Despite these difficulties leadership continues to be a topic of active research and a major concern of Human
Resource Management. Pfeiffer and Salanick (1978) suggest that the leadership qualities of local government
leaders accounted for less than 10 per cent of the variance in performance. Simonton (1979) suggested that
Napoleon accounted for 15 per cent of the variance in French military success. In a more carefully controlled
study of Icelandic fishing ships, Thorlindsson (1987) found that the characteristics of individual skippers
accounted for 35-49 per cent of the variation of the catch.Furthermore, there were substantial stability in these
differences, with correlations over three years ranging from 0.59 to 0.70. Thomas (1988) found that changes in
top management accounted for over 60 per cent of the variance in the profit and sales of UK retail stores. Day
and Lord (1988) indicate that executive leadership can explain as much as 45 per cent of an organization’s
performance. Clearly, whatever the problems of definition, whatever the complexities of theories,leadership is an important contributor to organizational success