rather is depicted in various models as dyadic,
shared, relational, strategic, global, and a complex
social dynamic (Avolio 2007, Yukl 2006).
We organize our examination of how leadership
is evolving by discussing significant areas of
inquiry that represent current pillars in leadership
research, some understandably taller than
others. We highlight the current state of each
particular area of inquiry, and discuss what we
know, what we don’t know, and what remains
interesting possibilities to pursue in future research.
Given our space limitations, we focus
more on the current state of these respective areas
in terms of advances in theory, research, and
practice, including the criticisms and boundaries
of theories, models, and methods wherever
appropriate. From this analysis, we offer some
recommendations for future directions that the
science of leadership could pursue, and we discuss
the potential implications for leadership
practice.
Looking back over the past 100 years, we
cannot imagine a more opportune time for the
field of leadership studies. Never before has so
much attention been paid to leadership, and the
fundamental question we must ask is, what do
we know and what should we know about leaders
and leadership? We begin addressing these
questions not by going back to the earliest work
in leadership, but rather by focusing on what
is most current in the field. We then examine
other areas from which the current work has
emerged, rather than examining leadership material
covered in recent reviews (Gelfand et al.
2007, Goethals 2005) or providing a comprehensive
historical review of the field that is better
left to the Handbook of Leadership (Bass &
Bass 2008; see also Yukl & Van Fleet 1992).