distinguish between transactional and transformational leadership, originally identified by Burns (1978) with refining work by Bass (1990). The first is based on the assumption that goals and priorities are the right ones and what needs to be done is to properly put those into motion; the second is based on the idea that the status quo is no longer an option and a new vision is needed. Yukl & Van Fleet (1992) see transformational leadership as "the process of influencing major changes in the attitudes and assumptions of organization members (organizational culture) and building commitment for major changes in the organization's objectives and strategies" (p. 174).
Bass (1997) lists a group of similar observed leadership behaviors built around the transactional-transformational framework, which he considers the most universal of the modern theories. Among those listed: 1976 theory of charisma (House, 1977); attributional theory of charisma (Conger & Kanungo, 1987); leadership challenge (Kouzes & Posner, 1987); and visionary leadership (Sashkin, 1988). A number of empirical studies have tended to show the universality of the transactional-transformational paradigm. Among those studies: Housewives active in the community (Avolio & Bass, 1994); students (Avolio, Waldman, & Einstein, 1988); Japanese CEOs (Bass & Yokochi, 1991); leaders of movements and American presidents (Bass, Avolio, & Goodheim, 1987); and organizational teams (Avolio & Bass, 1995).
Bennis & O'Toole (2000) define leadership as a "combination of per...