Leadership revisited

Most people have an intuitive understanding of what leadership is. However, l eadership is not an easy phenomenon to define, and no universally accepted definition exists. The present paper calls for the integration of person-oriented constructs and contextual variables which can help define a new frame of understanding of the phenomenon of leadership. The point of departure for such an integration entails an understanding of competence and essential perspectives on leadership, as well as the recognition that differences in leadership contexts call for different forms of leadership. The phenomenon of leadership should be understood as both an intra-psychic and inter-active process, where the leader exerts situational behaviours and interacts with followers to solve tasks embedded in the concrete leadership context. Thus, definitions of leadership and effective leadership must be made at the micro-level of the individual leader.