Sociology

Research Methods

Sociological research on leadership uses a variety of methods. In experimental methods, laboratory-based investigations permit tight control of situational variables. Unfortunately, the laboratory setting limits the extent that findings may generalize to the broader social world. Much of the laboratory research on leadership uses college students in leader-follower simulations. Although researchers would like to assume that findings on college students generalize to larger populations, this assumption does not always hold true. Questionnaires are often used by sociologists. In most questionnaires, sociologists assign numerical values to participants' responses and then look for statistically significant relationships between different questions or sets of questions. Sociological studies of leadership also use case studies. In a case [Page 1473]study of leadership, a researcher might collect a great deal of information about one particular leader or a small assortment of leaders. Ideally, insights gathered from the case study of one or a few leaders would generalize to a larger group of leaders. In ethnographies, a researcher joins a group in its day-to-day activities and systematically but unobtrusively keeps detailed field notes. Although rich in detail, with potentially important insights into social processes, the ethnographic method may be criticized for lacking objectivity.

Theories of Leadership

Sociologists have studied the emergence of leaders and devised theories of leadership. Traditional theories of leadership, especially those derived from psychological orientations, are embedded in a logical positivist framework. As such, they emphasize the relationship between leader and follower as unidirectional, with power centered in the leader's role. One early theory is the “great person” theory. According to this theory, great leaders are born, not made. The great person theory of leadership assumes that leaders possess a special cluster of traits that sets them apart from followers. Using the trait-oriented focus popular with psychologists, researchers have shown that leaders tend to possess high cognitive ability, inner drive, the desire to take on a leadership role, self-confidence, integrity, and sufficient flexibility to develop novel approaches to problem solving. An individual with these traits would be more likely to emerge as a leader. More recent scholars have argued that effective leadership emerges from situations or crises that invoke leadership skills rather than from innate personality traits.

Postmodern perspectives in sociology deny the existence of an objective reality and, instead, focus on how individuals actively construct their own social reality. In light of postmodernism, other sociological theories focus on outward behaviors associated with becoming a leader. Individuals become leaders when they are perceived as representing the values of members of a group. As such, the leader-follower relationship can be construed as emerging from a consensual agreement among participants.

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