Leadership

Leadership has been investigated for a long time in multiple scientific disciplines, including business, psychology, sociology, and political science. Consequently, numerous definitions of leadership exist. Most researchers agree that leadership can be broadly characterized as a social influence process during which one person (i.e., the leader) influences other people (i.e., followers) by structuring their tasks and their social relationships to achieve shared goals or a vision of the future. Leadership effectiveness and success can be assessed using multiple criteria, such as follower ratings of leader effectiveness, follower satisfaction, follower investment of additional effort, and team performance.

This entry first reviews important theoretical approaches to leadership. Then it answers four questions about the role of aging and life-span development in leadership. First, how do leadership behaviors and ...