Leadership theories, research & practices: framing future leadership thinking

Human Resource Development (HRD) is still in its infancy and is recognized by scholars as an emerging field of study. They note that leadership is one of the critical areas in the field of HRD that is becoming increasingly more important. Organizers of international conferences on HRD across Europe have noted that for many years the subject ofleadership has consistently attracted the highest number of paper submissions to the conference. Interest inleadership is however not only confined to HRD scholars. In general, there is great interest among scholars, researchers and practitioners to work and write on leadership. At the end of the 20th century there were about 30,000 books and articles on leadership. This lecture examines some of the key ideas and major thinking from this literature focusing on leadership theories, research and practices, covering a span of more than 100 years. The dominant ideas on leadership initially began with_the traits theory, followed by behavior theory, situational theory and finally the integrative theory. Going into the 21 st century, will there be a shift in leadership thinking? The indication is that there is a need to look into a new paradigm on understanding leadership. Hence part of the title of this lecture "framing future leadership thinking" will explore that possibility. Based on the body of knowledge and new evidence available, the lecture proposes some ideas related to future leadership thinking.This is focused on content leadership that operates in a globalized world. Finally, some implications are discussed to link and integrate leadership thinking into the field of HRD.

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